In 2015, on my final visit to my former barracks in Fallingbostel, I saw these two engraved stones. Both were about 3 foot high. The Waffen-SS one speaks for itself. The other stone has an engravedfacsimile of Hitler's signature and the date 1933. I am unsure what the word is above the date but it is possibly the name of a village as I believe it was quite common for villages to position such stones at their entrances as an open display of their loyalty. I suspect both stones are no longer in existence as they would have been discretely got rid of prior to the barracks being handed back to the Federal government.
Ostern = Easter Such stones were not common, but not an absolute rarity either. (And today they are a rather embarrassing affair) In my neighbouring village at the time, a rather large boulder with an engraved swastika had been erected. The village was a so-called "Reichsmusterdorf". (Reich model village) The boulder "disappeared" without a trace in 1945 under "unexplained circumstances"....to be "accidentally" >cough< "found again" >cough< in 1990 at the edge of a field. Now it is back in its old place. However, in a slightly different position: but if you know where to look, you can still see the place where the swastika is placed.
Thanks Olli. I assume ‘1933’ is to mark the passing of the Ermachtigungsgesetz (Enabling Act) but why the reference to Easter? Easter in 1933 was in mid-April while the Enabling Act was signed into law on 23 March. Thoughts? Having checked online sources, it would not seem to be a facsimile signature but just a cursive script.
John, this has little to do with the Enabling Act: In the perception of the time, 1933 was seen as "the year of national renewal and awakening". (see attached picture) (Because very few people had read "Mein Kampf". I myself put it down in irritation after 60 pages because I found the style of writing rather strange.) In this respect, Easter is quite contemporary.
I have a theory for the stone with the SS runes: A SS Panzer Replacement and Training Abteilung was stationed in Fallingbostel. However, a decisive expansion took place later in the war: In late 1942/early 1943, numerous specialists from the Army's Panzer Troops were transferred to the Waffen-SS in order to build up and expand the armoured troops of the Waffen-SS. On the question of the next generation of leaders of the Waffen SS armoured troops, the Führungs-Hauptamt encouraged close cooperation with the Army from the outset, which already had numerous training centres for prospective tank officers. Even before the actual Panzerjunker training began in July 1943, there were already courses that were not numbered in this sequence, but which Führerbewerber der Panzertruppe der Waffen SS attended. In the early summer of 1943, the SS-Führungshauptamt saw itself prompted in regulating the training of prospective Waffen-SS tank leaders and organising training along the lines of the Junker schools. Since this could not be guaranteed for the Sondertruppe Panzer at one of the existing Waffen-SS Junker schools, the subsequent courses were affiliated to Army tank schools in Putlos, Fallingbostel and finally Königsbrück near Dresden, there called "SS-Panzer-Junker-Sonder-Lehrgänge".
