Hemforth Family Wehrpass 1943 & Father’s Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer Certificate 1935, Gelsenkirchen

Description

This Hemforth family Wehrpass group links a father and son across both world wars. It contains the Wehrpass of Franz Stefan Hemforth of Gelsenkirchen, issued on 28 August 1943, the day before his seventeenth birthday. With it is the 1935 certificate awarding the Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer, the First World War front-fighter’s cross, to his father, Franz Hemforth.

Who was Franz Stefan Hemforth?

The personal-data pages record:

• Name: Hemforth, Franz Stefan
• Born: 29 August 1926, Gelsenkirchen (Regierungsbezirk Münster)
• Religion: Catholic; family status: single
• Occupation: apprentice locksmith (Schlosserlehrling)
• Father: Franz Hemforth, office employee (Büroangestellter)

His original portrait shows a very young man in jacket and tie, stamped by the Wehrbezirkskommando Gelsenkirchen and signed. The issue page, Wehrnummer Gelsenkirchen 26/1/701/9, is signed by a Korvettenkapitän (Ing.), a naval officer.

Why was he never called up?

The Musterung page records him as Dienstpflichtiger (liable for service) and three decisions, each finding him zeitlich untauglich, temporarily unfit:

• 28 August 1943, Wehrbezirkskommando Gelsenkirchen: temporarily unfit, deferred.
• 10 November 1943, Wehrbezirkskommando Gelsenkirchen: temporarily unfit, deferred until 31 October 1944.
• A third entry: temporarily unfit, deferred until 31 August 1945, a date the war in Europe did not reach.

No unit, campaign or decoration appears. The Wehrpass records a boy examined at sixteen and repeatedly set aside on medical grounds, not a soldier’s career.

The father’s Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer certificate

The second document is the award certificate issued to dem Büroangestellten Franz Hemforth in Gelsenkirchen. It awards the Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer, instituted by Reich President von Hindenburg under the decree of 13 July 1934 in remembrance of the 1914–1918 war. It is dated Gelsenkirchen, 5 July 1935, numbered 23698/35, and issued by Der Polizeipräsident in Recklinghausen, Polizeiamt Gelsenkirchen, with stamp and signature.

The certificate and the son’s Wehrpass agree on the father’s first name, surname, occupation and town. The documents therefore support identifying the recipient as the father of the Wehrpass holder.

Collector’s Note

What makes this Wehrpass group worth keeping together is the contrast it records. The father was recognised in 1935 as a front-line soldier of the First World War. The son, an apprentice in an industrial Ruhr city, was registered at sixteen and declared unfit three times before the war ended. Split up, they would be an ordinary certificate and a sparse Wehrpass; together they are a small family archive. For background, see our German Wehrpass guide and WW2 German documents guide.

Condition

• Wehrpass: grey cover with rubbing and wear; interior toned, with some staining and foxing; entries and stamps clear.
• Photograph: the original portrait is present. Two metal-rimmed eyelets pass through the photograph and the first pages, as usual for the fixing of Wehrpass photographs.
• Certificate: folded, with creasing, handling wear and toning; text, name, stamp and signature clearly legible.

All photographs show the actual items offered and form part of this condition description.

Frequently asked questions

Who owned the Wehrpass?
Franz Stefan Hemforth, born in Gelsenkirchen on 29 August 1926.

What does “zeitl. untauglich” mean?
Zeitlich untauglich: temporarily unfit for military service.

Was the certificate holder his father?
The documents support it: the same name, occupation and town appear in both, and the Wehrpass names Franz Hemforth as the father.

When was the father’s cross awarded?
The certificate is dated 5 July 1935.

Historical Responsibility Notice

This original document is offered exclusively for historical collecting, preservation, research and education. Political and military symbols are described only because they form part of the original object. Autographs & Militaria does not endorse or glorify National Socialism or any ideology, regime or organisation represented by the material.

References & Further Reading

• Bundesarchiv, Personal documents of military provenance: guidance on researching German military personnel records up to 1945.