Illustration 1 (Soldbuch Page 3)

The first column are the laufende Nummern (consecutive numbers) assigned to each change.

The second column is entitled Art der Anderung (nature of the change), and this book shows a variety of designations used for rank changes: items number 1 and 2 pertain to Erhardt's promotion to Obergefreiter and Unteroffizier, and use the rather generic term of "Dienstgrad" to indicate a rank change.  Number three uses the correct term "Beforderung" for his promotion to Wachtmeister.  Number four refers to his Ernennung (appointment) to Reserve Offizier Anwärter (reserve officer candidate).  Number five records his promotion to Leutnant and uses Beforderung as this was a true promotion.  Incidentally, the use of ink-stamps for these terms was common only to schools; field units would have written these entries in by hand.

The third column tells which page the changes pertain to: rank is on page one, so the number "1" is entered here.

Column four indicates the date that the change was made.  This is normally closer to the actual date of promotion, since the dates listed for the ranks on page one will normally date from the first of a month.

Column five is the Truppenteil (unit) that made the change.  The last three rank changes for Erhardt occurred in an officer's course at an artillery school.

Columns six and seven are the Unterschrift (signature) and Dienstgrad und Dienststellung (rank and position) of the official making the change.  Number one was made by Heinrich's battery commander, while numbers 3 thru 5 were made by the adjutant of the school he was attending.

Illustration 2

This is a typical example of this page -- the main reason we have included it is because of the correction to entry number 1, to illustrate the importance of the two terms for promotion.  On Jan. 30, 1944, Stuhlmann was appointed to Oberpionier, and the person who did the entry mistakenly wrote abbreviations for Beforderung zum Oberpionier.

In October, he was promoted to Gefreiter, and of course the term Beforderung was correct for this.

In March of 1945, he received a Beforderung to Obergefreiter.  The clerk who entered this one also caught the mistake made in entry #1, and crossed out "Bef." and wrote the correct term Ernennung above the line.

For some reason, this last entry was also stamped with the unit's seal, which was not usually done.

This particular example is very typical in the amount of ink-stamped versus hand-written entries.  A typical page 3 will have few stamps on it, except for an occasional unit name or officer's title.

Wehrkrise I (East Prussia)

Wehrkrise II (Pommerania, Mecklenberg, & a bit of Brandenburg)

Illustration 3 (Soldbuch Page 4)

This book belonged to Adolf Raas, who died as a member of the Großdeutschland division in February of 1945.

Item #23 is the latest competent Wehrmeldeamt, in this case Wiener-Neustadt -- Adolf was an Austrian.

When Adolf was inducted by Stammkompanie III. Ers. Btl. Gren. Ers. Reg. Großdeutschland; this unit was put in the top space in Item #24 under "Ersatztruppenteil" (replacement unit).  Note how his Stammrollenummer follows a common pattern, with the last two digits indicating the date of his entry - 1943.

Next, he was transferred to a "training" unit, which by regulations was listed under "field units" in Item #25: 12th (Combat Engineer) Training Company, Grenadier Replacement Regiment "GD".  The replacement unit responsible for this group was now entered on the top line in Item #26 at the same time: Ers. Brig. (mot) GD (Replacement Brigade (motorized) GD) located in Cottbus.  The induction unit would have been crossed off at the time that these entries were made.

Adolf was then sent for special training to the school listed on line C of Item #24.  Since he was actually part of this unit and schools were Ersatz organizations, the school was listed here and the old training unit in Item #25 was crossed off.  Adolf's own replacement unit was still Ers. Brig. GD, however, so this entry in Item #26 was not changed.

Adolf was sent to the front in 1944 in a transport pool from the GD training organization called Marschkp. Pz. Pi. E. u. A. Btl. GD. The school heading was crossed out, the new unit written in, but his responsible Ersatz unit in Item #26 stayed the same.

When he arrived at the front, Adolf was put into the 1st Kp, Pz. Korps. Pi. Btl. GD.  The Marschkompanie entry was crossed off, and so was the old responsible Ersatz unit, since the Ersatz unit responsible for Adolf's new unit was Pi. Ers. u. Ausb. Btl. GD.  This new Ersatz unit was written in below the old one.  His new combat unit was also entered on line B in Item #25.  Later, he was transferred to the Second Company of the same Engineer battalion, so his previous unit was crossed off.  The Ersatz unit stayed the same.  At this point, anyone reading this book would know that Adolf was currently a member of 2./ Pz. Korps. Pi. Btl. GD, and his affiliated Ersatz unit was Pz. Pi. Ers. u. Ausb. Btl. GD in Cottbus.

Item #29 is the name and address of the soldier's mother and father, including the father's occupation.  The mother's name was written in the same fashion as a wife's would be: first and maiden-name.

The circles with numbers in them are quite useful for the researcher, especially if he cannot find the man's hometown on a map.  These numbers are the German equivalent of our zip code, as the following table describes:

2 - Gau Mark Brandenburg and from Gau Pommern, the urban regions of Schniedemühl and areas of Arnswalde, Friedeberg (Neum.) and Netzekreis

3 - Gau Mecklenberg

4 - Gau Pommern

5a - Gau Danzig-Westpreußen

5b - Gau Ostpreußen

5c -  Reichskommisariat Ostland

6 -  Gau Wartheland

7a - Generalgouvernment (Poland)

7b - Reichskommisariat Ukraine

8 - Gau Niederschlesien and from Gau Sudetenland (Ost), the area of Grulich

9a - Gau Oberschlesien

9b - Gau Sudetenland (Ost)

10 - Gau Sachsen, Gau Halle-Merseburg and from Gau Thüringen, the region of Altenburg

11a - Gau Sudetenland (West)

11b - Protektorat Böhmen and Mähren

12a - Gau Wien, Gau Niederdonau, Gau Steiermark

12b - Gau Kärnten, Gau Oberdonau, Gau Salzburg, Gau Tirol-Vorarlberg

13b - Gau München-Oberbayern, Gau Schwaben and from Gau Bayreuth, the district of Niederbayern

14 - Gau Württemberg-Hohenzollern

15 - Gau Thüringen

16 - Gau Hessen-Nassau, Gau Kurhessen

17a - Gau Baden

17b - Parts of Gau Baden: Elsaß

18 - Gau Westmark

19 - Gau Magdeburg-Anhalt

20 - Gau Osthannover, Gau Südhannover-Braunschweig

21 - Gau Westfalen-Nord, Gau Westfalen-Sud

22 - Gau Düsseldorf, Gau Essen, Gau Köln-Aachen, Gau Moselland

23 - Gau Bayreuth, Gau Franken, Gau Mainfranken Gau Weser-Ems and from Gau Osthannover, the regions of Bremervörde, Wesermünde, Verden (Aller), Rotenburg (Hannover) and Osterholz-Scharmbeck as well as from Gau Südhannover-Braunschweig, the regions of graffschaft, Hoya, and Diepholz

24 - Gau Hamburg, Gau Schleswig-Holstein and from Gau Osthannover the regions of Land Hadeln, Stade, Lüneburg, and Harburg as well as the city of Cuxhaven

Illustration 4

The top block on this page is slightly unusual because they attempted to put the man's rank on the line (normally just the name appears), and an attempt was made to upgrade the title when he was promoted to Oberzahlmeister.

Originally, Ulrich was single, so ledig was written on the second line of block #1, and his father was listed as the next of kin in block #2.  His father, Julius Kralin, was a retired teacher (entered under Stand oder Gewerbe), who originally lived in Charlottenburg.  No mother was listed.

His father moved at some point in time to Altruppin / Mark so the Charlottenburg address is crossed out.  Ulrich got married sometime during the war, so ledig was crossed out and his new wife's particulars were written in.

Following the specified "first, maiden-name" format, Mrs. Erhardt was thus put down as Käthe geb. (born) Göhlinghorst.  She originally lived in Berlin, but eventually moved to Number 2 Bülowstraße in Jüterbog / Alteslager.

Illustration 5

The man's name (written in the wrong order) and initial rank was written on the top line, and no attempt was made to change the rank, even though Stuhlmann was eventually promoted up to Obergefreiter.  The rank designation was not supposed to be there, anyway, so it was ignored after it was initially put in.

He was single, so his father was picked as next-of-kin.  Wilhelm was named after his father, who lived at Schlosstrasse 36 in Wuppertal - Barmen.  The clerk who filled this address in had one of those silly empty-circle stamps, which he used and filled with the zip code "22", which corresponded with a section of Western Germany that included Wuppertal - Barmen.

The only unusual things about this page are the omissions: many times, the term ledig (single) is found in the block used for entry of a wife's data, and Stuhlmann's father's occupation is not listed.