Bruno Zins

[Wilhelm Saris]

"Gern geschehen". If I can answer and it makes sense to help and solve a riddle, I do.
Often it peters out as there are to many (different) opinions, which do not lead at all
to a good result.
It was planned to include a full headgear-manufacturers list from the RZM in volume 5
for the headgear-series, but it would have made the book into another monster. So, it
was decided to drop the idea. When this enormous list will be included, is not yet known!
It were about 80 pages or so with over 1.500 manufacturers. The list included dates when
permissions were withdrawn.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

"Gern geschehen". If I can answer and it makes sense to help and solve a riddle, I do.
Often it peters out as there are to many (different) opinions, which do not lead at all
to a good result.
It was planned to include a full headgear-manufacturers list from the RZM in volume 5
for the headgear-series, but it would have made the book into another monster. So, it
was decided to drop the idea. When this enormous list will be included, is not yet known!
It were about 80 pages or so with over 1.500 manufacturers. The list included dates when
permissions were withdrawn.

Thanks very much, indeed. Your books are the very best on the subject and always repay re-reading.
I look forward to the latest volume. I also take your point that many threads do lead to no good result, something which happens far too often.
Your definitive word on Zins, however, is exactly the final result we strive to attain here. I am also happy when my frequent mistakes are corrected by an authority.
Our goal: "wie es eigentlich gewesen," which is often a complicated and subtle thing which you have kindly made easier.

[Wilhelm Saris]

Hello FB,

yes, too often discussions do not lead to a result, but some bitterness when a good meant advise is not excepted.
With every document I read, I learn. So I do not understand at all those dealers or collectors that do not except a
good advise. Are they scared to be exposed as being an "expert". I must admit I have many times met with a rebuff.
By this it takes sometimes a long time before a book is finished and ready for being send to a publisher!

I think we never will know what the Germans all have done in these few years between 1930-1945. I think I know
5-10% from all what they have put on paper, as do not forget: from all must be correspondence. But where to find it???

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Hello FB,

yes, too often discussions do not lead to a result, but some bitterness when a good meant advise is not excepted.
With every document I read, I learn. So I do not understand at all those dealers or collectors that do not except a
good advise. Are they scared to be exposed as being an "expert". I must admit I have many times met with a rebuff.
By this it takes sometimes a long time before a book is finished and ready for being send to a publisher!

I think we never will know what the Germans all have done in these few years between 1930-1945. I think I know
5-10% from all what they have put on paper, as do not forget: from all must be correspondence. But where to find it???

Thank you for this. Your work as a researcher/scholar/author will always be welcomed by nearly all, but certain people known to me in my own suffering are always put off by authority and knowledge.
For instance, the ability to read German separates the many from the few, to say nothing of the skills needed to work with the sources, which are complex.
Another parting of the ways lies in books. The mention of books causes some to become insane, since such persons plainly are afraid of what is in them and its effects.
All this complexity and these unknowns make a simple person very unhappy and their response is usually anger. Another point is this: knowledge (or what is wrongly called information...) is changing in odd ways, whereby linearity and cause and effect are lost in the putative ease with which one believes one can secure a fact. I am a library and archives person, and while I celebrate Wikipedia, it is not the measure of all things. However others are discomfited by how hard the search for real knowledge can be, and their response are anger and petulant tantrums.....remarkable and public, too, in a way that is shocking.


I salute your hard work and associate myself with the fact that we know very little. However thanks to you, we know much more and you have my great respect for the hard work of research and publication. Books are very hard to create.
As to the sources, I am sure there is more locked away in large files and in place where one does not expect to find something, but what you have found is already very impressive. I never have enough time in Germany to look properly, and now my travel there has been curtailed.
Thanks again.

[Wilhelm Saris]

Just a minor thing: I hardly ever have been in an archive myself.
Do not have the time, nor the patience, as when visiting an archive I would be overwhelmed in such way
that I even would not remember the goal for the visit I came for!
I think one could spend 52 weeks of a year, five days a week, about seven hours a day in the Bundesarchiv
and then you were not even able to pay for all what you have seen and found what was of interest.
So, you would not even know what to order first! So, you would be lost in space, time and a waggon-load of money!!
And what to think of photographs, not mentioned yet!

[Friedrich-Berthold]

While in graduate school in the 1970s, I worked as an archivist in a world renowned university archive and learned the trade. In fact, my finding aids of that era are on line now, which is a hoot. It was a very good preparation for my later life.
In my time in the early 1980s, I also used the Bundesarchiv, which today is very costly to employ, but was not thus when I did it a long time ago. It has changed totally and become highly expensive.
I do think, though, that some of the things we all seek are in the Bundesarchiv or other repositories of note.
I had planned to retire to Europe, and carry out such projects, but that looks iffy now.
Once more, thanks for everything that you have given us generally as well as to this site.
Many things of merit are hidden there and await discovery by some person of courage and energy.

[stonemint]

Thank-you all. This is exactly the type of information I was seeking when I started this thread.