One of the difficulties in identifying paperwork regardless of era is its validity; how does one know that the paperwork is not a counterfeit? By that, I mean beyond the concern of collectors today, but in its original iteration, how did one prove that memoranda, passports, and other documents were genuine?
In order to show that documents were binding, they were often authenticated by use of an inked stamp from the issuing office. This practice dates back to antiquity, though wax seals were far more frequently used at that time than stamps. A sigil or other distinguishing mark, sometimes carved into the raised portion of a noble’s ring, created an indentation in a dollop of wax at the bottom of an official document to prove that it was genuine. Throughout the seventeenth century, ink increased in popularity to signify the validation of more commonplace legal documents. By the nineteenth century, inked stamps were used worldwide for all but the most ceremonial of paperwork.
The use of stamping in Germany proliferated during the Third Reich. The Nazi’s use of these stamps seems to have captured the imagination of historians and collectors around the world, not only for the regime they represent, but because of the sheer mass of different stamps used. Individual offices, regardless of size, had their own unique stamp to indicate that they had issued or otherwise confirmed that the information on the paperwork was accurate or official.
Perhaps the most recognizable of these was the Dienststempel used by units of the Wehrmacht, the German armed forces from 1935 – 1945. The round stamps featured the Hoheitszeichen or national emblem commonly associated with the Third Reich, an eagle with outstretched wings perched atop a wreath encircling the swastika.
Civilian authorities used variations of this emblem as well, though Nazi Party offices often had a different version of their own with more swooping wings (below).
Certain offices, such as the Gemeindeverwaltungen (Local Administrations’ Offices), had updated, “Nazified” versions of their original imperial emblems.
The Dienststempel was not unique to the Third Reich; military units of the Reichswehr of the Kaiserreich used very similar stamps, which instead depicted the imperial eagle of the Kaiser or an emblem unique to a specific unit. Not that the practice began there, either; Prussian imperial stamps, as well as stamps from the other German States prior to unification, followed similar layouts as early as the Napoleonic era.
The military Dienststempel was standardized in size at 35mm in diameter. Few examples exist outside that dimension (though many different civilian stamps do), and can usually assist in spotting a faked document.
Some were inscribed with a unit’s military designation, or Truppenteil, often abbreviated per Wehrmacht conventions to fit within the border and still be legible; for example, the 1st Kompanie of the 228th Panzerjäger Bataillon might be abbreviated 1.Kom./228. PanzerJäg.-Btl., or shortened even further to 1./228. Pz.Jäg.Btl. The Truppenteil would arc across the top of the eagle and a small diamond, stylized leaf, or asterisk would be centered at the bottom. If a unit’s title required both the top and bottom of the circle to adequately describe its designation, that legend would be broken at a convenient point and an asterisk or “+” placed to the left and right of the circle, centered between the ends of the two lines of type.
A more common circular-eagle-and-swastika Dienststempel was the unit’s Feldpost stamp. Feldpost was the Wehrmacht’s method of identifying the unit from which free mail for soldiers circulated, but it was also used to identify the unit itself, as each unit down to the battalion level, and at times even down to the company level, had their own Feldpostnummer (Field Mail Number). This five- to six-digit alphanumeric designation was unique to that unit (unless that unit had been destroyed or reclassified, in which case the number might be reassigned), so it was a quick, simple, and secure manner with which to identify. A Feldpostnummer preceded by an “L” designated a Luftwaffe unit, while Kriegsmarine units were preceded by an “M.” Using our previous example, the 1st Kompanie of the 228th Panzerjäger Bataillon might simply be identified as Feldpostnummer 26775. If any documents bearing that stamp were to fall into enemy hands, identification by Allied intelligence would be immensely difficult if they did not know that number had been assigned to that particular unit.
A Dienststempel shown with only the Feldpostnummer
Issuing units could also be identified by their Dienststelle or Dienstellenummer, sometimes written as Dienstelle der Feldpostnummer (Service Office of the Field Mail Number), the “official” longhand designation for the Feldpostnummer.
Stamps bearing this nomenclature may be written in one arc across the top, e.g. Dienstelle Feldpostnummer 26775 with an asterisk centered at the bottom, or broken into two lines, top and bottom, such that Dienstelle lies alone at the top or the 26775 lies alone at the bottom.
Understandably, this can also complicate unit identification for collectors of ephemera today. Thankfully, a number of philatelic organizations and websites such as Axis History and Forum der Wehrmacht have identified and published a staggering array of Feldpostnummer used during World War II. A quick Google search often provides not only the specific unit, but also the dates the number was associated with that unit, including dates the number might have been reassigned.
As if this system wasn’t complicated enough, it appears that the fonts used for the typesetting of these Dienststempel were not standardized in the least. Few are set in Fraktur, the heavy, characteristically German typeface used since the sixteenth century, and fonts such as Fette Fraktur, Schwabacher, and Unger had fallen out of favor with the Nazis in the mid-1930s. Hitler denounced the use of Fraktur as “degenerate” and “Jewish” as early as 1934. The problem for the Nazis was that Fraktur was traditional; almost all books printed in Germany were set in Fraktur, and for the most part people preferred it. It wasn’t until Chef der Parteikanzlei Martin Bormann (Chief of the Party Chancellery) banned the use of Fraktur on printed documents by issuing his decree of January 1941 on Nazi Party stationery, the letterhead of which was set in, of all things, Fraktur.
The majority of Dienststempeln were set in heavy blackletter or “broken script” typefaces similar to modern fonts such as Schaftstiefel, Potsdam, and Tannenberg. These angular typefaces looked much more like that designed by Albrecht Dürer in the sixteenth century in his books Unterweysung der Messung (1532–38, Instruction on Measures), composed of thick lines and angled squares to compose letters, and was a precursor to Fraktur.
Others still were set in sans serif fonts, increasingly popular among designers during the 1920s and 1930s, such as Dinschrift, Akzidenz, Haas, and Schelter (the latter of which would later be the primary model for Helvetica, introduced in 1957). These are often condensed or compressed horizontally to allow a typesetter to render as much of the Truppenteil as possible on a single arc.
Click here to order an autographed copy of my book, German Military Travel Papers of the Second World War. Readers of this blog receive a $5 discount and free media shipping within the United States! (For international orders, please send me your address prior to ordering so I can to calculate shipping costs.)
Paperwork of the Reich 
This was a fascinating article. I appreciate the insight into the origin of the use of different fonts.
LikeLike