WHW - Winterhilfswerk

German auxiliary organizations 1919-1945.
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John W. Howard
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Re: WHW - Winterhilfswerk

Post by John W. Howard »

Hello Troy:
It was a great idea to reward people with a little something for sacrificing for their soldier's welfare. I do not think anyone does knick-knacks quite like the Germans!! Best wishes.
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Re: WHW - Winterhilfswerk

Post by Troy Tempest »

Sure beats a plastic toy out of the cornflakes box! When I started collecting these items, it made me think about something I'd never seen in any war movie featuring German civilians or the homeland. You never see anyone wearing their various WHW items, or any other non-WHW tinnies. Yet people would have worn them at one time or another, but see if you can spot anyone wearing one next time you watch a German 1933-1945 period movie.
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Re: WHW - Winterhilfswerk

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Next up is my 1934 WHW Für Das Tägliche Brot Wir Opfern tinnie, which literally means For the everyday bread we to victims. The land and farming/farmers featured often as a theme for these sorts of things.
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1934 Für WHW Das Tägliche Brot Wir Opfern tinnie ovberse.JPG
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Re: WHW - Winterhilfswerk

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Next up is my 1934 Für Mutter und Kind Seidenwebabzeichen (silk web badge). It has a pin on the back. Yet another example of the different materials used to make various WHW items, this still feels silky today.
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1934 WHW Mutter und Kind, T003 Seidenwebabzeichen.jpg
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Fraulein Valkyrie
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Re: WHW - Winterhilfswerk

Post by Fraulein Valkyrie »

Hello Troy,

I'm a great fan of the WHW too, and a longtime reader of Stoddard as well. See:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... rhilfswerk
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... rhilfswerk
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... rhilfswerk

Thought you might like this:

~Vikki
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Re: WHW - Winterhilfswerk

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Hi Vick! Thanks for those links, I've had a quick read, will have to take more time to go through all of them. Haven't been over there since Aug '08, am just updating my profile so will definitely go through all those posts. I'm anxiously awaiting my latest Reinhard Tieste books, the latest edition on WHW and his new two volume edition on tinnies, covers over 12,000 pieces!
Last edited by Troy Tempest on Fri May 07, 2010 11:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: WHW - Winterhilfswerk

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When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, the new Nazi government focused the German health system on their priorities such as the creation of a racially homogeneous society and the preparation of war. One of the measures to bring nursing under their control was the foundation of a new sisterhood. In 1934, Erich Hilgenfeldt (1897-1945), the ambitious head of the National Socialist People's Welfare Association (Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt), founded the National Socialist Sisterhood (Nationalsozialistische Schwesternschaft or NSS) to create an elite group that would work for the goals of the NSDAP. Hilgenfeldt proclaimed community nursing as a priority for NSS nurses. Catholic and Protestant sisters, who were traditionally dedicated to community nursing, were to be gradually replaced. However, other competing priorities, such as hospital service for the training of junior nurses and work in conquered regions, as well as the lack of NSS nursing personnel, hampered the expansion of community nursing. Here is a WHW Mutter und Kind Tag der Rose (Day of the Rose) donation cloth badge for the NSS, with printed lettering and NSS runic logo. It is 60mm by 11mm
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WHW-Mutter und Kind, Tag der Rose, T005.jpg
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Re: WHW - Winterhilfswerk

Post by Troy Tempest »

Here is my Hans Schemm tinnie. It was made after the Gauleiter was killed in an aircraft crash. Some background on him from Wiki:

Hans Schemm (6 October 1891 in Bayreuth – 5 March 1935 in Bayreuth) was a Gauleiter in Nazi Germany. Schemm, whose parents ran a shoemaker's shop, first went to a Volksschule for five years and then as of 1905 a teaching seminary. In 1915 he got married; in 1917 a son was born. As a teacher, he taught school beginning in 1910, first in Wülfersreuth, then as of 1911 in Neufang and from 1920 at the Altstadtschule ("Old Town School"), which was later named the Hans-Schemm-Schule, in Bayreuth. During the First World War he worked at a military epidemic hospital in Bayreuth where he became infected with tuberculosis.

In 1919 he belonged to the Freikorps Bayreuth, which took part in the struggles in Munich. Schemm was then appointed as head of a bacteriological-chemical laboratory in Thale (Hubertusbad), which, however, closed by 1921 on financial grounds. Schemm, who had dealt with chemical-biological matters scientifically before, went back to teaching school. Between 1921 and 1928, he also moonlit at the folk high school. From 1923, Schemm had contacts with Nazi groups and on 30 September 1923 he got to know Adolf Hitler. In 1924, he became an assessor in the Bayreuth Völkischer Bund. On 27 February 1925, Schemm founded the Bayreuth Nazi Ortsgruppe ("Local Group") and in the same year the Nazi Gau of Upper Franconia (Oberfranken).

Schemm built the organization up with determination. His political positions were clearly antidemocratic, anti-Semitic and anti-Communist, as can be seen in some of his quotations:
* "We are revolutionary, we want to overthrow the present state … On our enemies, we shall take revenge, and indeed bloody revenge."
* "We are not objective – we are German!"
* " … that a Jew should dangle from every lamppost."

In 1927, Schemm founded the National Socialist Teachers' Federation. In 1928, he became a member of the Bavarian Landtag. Systematically, Schemm prepared the local NSDAP for the election campaigns, first for the City Council in 1929. The Nazis won 9 mandates, and Schemm became factional chairman. The arrival of the Nazi faction led to frequent stormy sessions and one brawl, which were caused by the Nazi members', and in particular Schemm's, aggressive attitude. In 1928 and 1929, Schemm took over the leadership of several Nazi newspapers (Streiter, Weckruf and Nationale Zeitung), which he however gave up after a short time. In April 1929, Schemm founded his own newspaper, and in August of the same year appeared the Nationalsozialistische Lehrerzeitung ("National Socialist Teachers' Newspaper"), the National Socialist Teachers League's (NSLB) journalistic organ. On 1 October 1930 came the first edition of the weekly newspaper Kampf für deutsche Freiheit und Kultur ("Struggle for German Freedom and Culture"), which was published by Schemm, and whose circulation rose from 3,000 in the beginning to 20,000 by 1932.

In 1931, Schemm founded the Bayreuth National Socialist Cultural Publishing House (Nationalsozialistischer Kulturverlag Bayreuth), which beginning on 1 October 1932 published the daily newspaper Das Fränkische Volk (circulation: 10,000) In 1930, Schemm became a member of the Reichstag. In 1933, the Gau of Upper Franconia, led by Schlemm, was united with the Gau of Upper Palatinate-Lower Bavaria (Oberpfalz-Niederbayern) to form the Gau Bayerische Ostmark. Schemm kept his job as Gauleiter. Furthermore he became an SA Gruppenführer. On 16 March 1933, the Reich Governor (Reichsstatthalter) Franz Ritter von Epp appointed Schemm to be the provisional Culture Minister. Hitler then appointed him on 13 April 1933 the "Leader of Cultural and Educational Affairs of Bavaria".

In 1933, Schemm became an honorary citizen of Bayreuth. On 5 March 1935, Schemm died after an aircraft crash. Hitler personally ordered Berlin Professor Ferdinand Sauerbruch to fly to Bayreuth. Schemm, however, succumbed to his injuries before the professor's arrival. His successor as Gauleiter was Fritz Wächtler. Schemm's life was glorified by the Nazis, and somewhat even later after the Nazis were gone. In the time of the Nazi regime, though, various schools, streets, and halls in Nazi Germany were named after him.

I especially like one of his quotes: "We are not objective – we are German!" :D
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1935 Hans Schemm tinnie obverse.jpg
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Re: WHW - Winterhilfswerk

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Next up is my 1937 WHW Rose. It's catalog ID is 4WHW.4RSS. 4WHW denotes it is part of the fourth WHW drive, the first being winter '34/'35. RSS denotes Reichsstraßensammlung or Reichs street collection. 4RSS means it was the 4th street collection series of that particular WHW drive. The rose is made of Iron and was sold on the 2nd and 3rd January 1937. by the SA. SS and other formations.
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1937,2&3.1 - 4.4RSS Rose, T066.1.jpg
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Re: WHW - Winterhilfswerk

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Next is my 4KWHW-3RSS (4th wartime winter drive/ 3rd street collection) Deutsche Bauernhäuser, a series of 12 wooden squares showing the different style of farm buildings throughout Germany. They were sold on 21 and 22 November, 1942 by the SA, SS, NSKK and NSRKB. This one is number 5 for Mittel Deutschland.
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WHW Deutsche Bauernhäuser - Mittel Deutschland.jpg
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Re: WHW - Winterhilfswerk

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Here is number 6 - Niederrhein
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Re: WHW - Winterhilfswerk

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Next is number 10 - Schlesien
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Re: WHW - Winterhilfswerk

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Next is number 11 - Schwarzwald
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Re: WHW - Winterhilfswerk

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And number 12 of the series of 12 is for Südbayern
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Re: WHW - Winterhilfswerk

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Here is one of the earliest WHW pieces, 2WHW,3RSS Weihnachtsmotive (Christmas motives) collection. This was from the 2nd winter drive, and was the 3rd street collection of that drive. This was a 5 piece collection sold on the 1st and 2nd Dec 1934. This is number 3 of the 5, Weinachtsbaum (Christmas tree).
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1934,1&2.12 - 2WHW,3RSS Weihnachtsmotive - Weinachtsbaum, 3 of 5, T020.jpg
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