Help W/Meaning of WW1 german ring...

[derwood58]

Hello everybody,
I am new here,Actually my first post.Anyway i have this siler&enamel ring which read's"35g Brot oder 1 Semmel oder 25g Mehl,Translate's to(roughly) 25 g bread or 1 roll or 25g flour.I would love to find the meaning/reason for putting this on a ring,I have seen one other ring W/samesaying but no explanation.It is dated 1916.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.Thank You,

[drmessimer]

Derwood58: I can't dive you a definitive answer, but I can hazard an educated guess. 1916 was the year that the British blockade really started to be felt in Germany. On 22 May 1916, the Germans established the Kriegsernährungsamt, which instituted severe food rationing for civilians. I don't know what the daily bread ration levels were for civilians, but the figures on the ring are probably pretty close and possibly exact. In that case, the ring could be either a protest against the severe rationing or a sign of patriotic support for the program. I have a lot of material on the effects of the blockade, but I haven't found the rationing tables. But I'll keep looking. There was a ring identical to yours that sold through a dealer a while back for $65, which is more than I would pay for something I couldn't identify. But maybe the buyer knew something I don't know. Anyway, I hope this rather general information helps. Dwight

[Adrian Stevenson]

I can go along with Dwight's theory.

Cheers, Ade.

[drmessimer]

Derwood58: Here is what I found, for whatever it's worth. Bread was the first food rationed in Germany in WWI, starting in June 1915. The bread ration was steadily reduced throughout the war as were all other foods. In 1917, the daily bread ration in Berlin was 270g (9.5 oz) of bread per adult, and 170g (5.9 oz) of flour per adult. Neither of those numbers match the numbers on the ring. By 1916, and inceasingly in 1917, there were food riots throughout Germany with the largest disorders occurring in Berlin and Dresden. I am reasonably sure that the message on the ring has something to do with the food situation, probably a protest, but I can't say exactly what it is. Dwight

[Wagriff]

Hello Derwood, What you have here is a German protest ring resulting from The British Blockade of WWI and the emergency countermeasures taken by the German government to try to control the resulting civilian starvation. During the war, the German government estimated that an astounding 634,000 civilians starved to death as a direct result of The Blockade-and this did Not include another 100,000 that died during the Eight Months Continued blockade After the Armistice was signed. It continued on until June of 1919. (It is said that they continued it to force the Germans to renounce the Brest-Litvosk Treaty and to sign the Versailles Treaty terms) This act was seen as one of brutal harshness and cruelty and ultimately caused a hatred of the British to fester in the minds of the German people that would years later manifest itself in the rise of Nazi-ism and a second world war. Years later, when asked which war was harder on the civilian population, almost invariably the person questioned would respond "World War 1! There was Nothing to eat!". This starvation was one of the main focus's of Adolph Hitler when he took power and was the direct reason of why he instituted a strict rationing of food in Germany-to ensure that such starvation would never happen again. As for the numbers given on the ring(and, yes, I've seen several of these types of rings) I am unaware of any exact figures being available on just what amounts were dictated by the emergency government food measures, but I do know that the German soldier in the field had constant food problems as well. The aim of capturing Food became a very large concern when making trench raids. The numbers on the ring may be simply a satirical sneer at the numbers allowed or else it could well be an actual true figure-perhaps in a particular local city or area or even nationwide. In any case, the rings are a fascinating bit of a dark page of human history. Not horrendously Valuable but more than made up by it's interesting story!

[derwood58]

Derwood58: I can't dive you a definitive answer, but I can hazard an educated guess. 1916 was the year that the British blockade really started to be felt in Germany. On 22 May 1916, the Germans established the Kriegsernährungsamt, which instituted severe food rationing for civilians. I don't know what the daily bread ration levels were for civilians, but the figures on the ring are probably pretty close and possibly exact. In that case, the ring could be either a protest against the severe rationing or a sign of patriotic support for the program. I have a lot of material on the effects of the blockade, but I haven't found the rationing tables. But I'll keep looking. There was a ring identical to yours that sold through a dealer a while back for $65, which is more than I would pay for something I couldn't identify. But maybe the buyer knew something I don't know. Anyway, I hope this rather general information helps. Dwight

Thank you...I was just reading of the intense(beginning)blockade&thought of the ring.I can't say i'm that guy/person,that paided $65.00 because i spent less.Antway thank's for input,
derwood58.

[derwood58]

Hello Derwood, What you have here is a German protest ring resulting from The British Blockade of WWI and the emergency countermeasures taken by the German government to try to control the resulting civilian starvation. During the war, the German government estimated that an astounding 634,000 civilians starved to death as a direct result of The Blockade-and this did Not include another 100,000 that died during the Eight Months Continued blockade After the Armistice was signed. It continued on until June of 1919. (It is said that they continued it to force the Germans to renounce the Brest-Litvosk Treaty and to sign the Versailles Treaty terms) This act was seen as one of brutal harshness and cruelty and ultimately caused a hatred of the British to fester in the minds of the German people that would years later manifest itself in the rise of Nazi-ism and a second world war. Years later, when asked which war was harder on the civilian population, almost invariably the person questioned would respond "World War 1! There was Nothing to eat!". This starvation was one of the main focus's of Adolph Hitler when he took power and was the direct reason of why he instituted a strict rationing of food in Germany-to ensure that such starvation would never happen again. As for the numbers given on the ring(and, yes, I've seen several of these types of rings) I am unaware of any exact figures being available on just what amounts were dictated by the emergency government food measures, but I do know that the German soldier in the field had constant food problems as well. The aim of capturing Food became a very large concern when making trench raids. The numbers on the ring may be simply a satirical sneer at the numbers allowed or else it could well be an actual true figure-perhaps in a particular local city or area or even nationwide. In any case, the rings are a fascinating bit of a dark page of human history. Not horrendously Valuable but more than made up by it's interesting story!

Very Cool ! Thank you for the information,I myself liked the way it looked&It's "oddness",Like you said"fascinating bit of a dark page",etc.Again thank's for your time,
derwood