WW II German Dress Bayonet

[litenlarry]

I have some pic's of a WW II German Police dress bayonet, captured near Dusseldorf Germany, by my Dad in early 1945..
Interesting in that it does not attach to a rifle..The numbering on the piece indicates it was issued to the German Dusseldorf Police,, It took some investigating to decipher what the markings meant..
Cool piece of history..

 

[cmort666]

Interesting in that it does not attach to a rifle.

I've had one of the Doubleday(?) WWII books since I was in grammar school. It's the one on Nazi uniforms and accoutrements. It specifically points out that feature.

Their decorative weapons could be a bit odd. The Red Cross dagger had saw teeth and no point of any kind. The tip was perpendicular to the blade and allegedly served as a "screw driver".

 

[italiansport]

You have a typical WW II police dress bayonet made by the well known Horster firm. Many of these were in fact re-manufactured from clam shell bayonets. The clam shell(guard) was removed and the bayonet cut down. Since these were decorative they are generally not cut with a slot for rifle mounting or if they are the slot is too small to allow this.This can often be seen if there are extra holes thru the stag grips. The stampings on the guard indicated the unit this was assigned to.
You didn't ask but nice examples such as yours sell in the $600 - $ 800 range.
Congradulations on a nice collectible.
Jim

 

[litenlarry]

You have a typical WW II police dress bayonet made by the well known Horster firm. Many of these were in fact re-manufactured from clam shell bayonets. The clam shell(guard) was removed and the bayonet cut down. Since these were decorative they are generally not cut with a slot for rifle mounting or if they are the slot is too small to allow this.This can often be seen if there are extra holes thru the stag grips. The stampings on the guard indicated the unit this was assigned to.
You didn't ask but nice examples such as yours sell in the $600 - $ 800 range.
Congradulations on a nice collectible.
Jim

Thanks Jim..
The bayonet was found , when my Dad was doing a "house to house" in a town near Dusseldorf..He wrapped it in a bed spread of some sort..He mailed it to his Mother still wrapped in the bed spread..She was overjoyed with the bed spread, the bayonet, not so much..

 

[federali]

Great Info

I much appreciate posts like this as well as the knowledgeable responses. I can always find room to store this data in my overcrowded brain even though my wife feels I'm long overdue for a cerebral enema.

It seems that the Nazis had a different edged weapon for each of their many overlapping departments, bureaus, units, agencies. I'm also aware that there's a booming business in Nazi replicas as well as outright counterfeits.

While this blade may have collector value, it is more valuable as a family heirloom as your father brought it home from the war.

 

[litenlarry]

I much appreciate posts like this as well as the knowledgeable responses. I can always find room to store this data in my overcrowded brain even though my wife feels I'm long overdue for a cerebral enema.

It seems that the Nazis had a different edged weapon for each of their many overlapping departments, bureaus, units, agencies. I'm also aware that there's a booming business in Nazi replicas as well as outright counterfeits.

While this blade may have collector value, it is more valuable as a family heirloom as your father brought it home from the war.

Absolutely a family heirloom, it is not for sale !

 

[italiansport]

I much appreciate posts like this as well as the knowledgeable responses. I can always find room to store this data in my overcrowded brain even though my wife feels I'm long overdue for a cerebral enema.

It seems that the Nazis had a different edged weapon for each of their many overlapping departments, bureaus, units, agencies. I'm also aware that there's a booming business in Nazi replicas as well as outright counterfeits.

While this blade may have collector value, it is more valuable as a family heirloom as your father brought it home from the war.

You are correct and there were underlying reasons for this. Prior to the Nazis coming to power there was extreme economic and depressive conditions in Germany primarily as the result of WW I.
Edged weapons production in Germany has always been centered in Solingen, aka "the city of swords", and the manufacturers were essentially cut off from new orders at this time. Making dress daggers of this type was a way to get them back into production as the Nazis well understood another war was on the way. These manufacturers would be essential in the production for example of K98 bayonets.
The other reason was that Hitler and other Nazi bigwigs such as Goering(Luftwaffe) well understood the unifying influence of having a very visible and unique item for each of the various groups and dress daggers served this purpose well.
These dress daggers and dress bayonets were brought back by the untold thousand by returning GIs and are avidly collected today.
If any of you are interested you can watch me appraise a Luftwaffe dagger on the new Arizona Collectibles program on Channel 8 in Phoenix by clicking on the link below and scrolling in to about 11.30.

http://www.azpbs.org/collectibles/
Jim

 

[litenlarry]

You are correct and there were underlying reasons for this. Prior to the Nazis coming to power there was extreme economic and depressive conditions in Germany primarily as the result of WW I.
Edged weapons production in Germany has always been centered in Solingen, aka "the city of swords", and the manufacturers were essentially cut off from new orders at this time. Making dress daggers of this type was a way to get them back into production as the Nazis well understood another war was on the way. These manufacturers would be essential in the production for example of K98 bayonets.
The other reason was that Hitler and other Nazi bigwigs such as Goering(Luftwaffe) well understood the unifying influence of having a very visible and unique item for each of the various groups and dress daggers served this purpose well.
These dress daggers and dress bayonets were brought back by the untold thousand by returning GIs and are avidly collected today.
Jim

Jim, you sound like you are up on the Nazi history,,
I am sure you are aware of the P38 pistol, the markings and their numbering system..It was interesting for me to find out their system of markings and some of the markings meaning..

 

[italiansport]

There's all sorts of excellent information online regarding P38s just google it up. Doing some basic research will let you ask better questions.
Jim

 

[litenlarry]

There's all sorts of excellent information online regarding P38s just google it up. Doing some basic research will let you ask better questions.
Jim

No, I know the info and am active on the P38 forum..Thanks..

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Knew a dude who had an extensive German WWII bayonet- dagger collection.
I also liked the Red Cross , and his Train Engineer dagger.
And the Jagermeister. Not the drink! The game warden!
In WWII, Goring was the head Jagermeister.