STAHLHELM, BUND DER FRONTSOLDATEN ALBUM
Extraordinary album containing over 320 items, largely photos but also including invitations, documents, notes, flyers, etc. assembled by a member of the Stahlhelm whom it appears eventually joined the Nazi Party. Most of the photos are postcard-size and document the member's involvement from 1926 until about Extraordinary album containing over 320 items, largely photos but also including invitations, documents, notes, flyers, etc. assembled by a member of the Stahlhelm whom it appears eventually joined the Nazi Party. Most of the photos are postcard-size and document the member's involvement from 1926 until about 1941. Prince AUGUST WILHELM is shown wearing a gau cuff title, and he has signed his image, also with a signed greeting of WILHELM OF PRUSSIA and his wife, DOROTHEA VON SALVIATI. Other photos include members marching and attending a "Stahlhelmfest" in Bonn in 1927, Seldte and Dusterberg visiting Bismark's mausoleum, enormous rallies in Munich and Hamburg, top leaders in casual images and in review, marriage photos of Wilhelm of Prussia, a funeral with honors, Stahlhelm members wearing NSDAP swastika armbands, the headquarters building, destruction of a concrete structure (which must have offended members), artillery maneuvers, a Nazi-sponsored dinner, and two letters to the album owner on Stahlhelm letterhead. Interestingly, the photos and letters are mounted within a fine, gilt-stamped leather album once belonging to Princess Victoria of Prussia! Overall very good. The Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten ("Steel Helmet, League of Frontline Soldiers"), was one of the many paramilitary organizations that arose after the German defeat of World War I. It was part of the "Black Reichswehr" and in the late days of the Weimar Republic operated as the armed branch of the conservative German National People's Party (DNVP), placed at party gatherings in the position of armed security guards. It was a distinctly fascist-oriented organization but resisted integration or association with the NSDAP. However, by 1934, Hitler had essentially integrated the Stahlhelm into SA and SS units under his control.