Ritterkreuzträger Meierdress-Meierdrees Spelling Issue

[John P. Moore]

A researcher in Belgium wrote to me that a recent issue of the French magazine "39/45" carried an article about the Ritterkreuzträger SS-Sturmbannführer Erwin Meierdress/Meierdrees of the SS-Panzer Regiment “Totenkopf” and that his name had been spelled incorrectly throughout the article. I checked to see how I was spelling his name in my “Führerliste der Waffen-SS” publication and found that I had Meierdress, which is consistent with the Ritterkreuzträger books by Krätschmer and Schneider as well as the division’s official history books by Vopersal and Ullrich and the post-war “Der Melder” newsletter. Even the spelling of "Meierdress" is found on his grave marker below in Vienna. However, both spellings can be found among documents in his Personalakte. (Check Disc 4 of “Führerliste”) Who can say what the correct spelling of this man’s name is?

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[Charles Trang]

I wrote this article and I used the spelling "Meierdress" which was used in most of the official documents and found in many various publications (and among them the Vopersal's study on the Totenkopf Division).

[John P. Moore]

Thanks Charles.

Is there someone with a copy of Veit Scherzer's W-SS Ritterkreuzträger book or Wolfgang Schneider's recent book on the Totenkopf Panzer Rgt. who can tell us how the name is spelled in those books?

I am trying to determine the scope of this spelling issue. I know the correct answer from Erwin M. himself and I think quite a few people will be surprised when I reveal it.

John

[Jan-Hendrik]

Schneider spells him on p.243 of his book on the Tigers of the TK 'Meierdress'



Jan-Hendrik

[John P. Moore]

Thanks Jan-Hendrik. Is there someone who can tell us how the family name is spelled in the Veit Scherzer book?

Note the spelling below in this document prepared by the Berlin Document Center
in 1946 or earlier.

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[John P. Moore]

"Meierdress" is also the spelling found on the Führerkarte/Stammkarte in his Personalakte. That document is always the first document found in a file.

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[fridgeman]

This confuses me a bit, as far as i know there is no name with the spelling Meierdress in germany.
I found either Meierdrees/Meyerdrees or Meierdreeß/Meyerdreeß.

I checked a few genealogy sites aswell as german telephone book and could not find 1 entry for the Name
Meierdress.

[John P. Moore]

Fridgeman - Thanks for your comments. My friend is Belgium is also a linguist and felt the name did not look right ending with a double "s". He too checked the German telephone directories and found the same thing as you did. Still, here is another important document from the man's file where the spelling of "Meierdress" is found. It is interesting to do a Google search of "Erwin Meierdrees" and see the results that come back, plenty of results for "Meierdress", even from the Bundesarchiv.

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[fridgeman]

Maybe he or other family members before him changed the name to Meierdress, because of the more netherlandish sounding
or Meierdrees. I think it will be hard to get this 100% clear, if his name was changed by sometime, maybe if u can find
the birth documents of his father you will know it for sure if he changed his name at some point.

[Doktor Krollspell]

Is there someone who can tell us how the family name is spelled in the Veit Scherzer book?

He is spelled Hubert-Erwin Meierdress in Veit Scherzer's "Ritterkreuzträger 1939-1945" (1st ed. 2005).


Regards,

Krollspell

[John P. Moore]

Doktor Krollspell - Thank you for letting us know that Meierdress was the spelling used in Veit Scherzer's Ritterkreuzträger book. I am a little surprised that Scherzer would use the Meierdress name after his extensive research to establish the truth about the Ritterkreuzträgers.

Note the proposal for the oak leaves to the Knights Cross below where Meierdrees is used. Meierdrees is also the name used throughout the 1942 proposal for the Knights Cross.

Fridgeman - I don't believe that there was an official name change. Such name changes are reported on the front of the Führerkarte and are common with Polish-sounding names. His father's name will also be confirmed in a document that I will show later.

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[John P. Moore]

Meierdrees is the name found in the October 1944 Dienstaltersliste. See number 4142 below.

Meierdrees is also the name found in the SS-Verordnungsblatt from April 1939 that announced his promotion to SS-Untersturmführer and the SS-Personalveränderungsblatt in January 1944 that announced his promotion to SS-Sturmbannführer.

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[John P. Moore]

The conclusive proof that Meierdrees is the correct spelling comes from the hand of Erwin Meierdrees hgimself. The handwritten Lebenslauf (autobiography) from December 1938 while an SS-Rottenführer in the 3./LSSAH spells both his name and his father's name as Meierdrees! This means that all the post-war publications of this man's name, to include my own mistake and that of the Totenkopf division veterans association has been incorrect! Even the name on his gravemarker in Vienna is wrong. A collective pat on the back and handshake from the research community to Martin Bogaert is called for here.