Original Items: Only One Set of Two Available. Here we have a very nice wooden-handle rubber document stamps from the German WWII Kriegsmarine Navy, were used for the approval of various documents during the war. Both measure 2 13/16" in height and 1 5/15" in diameter, with circular rubber stamps on the bottom. Both have the standard Reichsadler Eagle in the center, with a circle around the perimeter, and information about the approving office just inside the circle.

The first stamp is from the large German city of Köln (Cologne), located along the River Rhine in Western Germany. This river is navigable for 540 miles inland, and today the city has a medium size port along the river. The stamp reads:

Kriegsmarine
(Eagle)
Köln

The second stamp is from a much larger port, Hamburg, at the end of the River Elbe estuary on the North Sea. This stamp is for the Seehafen Vorbehalterdienst (Sea Port Reserveration Service), and would most likely be used on documents responsible for berthing. Major ports involve a lot of logistics, so it is important that ships apply for proper permission so that they can be organized. The stamp reads:

Kriegsmarine Seehafen Vorbehalterdienst
(Eagle)
Hamburg

Both stamps are in very good condition, with the finish well retained on the wooden handles, and the rubber stamps still supple. They definitely do show use, but are not overly clogged up with ink residue.

Two very interesting pieces of German WWII Kriegsmarine Navy militaria, ready to research & display!

WWII Kriegsmarine

In violation of the Treaty of Versailles, the Kriegsmarine grew rapidly during German naval rearmament in the 1930s. The 1919 treaty had limited the size of the German navy and prohibited the building of submarines

Kriegsmarine ships were deployed to the waters around Spain during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) under the guise of enforcing non-intervention, but in reality supported the Nationalists against the Spanish Republicans.

In January 1939, Plan Z, a massive ship-building program, was ordered, calling for surface naval parity with the British Royal Navy by 1944. When World War II broke out in September 1939, Plan Z was shelved in favour of a crash building program for submarines (U-boats) instead of capital surface warships, and land and air forces were given priority of strategic resources.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine (as for all branches of armed forces during the period of absolute NSDAP power) was AH, who exercised his authority through the Oberkommando der Marine ("High Command of the Navy").

The Kriegsmarine's most significant ships were the U-boats, most of which were constructed after Plan Z was abandoned at the beginning of World War II. Wolfpacks were rapidly assembled groups of submarines which attacked British convoys during the first half of the Battle of the Atlantic but this tactic was largely abandoned by May 1943 when U-boat losses mounted. Along with the U-boats, surface commerce raiders (including auxiliary cruisers) were used to disrupt Allied shipping in the early years of the war, the most famous of these being the heavy cruisers Admiral Graf Spee and Admiral Scheer and the battleship Bismarck. However, the adoption of convoy escorts, especially in the Atlantic, greatly reduced the effectiveness of surface commerce raiders against convoys.

Following the end of World War II in 1945, the Kriegsmarine's remaining ships were divided up among the Allied powers and were used for various purposes including minesweeping. Some were loaded with superfluous chemical weapons and scuttled.