As an NPEA dagger collector and contributor to Ron Weinand's new book, I encourage all serious dagger collectors to add this reference to their library.

I received my copy today and the book's a beauty. Very well done, great color pictures (of great daggers) and lots of informative tidbits. While I don't yet have an NPEA, I love the dagger type and hope to add one to the collection in the future, reading this book only increases the likelihood it will be soon

Ron's new NPEA Book is an outstanding 'Must Have' reference for these previously poorly understood Daggers.

Based upon Rarity alone - they should top SS Daggers in price!!!

The book is an eye-opener and easy to read and use as an invaluable reference.

Ron, keep educating us!

Dave dblmed

WOW!! Thank you all so much for the nice comments. Believe me, it ain't for the money that I write, it is for the collector and trying to set things right for the future before all the information is lost to the ages.
Remember, if it wasn't for the assistance of many who participate on this site, it would not have been as complete as it is. To them should go the thank you comments.
Ron Weinand
Weinand Militaria

Agreed!! Ron I know your guys are certainly not getting rich on these books. I for one appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience. I believe this book will dispell some of the fear many have in making this purchase. Excellent pics too!!
Thanks

I have ordered Ron’s book and it’s very interesting for a rookie like me to take my first steps into the world of studying the NPEA.

Can’t wait to open the book,

Sam,

quote:

Originally posted by dblmed:
Ron's new NPEA Book is an outstanding 'Must Have' reference for these previously poorly understood Daggers.

Based upon Rarity alone - they should top SS Daggers in price!!!

The book is an eye-opener and easy to read and use as an invaluable reference.

Ron, keep educating us!

Dave dblmed

I recieved the book last week!
Fantastic work Ron, very interesting and useful information.

Many thanx,

Sam,

Received my copy last weekend and its got my thumbs up.
One of the thing that I've learned ( among many other things ), was the fact that I didn't know that the NAPOLA school of Plon was the first school to open its doors in 1933.
Having an early nickel silver NAPOLA dagger from the Plon school, with a low graduation number, just makes it even more desirable to me.

Motto

I am quite surprised by the good comments and what people are telling me that they didn't know about the daggers and the system.
Also, I must warn the readers, there is a lot of information not only in the text, but in the photo captions also. I find that people who have read it from cover to cover are still finding information on the fifth or sixth read they missed going through or that they didn't pay enough attention or thought to when they had read it originally.
I spent years of research and dug up much from our fellow collectors they didn't realize they had.
Ron Weinand
Weinand Miitaria
PS: Remember, the 10% discout still in effect until March 31.

Ronald,
I e-mailed you twice to order a book.
But haven't got an answer yet.
How can I make an order?
Thanks,
Sokol

I have sent you three eMails, all returned.

BTW: very nice dagger Pat,
It seem to be in very nice condition like most of your daggers are

Sam,

Patrice, what A beautiful dagger! I have never seen one like it with the combination of a stone mint blade and a stone mint scabbard. Did you find it at a show or from a dealer? Also could you post some full length pics? Mike

Congratulations Ron

I hear its a good book! I enjoyed your
Max presentation greatly!

Bought your first book at last Max.

I will add this one also!

PVON

PVON

Hi Mike,
The dagger belonged to a friend of mine who decided to sell his whole collection several years ago.
The dagger is trully pristine but the scabbard was professionally repainted as it was badly corroded.
The whole dagger was so nice that I just couldn't leave the scabbard the way it was.
Thanks for the positive feedback.

I would like to thank Ron for his efforts, it certainly improved my understanding of these daggers! Here's a JR type picture I took when I was finished sending Ron the pictures he asked for...my first dozen. I have added a few since this picture, but geez, how many times can you pull out a bunch of daggers and stack 'em up? Hehehe...

John, you DO have more than I do!!! It just ain't fair!!!
Ron Weinand
Weinand Militaria

Well Ron, that's just because I don't limit myself to direct vet purchases...like SOME people, hehehehe

John,

I've never seen so many great looking NPEA daggers.
An impressive NPEA collection, just stunning.
Congrats !

John, not all of mine are in the book and some of mine are from other people in this hobby, but more are directly from vets. I just like it that way, but I didn't find that many in motel buys. They are just too hard to find as you well know.
Ron Weinand
Weinand Militaria
PS: Boys, the time is running out on the discount for GermanDaggers.com members!!! Order your autographed copy NOW!!!

Ron & John,

I think you two guys & DONS have positively cornered the market, it's no wonder there aren't that many nice NPEAs up for grabs.

Although I had interest in these pieces years ago I never got into them, probably because of the proliferation of such good fakes. I think Ron's book helps in terms of identifying the facets of legitimate NPEA pieces and is a great read as well.

John, great picture! Congrats on a super collection. How long did it take you to acquire all those? I'm presuming they're all marked to different schools too?

Ron trust you received the green backs I sent for my copy
Tony Ratcliffe

Outstanding pic John!

PVON

Talk about fantastic, Posting for DONS!

Once you understand the system, know what to look for in an NPEA and see the rarity and the reasoning behind the dagger, they quickly become appreciated and valued. No rarer standard issue dagger and how many other daggers have an award document accompany the issue? I just love them after all these years!
Ron Weinand
Weinand Militaria

2Ron: I recieved the book last week. WOW!!! Very interesting and useful book.
2John: WOW!!!! I have never seen anything like that before!

DONS & John,

Great pictures all, and a beautiful variety of frog types as well. Although I may have missed it in Ron's book, was there a significance to the black grip? I've seen one or two but discounted it as a swapped piece.

The second from the left in the photo is grad. marked to Spandau and came with a black grip, black frog, and blued scabbard. In Rons first book it states that Spandau had marine training. I would like to think that it may be like the SA marine and denotes marine status. Ron would have to comment on this possibility.

I did not put "possibilities" in the book. I chose to list only things I can be sure of or had documentation about from original sources or original members.
Next, Don would have to remind me what the number of the Sp piece was. IF it was below 100, I would put it in the same catagory of the Naumburg piece with a blued scabbard.
As to the frog, I found no standardization among these as I did the daggers.
As to the black grip, it would again be a guess as some grips have been colored in one way or another either post period or during the period by unofficial means. Hence, I tended to eliminate these unless I knew forsure of the source or the information.
Ron Weinand
Weinand Militaria

The Schulpforta 34 marked dagger pictured on pages 102 and 103 of Ron's book came directly from the family in Germany. It includes a letter form the headmaster of the school to the father of the son who was killed in action. The 4th of 4 brothers killed in action. What history, what heartbreak! I have no idea how people survived the suffering during those times....

translation

Thank you card from father

Letterhead close up

now THATS history

John: I am envious of your Schulpforta piece. I wish I could connect one of my daggers to someone traceable. I have a Stuhm piece with a name (E. Grundig) but have been unsuccessful in finding him.

Tracing a piece is what led to my first book on the NPEA Daggers. I was at the old OVMS Show, buying my frist NPEA from Dr. Ron Distlehorst (it was the Spandau piece in the books to Jm. Brodersen-named on the crossguard) when a voice (German) came from behind me at Dr. Ron's table. The voice said: "I knew that student".
The voice was former NPEA Spandua student Ernst Schmidt. He was at the OVMS Show buying German Naval insignias to replace his lost in the war ( a U-boat officer and the last prisoner of war to leave England at the end of the war). Ernst had moved to the US in the late 1950s for work and attended many of the OVMS Shows.
I turned around and asked him if he would stay and talk with me about the dagger after I paid for it. He did.
The rest is history. Ernst and I talked for about four hours. He REMEMBER EVERYTHING!!
He also continued to meet with me at Cincinnati over the next four years telling me about the school, his classmates (and his reunions in Germany), his involvement in the German film "Unser Jugend", and so much more.
Ernst was a goldmine of information and even put me in contact with the Brodersen family (all brothers attend Spandau) and helped with the first NPEA Book. His information, personal papers and photographs-many are in the first book-were invaluable!!
You talk about a small world-what were the odds that he would have been at a military show where this dagger would be sold and happened to be at the table and run into me!!!
It was from this chance meeting that my efforts concerning the schools and the daggers led to my works on the subject.
Many times I said "Who cares and should I finish writing these books?" This is where Tom Johnson continued to tell me to "Finish the project!" You will be happy you did and collectors will be glad and buy the books."
It was Tom's continued support and encouragement that led me to the conclusion.
I can't tell you how many times I was so discouraged and frustrated on the lack of information and the number of collectors who said: "No one cares about those ugly daggers. Don't waste your time on them and the book will never sell."
The more I searched and researched, the more facinated with the schools and the daggers I became and I just couldn't let it lay.
However, the one big stumbling block I ran into was the number of collectors who had a dagger or material that would have been important that just wouldn't help or contribute-I'll never understand why people who can be so useful (to us all) will not assist!!
Ron Weinand
Weinand Militaria

Here's a picture from the book of the P53 marked piece. For some reason, it's a little fuzzier in the book

another angle

Inside of the crossguards, marked with the horseshoe S marking. Notice the guards have been bent by the stamping impact of P53

Received my copy today. Already read till the end.
Thank you Ron! Good job!
Highly recommended reference book to all TR daggers collectors.
With warm wishes from Russian collectors,
Andrey aka Sokol

Thanks for the kind words. Since the end of February, the book as done very well and all the good comments are so nice after so many years of work. This work, compared to my other books, is doing very well and initial sales are super.
Also, the number of people that have commented on the book is astounding and all positive.
Finally, some good is coming from the time invested.
Also, I have received some new material that I wish I had when I finished the book. One item is a photoalbum of over 300 pictures from NPEA Ballenstedt in the first two years (1934 and 1935) with all the leaders. It would have been super to use in the book, even though I already had one from that school. To see Rust, SS Gen. Loeper, Freiburg, Anstaltleiter Hiller, Lutze and the others at school functions is unusual. There are some great shots of the early HJ Knife with the engraved pommel that can be identified by the crossguard shape. I hope to use these in an HJ Knife book later.
Ron Weinand
Weinand Militaria

Ron, Would you mind posting a few photos, or email me some? Thanks, John

Here's the latest find for me, Oranienstein school marked...

This dagger comes from a very good source and shows that the first issues at Oranienstein were numbered with larger numbers than those in evidently the second issue (smaller numbers in the same style in my new book). I have always believed that the first 100 daggers for each school was initially different from those of later source and probably production. They are marked by each school in a similar manner, but difference in the size of the number dies used.
So much to learn and so little time. We must get this information before those daggers from the veteran sources are all gone.
JMO,
Ron Weinand
Weinand Militaria

When I was in Graz (Austria) couple of weeks ago, I took pictures of the same Napola school that is pictured in Ron's book on page 146.

2

Very Cool Patrice, sort of like those After the War magazines showing before and after shots. It's a beautiful building, I'm glad it survived the war. Thanks for sharing, John

Here's a new addition to the collection from Wein-Theresianum. I think this is only the second dagger known from this school. Notice the late graduation date. Tang is unmarked.

rev

rev grip

School number is stamped in

The graduation for this school is routered in...

date

John:
Congrats on a very rare school piece. Although I've moved on to other things, I miss my NPEA collection the most. It's up to you now to carry the torch.

Thanks Don. I understand, as I once had over 120 different SA early maker marked daggers and sold all but a couple dozen...miss those. I also wish I had a bigger dagger budget to spend on your collection when it went up for sale.

Best, John

John, that's a rare one for sure! Congrats! Are the crossguards aluminum? Regards, Leipzig

Roger, the cross guards are aluminum. It appears they make have had a coat of lacquer possibly at one time? At least, it looks like that around the graduation engraving.

John

Up to now there are four (including the one of v.) WT daggers known to me. All absolutely ident only differing in hte year 1942 or 1943. If I have time I will photograph my own exemplare.
Regards,

Yes, I did find one on this site:
http://www.dienstdolch.de

Good job John. Where are the daggers for the other Wien schools???
Ron Weinand

This is one of the four I am aware of. I am in contact with the owner.
Regards,

Here is my Wien NPEA with WT 47

next

pic3

Very, very nice. Do you have a picture of the maker mark, and the back of the frog? Thanks, John

John here are pictures of the maker mark and backside of the dagger

back

...

Thanks for the additional pictures. It is interesting the maker mark is the earliest Type 1, usually associated with nickel-silver crossguards. Also, the WT 33 example and the WT 50 example have the Type 2 later maker mark.

I wonder if Ron Weinand could comment here on this issue? He did say sometimes the blades were mixed up at the time of the graduation engravings, as they didn't care about the blade markings...as long as the dagger fit together.

Thanks, John

One other thing may help, if you don't mind taking it apart. Is the tang marked with the double ended arrow marking as in Ron's book?

Thanks, John

quote:

One other thing may help, if you don't mind taking it apart. Is the tang marked with the double ended arrow marking as in Ron's book?

Yes the tang marked are with double ended arrow and the crossguards are aluminium with St mark.

Crossguards

Interesting mystery here. Your dagger appears to be all original, the dagger blade is real, no doubt. But the blade was made earlier than the school was opened, and that blade is not associated with aluminum crossguards. I checked mine, and the Aluminum top cross guard is internally marked E W and the bottom one just has the large dot.

It is cool to see how the school stampings were all made with the same dies, technique, etc.

Here's an example of knowing what the stampings of a particular NPEA school looks like can weed out many fakes...

John,

Your stable of NPEAs never fail to impress (or stop growing!). It helps a lot with this type of dagger to have color shots up close like this. In conjunction with Ron's book, I'm thinking there are less mistakes made with this dangerous dagger type. Thanks for posting these shots.