kriegsmarine Adolf Heinz

[Doppelgänger]

Like the OP stated, why would someone do this? And if you're going to make a fake why write in French and not German? And there's nothing that weird about someone making a dyslexic mistake on a spelling. If you are afflicted with this, as I have been for years... you would not find it so abnormal. It's not an impossibility anyway. Once having made the mistake switching the E for the I, there would be no fixing it, just merely going on with the word misspelled...

In French it reads roughly "in memory of my naval military service" which isn't all that weird if someone was making themselves a memento. Again, almost too bizarre to be an obvious fake. And again, I don't think it's an impossibility.

Poor engraving? It's done with an electric pencil, looks about normal for this kind of engraving. In fact, it's quite good.

A comment about "the Kriegsmarine being nothing to be proud of by 1944" is really bordering on the ludicrous... The beginning service date is 1940, which was in the heyday of the German war, especially on the high seas. But regardless of this, and IF this item were to be genuine I'm not taking into consideration here... but the premise that someone wouldn't be proud of their service is preposterous.

I certainly wouldn't dismiss it as a fake offhand, but I would be very interested to know what the prop is from, and is it period?

There is no way for anyone to really know for sure, and there are certain details about it that in fact point in the way of not being a fake, for me anyway.

I think one plausible explanation for the French would be a French born person of German descent (or Alsacian) having enlisted in the Kriegsmarine after the fall of France, the 1940 enlistment date would fit. Otherwise the Germans do have a history of using French in decorations, "Pour Le Merite" being the most obvious one to come to mind.


All pure conjecture, really.

[bigmacglenn]

Simply does not have the workmanship of an original German award...The EI-IE misspelling in "Kriegsmarine" alone is so glaring to a German speaker (and a VERY common grammar-mistake of fakers who don't speak German) that this piece wouldn't have been awarded to begin with.
cheers, Glenn

[cricketchris1944]

Too many red flags and if for me.
chris

[ObKrieger]

Simply does not have the workmanship of an original German award...The EI-IE misspelling in "Kriegsmarine" alone is so glaring to a German speaker (and a VERY common grammar-mistake of fakers who don't speak German) that this piece wouldn't have been awarded to begin with.
cheers, Glenn

Another good point. It's just terribly done altogether. I'd return it...

[Frundsberg]

Sorry, gentlemen, but the engraving is not just poor but just terrible! Doppelgänger, You are right, it was done with electric pencil but pre 1945 items never have such engravings. There is a question, why to fake such items? The answer is very simple - because of some extra $. Please keep in mind that in our forum we know much more about WWII items and fakes than an average tourist in Normandy, Berlin or Eastern Europe. For most of us it is an obvious fake but a person who knows almost nothing about III Reich militaria can easily think it is an original.

[guns ltd]

I agree with all your comments and respect your opinions on this piece. I just had the question as to why anyone would make such a thing unless it was for a personal reason. It is qiute old. As it being period??? I don't know. I did purchase it. I didn't spend very much on it. It looks kinda need setting on my shelf. If anyone ever asks me about it. I Just tell them I don't know and it is just an odd piece. I want to thank all of you for your imput on this thing.


John

[slados28]

"Kreigsmarine"? Typical non-German misspelling, the kind you seen on non-German dealer sites too often... plus, even though the technique utilized may have been period used, the engraving looks a bit shit, so no chance of this, at the very least, being an official award imo. Generic German name as noted... All in all, doesn't tick any boxes for me. I say

[HPL2008]

And there's nothing that weird about someone making a dyslexic mistake on a spelling. If you are afflicted with this, as I have been for years... you would not find it so abnormal. It's not an impossibility anyway. Once having made the mistake switching the E for the I, there would be no fixing it, just merely going on with the word misspelled...

In French it reads roughly "in memory of my naval military service" which isn't all that weird if someone was making themselves a memento. Again, almost too bizarre to be an obvious fake. And again, I don't think it's an impossibility.

Poor engraving? It's done with an electric pencil, looks about normal for this kind of engraving. In fact, it's quite good.

[...]

I think one plausible explanation for the French would be a French born person of German descent (or Alsacian) having enlisted in the Kriegsmarine after the fall of France, the 1940 enlistment date would fit. Otherwise the Germans do have a history of using French in decorations, "Pour Le Merite" being the most obvious one to come to mind.

The order "Pour le Mérite" was instituted by Emperor Frederick the Great, who was an ardent Francophile and preferred to speak French rather than German. I cannot see how this should have any relevance here.


No offense, but a dyslexia-suffering German Volksdeutscher from the Alsace who was proud enough of his service in the Kriegsmarine to make himself this DIY-commemorative piece (with Swastika and all) but still felt "French" enough to make the inscription in the French language and was too much of a cheapskate to have it professionally engraved is a bit hard to swallow.


Let's face it, the more theorization, conjecture and speculation is needed to make any sense of an item, the less it is likely to be real.


In other words: If you hear a hoofbeat, think horses, not zebras.

[Wagriff]

Crudely engraved-of poor quality in the Extreme.....Misspelled....Nongrammatical Wording...Strange mixture of German and French(not exactly the Closest of Allies..)
Yes, the item itself is probably fairly old. Whether it was some sort of nautical trophy piece or something from a prop producing factory award type of piece, who can know? But it has been postwar engraved and done so in a blatantly ridiculous manner in an effort to turn a few dollars trophy or desk piece into a more interesting and exciting-and hence more Pricey-item. In my opinion, the person who did this idiocy ruined a perfectly good and interesting desk piece and made it worthless by adding this nonsensical inscription to it-all for making a few extra dollars-an effort in which he did not succeed....

[SirKlien]

The mystery deepens. I know this post is a bit old but I just came across it. I reading the post and looking at the pictures in came to realize I have the same item that was described in all of the previous posts about Adolf Heinz. Here is a list of a few interesting things...

1. I have the same award and its also marked PMC on the back.

2. It's not the exact award that was shown in the pic. I determined this by looking closely at the wear patterns, they are very different.

3. It was theorized that these were hand engraved, I disagree. I looked closely at both examples and the engraving isn't just close, its exactly the same. The misspellings, the gap in the word Kreigsmarine (its printed like this in both examples= KREIGSMA RINE), the spacing between the rows of letters. The spacing of letters in the French words is also absolutely the same. So, aspects of the engraving are exactly the same.

All the previous theories centered around this being a one-off, sort of a personal memento. Well, I'm not sure. However they were done and for whatever reason, there seem to be multiples of these. Gentleman, any additional theories?