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The following was taken from the Die Neue Feldpost newsletter & was done so with permission of the publisher.  We would like to thank him for his generosity as well as thank all those who have contributed to this article.  It is with their efforts, we are able to share this valuable research with the rest of you.
 

Covers & Pages 1 - 2

Soldbuchs are one of the "common elements" among the three main groups of Wehrmacht aficionados: for the collector, they present an almost limitless variety at reasonable prices.  For the researcher of German Army life, they contain large amounts of detailed, dated information, and for the reenactor, they represent an important and highly individualized piece of kit from which an entire first-person impression can be built.

What this series of articles will attempt to do is give the reader a better understanding of how Army Soldbuchs were filled out, and explain the significance of the entries themselves.

The cross-section of books for this study was obtained by examining a total of 255 books or copies of books, not including a number of parts or incomplete books.

Not all army personal would carry an "army" Soldbuch.  As we have pointed out in earlier issues, there were many men who transferred from either the Kriegsmarine or Luftwaffe in the ranks of the late-1944 vintage infantry unit.  These men kept their old Soldbuchs, and there were certain differences from the Army type in both.  This series will cover Army books only; books from the other arms will have to wait for a future series of articles!

Like any other procedure that is left up to a great many individuals, the methods used in filling out Soldbuchs varied greatly, and sometimes even defied regulations.  Some entries were almost never filled out according to regulation and some things put into the books had no regulations pertaining to them at all.  In almost every case, however, a "typical" or "standard" method or entry can be easily identified; the description for the "typical" entry will be set in underlined bold type.  Entries made like these would not have aroused suspicion in your typical "Kettenhund"!  The "Item Numbers" correspond with the item-locating arrows on the illustrations.
 

There are two basic covers for Army Soldbuchs: stock and variant re-covers.  Stock covers were made from a dense, greenish cover stock that had a peculiar "wavy" watermark.  The spines were covered with a green cloth spine-reinforcing tape.  Stock covers also had a "pocket" formed in the back cover by folding three flaps inward.  Printed inside on the end-flap of the pocket there were some "rules" for the book, and here is a rough translation:
 

In the sample group for this study there were also a total of 20 books (about 8%) that were re-covered with a very different sort of cover.  This variant cover, as yet seen only as re-covers, was made of card stock which was more of a brownish-green color and lacked the wavy texture.  There are no fold-in flaps on the rear cover, so there is no "pocket".  The rules normally printed on the flap of the rear cover were now printed either on the inside of the front cover or inside the back cover.

Sometimes books were recovered with whatever was handy at the time.  Two books in this study had plain, cardstock covers.  Many books were protected inside various types of covers and wallets, but since these are technically not actually a part of the book, they are outside the scope of this article.  Maybe a future article!

Although Soldbuchs were not usually found outside the possession of their owners, there were occasions when the books were taken in and filed for security reasons.  Filing was not a problem as long as the number of books was small, like when a small group left its books behind before going out on patrol.  On the other hand, if a whole unit turned in its books*, filing the 180 books of a company could be a problem because all Soldbuch covers look the same.  Hospital clerks had the same problem with the books belonging to the patients in their care.  In these instances, there had to be some method of identifying and filing the book without having to open the cover, and apparently there were two common methods of doing this: marking the cover and filing the books with the covers open.

116 of the books in our study have either the soldier's last name (the most common), the whole name, or the first couple letters of the last name printed somewhere near the top of the front cover.  29 more books have just the last initial in the same place.  This practice of placing the soldier's last initial in the upper right-hand corner may have evolved from the small block printed in the same place on the cover of a Wehrpaß.  The designers of the German documents realized that Wehrpasses would normally be filed so they put a small space on the cover for an initial.  Knowing how thorough the Germans are makes it all the more remarkable that they didn't realize that the Soldbuch would occasionally be filed and provide a similar "box" on the Soldbuch cover.  Nobody's perfect.

Almost half of the books do not have the soldier's ID on the cover at all; this is not really unusual, for all it usually indicates is that the book was never temporarily filed away from the individual.
 

A large red cross across the cover usually indicates the death of the owner.

Sometime in 1944, photo-graphs were required to be affixed inside the front cover of Army Soldbuchs as an additional security measure. A genuine Afrika Korps Soldbuch will therefore not have a picture in it, unless it was added after the campaign. Books from the Normandy campaign may or may not have photos in them. Of the 45 books in our study group that were actually carried in the Normandy campaign, 8 of them had no photograph at the time of the battles. All of the specimen books carried by front-line soldiers during the Ardennes campaign (a total of 151 books) have or had a photograph at the time of the battle.
 

There are some variations to the photos themselves, but the typical photo is about 1-3/4" wide by 2-3/8" tall including a small white border, showing the soldier in his wool field tunic, down to about the bottom of the flaps of his tunic breast pockets, and posed with the soldier turned looking slightly to his right. The soldier has removed his hat and glasses, his hair is neatly combed (and often oiled) back, and his collar is closed. Many are smiling slightly, but only one man out of our group is smiling so you can see any teeth! Actually, there is an amazing variety of expressions, probably depending on the subject's situation at the time: some look terrified or confused, some look bored, some glare at the camera as if they were trying to intimidate the photographer. Some look exhausted, and a few look back at you with such haunted expressions that it gives you goose bumps.

There are some neat variants in the size and scope of the photos: the smallest photo examined was only 1 x 1 1/2 inches, and the largest was 2 1/2 x 3 3/4. A half-dozen or so of the photos had black borders and four had no borders at all. The coverage of the photo ranged from a little as down to the points of the collar (21 photos) and as much as down to the belt buckle (6 photos). In 13 examples, the soldier is dressed in his dress uniform, and in 5 photos, they are dressed in the pocketless green HBT work tunic. One man had his photo taken in his Border Customs uniform. One soldier has his mountain cap on, two soldiers have not removed their glasses, 19 have their collars open, and two, surprisingly, are still in civilian cloths! 29 men are posed turned to their 'left', but only 5 are posed faced directly at the camera. Most photos appear to have been taken in a studio, but a few appear to have been taken outside, apparently against the outside of a building, and 3 photos are actually cut out of group pictures! Ah, sweet diversity!
 

Item #1 on this page is the serial number of the book, as recorded by the issuing unit.  In very early-war books, or books from training units that produced very limited numbers of trainees, this number will often match the dogtag serial number (item #5).  In most books, however, these numbers will not match.  Click Here for why this happened.

Item #2 is the rank of the soldier when the book was issued.  Unless the book is a replacement for a lost book, the soldier was prior service, or if the man was demoted (they issued new books to soldiers who were reduced in rank), this rank will be some form of "private".  Of course, the actual term for "private" will depend on the arm and period of the war.  From war's start until October of 1942, the official term for infantry private would be Schutze.  From that date onward it would be Grenadier, or less common Füsilier.  If the man was an engineer trainee, it would read Pionier, if he was an artillery man, it was Kanonier, Fahrer if he was a driver, etc.. Normally this rank was written in by hand, but occasionally it was put in with a rubber stamp, especially in later-war books from units which turned over large numbers of recruits.

Item #6 is the soldier's blood type.  This is most often put in with red pencil and occasionally with red ink or inkstamp, and sometimes with regular blue or black (gray!) ink.  RH factor was unknown then, so the blood type will simply read A, B, O, or AB, without the "+" or "-" we have today.

Item #7 is the soldier's gas mask size.  This will be a number between 1 (the largest) and 3 (the smallest).  A man with who got a size 3 mask has a really small face -- this size was normally only issued to female auxiliaries.

Item #8 is the soldier's military service registration number.  This number was given to the man when his Wehrpaß was issued to him, and theoretically it followed him until retirement.  There are usually 5 elements to this number:

1.  The first element is the name of the Wehrbezirkskommando (recruiting subdistrict headquarters).  A complete list of these offices will be published in the next part of this article.
2.  The last two digits of the year of birth
3.  Number of military registration police precinct (or in some really large cities, a number corresponding to the first letter of the family name.)
4.  Serial number of the induction roster sheet (Wehrstammrollenblatt).
5.  A number from 1 to 10 indicating the man's place on the above sheet.

Example: Hamburg III 14/38/4/7, for a man born in 1914 and registered in the third recruiting office of Hamburg.
 

Item #9 is the owner's birthdate, indicated in the usual German fashion.

Item #10 is the place of the owner's birth.  In the case of small towns or cities with the same name, accurate placement is aided by locating the town in the "vicinity" of a larger city or "region".  The town will occupy the top line, and the additional reference (if necessary) will often be on the second line.  For the small town of Riedendorf listed in Illus. 4, the clerk noted the town's Kreis (region) to pinpoint the location: Mährisch - Schönberg  (Schönberg in Moravia).  Another convention, of course, was to locate like-named cities on a river, i.e., Frankfurt am Main and Frankfurt an der Oder.  Larger cities needed no aid to location: Stettin, Berlin, Hannover, etc..

Item #11 is the holder's religion.  The two most common entries are, of course, either "kath." (catholic: 96 books), or "e.v." (Protestant: 116 books).  Protestants predominate, but large numbers of Catholics lived in the south and south-west.  The eastern regions could be either.  There is one "religion" which did not survive the war: most of the officers and career NCOs have "gttgl." or "gottglaubig" listed as their religion.  "Gottglaubig" was the term Nazis used for people who believed in God but rejected the regular organized churches.  It was the "politically correct" religion, especially if one had aspirations.  15% of the books examined listed this religion, and almost without exception they belonged to early-promoted NCOs, officers, military police, or ex-Nazi government employees.  5 books had the term "gttls." or "gottlos" (non-believer, or atheist) as an entry.  Some books specify r.k, r. kath. or röm. kath. for Roman Catholic.  We are told that at least one book is known to have "Lutheran" as am entry, but the book was unavailable for study so we cannot verify this first hand.  Lutheranism is a form of Protestant faith and as such was covered under evangelisch.  In addition, "kath." can be confused with "luth." when Sutterlin script is used.  See the entry listed as item 11 in illustration 4 and you will see what I mean.

Item #12 is the owner's trade.  This will always have something in it, even if the owner was a 17 year-old draftee in late 1944.  "Student" appears in only 5 of the books examined, and all of these belonged to officers or officer candidates.  The vast majority of German youth would have been taught a trade after leaving primary school, and thus would be listed as a tradesman or been apprenticed as a tradesman by the time he reached draft age.  If he was still in school, he was enrolled in some program of college-type higher education and would not have a trade.  The likelihood of a college student remaining an enlisted man was remote.  "Tradeless" men would normally be listed as some sort of laborer.  Everyone worked.  The following are the most common occupations, or most typical form of name for the occupation (ie., Bauer is the same as Landwirt, and such terms as Landwirt Helfer just means "farm laborer"):

There were very few men belonging to the specialized technical trades.  Interestingly, German technical trades often have very specific names, like "Kompressor Führer" for compressor operator, or "Dreher" for lathe operator.  In the subject group, there were no tool makers, mill operators, grinders, electricians, plumbers, draftsmen, or welders.  There were a few Mechaniker (mechanics), but these were in motorized units.  Most of the books examined belonged to men in the combat arms, especially the infantry, which would not have gotten men with skills like these.

Skilled workers were needed for war production, so many skilled tradesmen were not drafted at all; if they were drafted, they would probably have gone to technical units, not the combat arms.  Here is a sampling of the less-frequent occupations listed in our sample, again, all from the combat arms:
 

There is an interesting mistake that was fairly common to this entry.  The heading Stand, Beruf, was supposed to mean "profession or job".  Almost 10% of the books examined showed that the men filling them out rendered the German word Stand in another meaning: martial status.  In addition to the man's occupation, these books have led. or ledig (single), or v.h. or verh. (married) somewhere near this heading, usually either above or below the heading itself.
 

Item #13 is the owner's height in centimeters.

Item #14 is the shape of the man's face.  The most common entries here are rund (round) and oval.  Voll (full, or fat), schmal (narrow), and länglich (oblong), had five examples apiece.  One description reads "normal", whatever that was supposed to indicate!

Item #15 is a description of the man's beard.  Of course, the vast majority of the books have "keine" (none), or that peculiar symbol the Germans used for "NA" that looks like a percent symbol (•/•).  One book, however, has the entry Schnurbart (mustache), and sure enough, the picture of the man shows him with a little Hitler-type brush mustache!  Another book has the entry here of Ja (yes)!  The photo shows the typical clean-shaven Soldat, so I guess "Ja" meant that he could have grown a beard if he wanted to!

Item #16 indicates the owner's body type.  The most common entry here is schlank, meaning "slim".  Another fairly common entry is kräftig (rugged), or mittel (medium build).  A less common entry is muskulär (muscular), and one book contains the body description voll (full-bodied, or "heavy").  One book for a 5' 11" man had groß-schlank (big-slim) for a description.  There were probably other seldom-used terms as well.

Item #17 is the owner's hair color.  Only one book in our study used schwarz (black) as a hair color.  Either there was a lack of black-haired soldiers, or Dunkel, (dark) or dunkel braun were the preferred terms.  Of course, braun, dunkel blonde, or blonde are the most common entries.

Item #18 is eye color.  Nothing unusual here.

Item #19 are "other distinguishing characteristics".  If the owner wore glasses, then "Brillenträger" was written in.  Other common entries include Narbe (scar), Brandnarbe (burn scar), Blindarmnarbe (appendectomy scar), or Leberfleche (liver spot), followed by a location of the feature (except for the appendectomy scar, of course) ie., Narbe r. Knie (scar on right knee).  A less common but interesting entry is Narbengesicht (scarred face) which would apply to someone whose face is was scarred by acne, chicken pox, etc..

Item #20 is the man's shoe size (length and width).  There were two different systems of shoe sizing in use during the war: one system is loosely identified as the "European" shoe size, the other is "German".  Both are found in the books, with no apparent trend over the course of the war -- you are just as likely to find one as the other, early in the war or late.  The length sizes are equated in the following table:
 

Oftentimes, the shoe length is filled out but the width is left blank.  Later-war books often left both spaces blank.

Item #21 is where the man signed his name, in its natural order.  Some men, obviously conditioned to sign their name in the official manner with last name first/first name last, signed their names in this fashion instead of in the regulation manner.

Item #22 is the area where the new Soldbuch was "notarized" by its issuing unit.  The most common arrangement here is the following: on or around the first dotted line is the date that the book was issued.  This was either written in or put in with a rubber date-stamp.  Beneath this, put in with a rubber stamp, is the name of the unit that issued the book.  Even in cases where the man received his dogtag and Soldbuch from the same unit (in which case the unit-name would be the same one indicated on the dogtag), the stamps for the unit on this line and on the EK line on page 1 are almost never the exact same stamp.  This is a clear indication that most recruits were not issued their dogtags and Soldbuch over the same counter.  The units that did appear to use the same stamp were usually small training units, like Infantry Signals Replacement or Infantry Pionier Training companies.  Of course, if the book is a replacement for a lost or ruined one, the unit on the dogtag will not usually be the same unit that issued the book, and the unit that issued the book would naturally not have a stamp with the name of the unit that originally issued the dogtag on it.  The unit name on page 2 is almost always put in with rubber stamp, even in many very early-war books; apparently some priority was given to making these stamps first.  There are a few books, however, especially 1939-vintage ones, in which everything on page 2 is hand-written, except for the unit seal.

Below the unit stamp is the signature of the issuing unit's commanding officer, usually written á la doctor-signature (i.e., impossible to read), and below that, the officer's rank and position, i.e. Oberleutnant u. Komp. Führer (1st Lt. and Company Commander).  This rank / position entry is usually put in with a rubber stamp.  This measure prevented forged signatures.  The unit seal is put in to the left of these entries.
 

Sources:
- The Exploitation of German Documents, Military Intelligence Division, War Department, Washington, DC. 1944.
- Information or books provided by: Barry Smith, Rich Clement, Vince Milano, Marchall Wise, Al Becker, Sal Marmon, and Kenny Watlow.

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