UBB.threads

Hi All:

Numbered SS daggers did not appear to me to be as plentiful this year at the SOS as in the past. Among those for sale, I saw two that were researched to SS Officers and two numbered (one 1933 Model and one 1936 Model) that could not be identified as of yet. Two that I had researched for an owner (one was a name only ground R�hm) turned up for sale on Saturday. However, I did have some luck in acquiring a numbered full ground R�hm B�ker that I was able to identify. Attached are some pics of what I found. It still has a strong presence of the blackening B�ker used on the motto.

Enjoy!

Ross Kelbaugh
www.ssdaggers.com

The blade is a full ground that looks to be factory done. I still wonder if these were the ones that were done by the manufacturer before they shipped after the 4 July 1934 R�hm removal edict.

Ross Kelbaugh
www.ssdaggers.com

The dagger is numbered under the lower crossguard. Guess this SS Mann, like many others, didn't get the memo about where to place it.

Ross Kelbaugh
www.ssdaggers.com

I had found the SS Mann with SS number 43 731 on a list of members of SS Standarte "Deutschland".
After having been fortunate so far to identify 125 numbered SS daggers that were unknowns just two years ago, I still get excited when I can connect a number to a name.

Ross Kelbaugh
www.ssdaggers.com

Fortunately, Oscar (Oskar) Braunsperger had a complete "Race & Settlement File" (the application process that all SS men and their potential spouses had to got through to document their "purity" before marriage). His includes the required Fragebogen or personal questionnaire. From this we see that he joined the SS on 5 May 1932. But how did he qualify for a R�hm dagger? We also see that he had been a member of the SA from 24 September 1931 though 4 May 1932 before joining the SS. This placed his continuous membership before the required 31 December 1931 date.

Ross Kelbaugh
www.ssdaggers.com

Ross in the first photo I looked and said to my self "nice blade except for the water rings" Than in the second one I saw it was your watermark . Cleaned my glasses.Nice dagger and great research work

It a particularly rare to be able to find a good photo of an SS NCO/enlisted man even if one happens to exist. It was a particular style during that time to have a studio portrait taken against a dark background (they must not have heard of Mathew Brady's recommendation in the 1850s to use a light background). Considering that they also often wear dark clothing like their black Allgemeine uniform and that we are working from microfilm, the photos often end up in very low contrast and unreproducible. Fortunately for Braunsperger, his photo for his NSDAP membership filecard was still attached (only about 30-40% are still there since there was a concerted effort to hide identities of members at war's end) and it could be reproduced. The icing to this cake is that he was also wearing his SS uniform- again a rarity to uncover. It is exciting to also connect a face with the artifact. As a side bar, I recently identified a SS dagger where I found a photo of the SS Mann in uniform actually wearing it! That is the first time for that one.

Ross Kelbaugh
www.ssdaggers.com

Ross, you do fantastic work. It was nice meeting you at the SoS.

Dwight

Very nice dagger indeed! Thanks for sharing it.
And the photo of Oscar is just the icing on the cake!

Congrats!

/David

Do we know Oscars ultimate fate or assignments during the war????

More Great "Detective" Work Ross! CONGRATS (!)

Glad that you ID'd another previously unknown SS Dagger.

I really am pleased with the Scholarly quality of your work,
plus the Super Binder and CD that you furnish with the ID is a bonus.

It has given me a much greater appreciation of my SS 1936 (and its
owner) that you worked on for me! ... Txs, Dave/dblmed

Thanks guys for your kind words about my work. At this point I am have not been able to uncover Braunsperger's role during the war. His SS personal service card (Stammrolle) was not in his Race & Settlement (RuSha) File. Every SS Mann had had least three copies and some were sometimes placed in the RuSha files of NCOs/enlisted men at the end of the war when these files were sorted. Since he was not evidently a KIA or MIA, this search hits a dead end in the U.S. There might yet be more to be found in German archives.

Hanging around you guys has caused me to analyze the daggers themselves more closely. I was intrigued that the handle crossguard fit was not exactly what is usually expected from a B�ker. Tom W. mentions that B�ker was one manufacturer that used crossguards from outside suppliers. Here are the markings inside the ones used on this dagger. These "O.V."initials are not listed in Tom's SS tome.

Regards,

Ross Kelbaugh
www.ssdaggers.com

In comparing the Braunsperger dagger to my other B�ker (crossguards are marked F/B), I see the difference in the thickness between the two castings. The horizontal fit of the handle to crossguard is tight as expected. The shoulders, however, of the handle edges on the Braunsperger dagger vertically protrude above the crossguard. My theory is that the handle was made by B�ker and rough cut for the thicker B�ker crossguards. The finisher then trimmed to fit the outsourced crossguards but did not adjust the shoulders to fit as perfectly as it would on the B�ker manufactured parts. Your observations are appreciated.

Regards,

Ross Kelbaugh
www.ssdaggers.com