Re the museums - fair enough, point taken. But they are also research and conservation institutions. 

I once, on only a slight tangent, had a guided tour of the Wiener Library, a fascinating place in central London, which started as an archive of anti-semitism kept by two Jewish men (both before and after they left Germany in the 1930s), and is now an important repository of documents and artefacts related to the Holocaust and other genocides. As well as things like beer steins decorated with 'humorous' anti-semitic scenes, I was shown a signed copy of Mein Kampf - prayed I wouldn't be asked if I wanted to hold it - and wasn't! 

And I don't think you can't be a lovely guy and collect Nazi memorabilia. We have two friends who collect militaria, but one of them, who is Jewish, won't touch the Nazi stuff. As for the other, there's a rather odd delight he takes in the stuff, and he has been known to dress up... Don't forget, London has had a rather visceral relationship to the War - it's not an abstract thing here, it's not 3,000 miles away, it's your parents' or grandparents' experience. The whole city is full of bomb sites. My partner's old house had been bombed, and his father fought in the war.

Anyway, I'm sure someone will be very happy to have that typewriter. It sounds fascinating, whcih is why I took such an interest in it in the first place.

Last edited by KatLondon (13-7-2015 13:42:49)

These typewriters may be fairly rare although there were two at a 1940's event earlier this year and there is a picture of my daughter using one at an event last year during a re-inactment which appears on my flickr photostream. However, I think that the value you place on it may be unrealistic, at least in the United Kingdom although I suspect since you are quoting dollars you may have an American buyer in mind. These machines are not so valuable as one that was converted to UK keyboard due to the provenance of the machine and would be avoided by many WW2 collectors. A converted typewriter which was almost certainly requistioned is a different matter, I did see one fetch £80 although the one at the event only £25 was paid. It would be assumed without provenance to the contary that it had been 'liberated' or was a trophy of war. It is the same with cameras which I collect. I have one which with imperial marked focus would be worth near to £100 but it was made during the war and so few want to own such a camera. It was in fact given to me by the German family I often stayed with in the sixties when my camera was stolen. Nevertheless, it is of doubtful provenance so would not sell for much if I wanted to sell it. Photographs of the camera in action together with pictures taken during the war with it appear on my photostream together with the typewriter.

Wow, what a funky looking typewriter!

Uwe wrote:

 I still recall first becoming aware of the war as a kid in school, and how some of the other students started calling me a Nazi...

The suffering and misery that humans all too casually inflict on each other under the banner of corrupt nationalistic interests, under the leadership of self-serving politicians who ironically are never directly involved in the fighting, makes one wonder how we continue to survive as a species. 

Quite right too, Uwe! Sorry to prod open wounds. The whole thing was unspeakable, and the real shocker is how little humankind has learned. This feels off-topic, but in a way it isn't, because the very thing we love about our typewriters is how they were at the tips of people's fingers... through all that. 

A militaria collector would likely pay the highest price for an item like this. They are generally more willing to give up their cash for a WW2 Third Reich artifact than a typewriter collector would pay for a 1940s German typewriter with a strange key. You have an interesting typewriter... The $750 asking price isn't totally out of line, but probably up towards the top of the pricing spectrum. I've seen German WW2 typewriters (with the SS rune key) priced and sell between $350 and $800. There is a dealer that has one listed for over $1,000 USD, but of course they still haven't sold it and likely won't for a LONG time.

Interestingly, most of these "SS" typewriters likely never belonged to any SS military unit. There seems to have been quite a few that survived the war, and I'm guessing most military/government typewriters made throughout the late 30s and into WW2 included the character simply so it could be used to reference the organization in correspondance.

The way we look back on history can be comical at times. Take for instance Werhner Von Braun, a Nazi Party member and officer in the SS. He created a weapon using a TON of Nazi government funding that killed thousands of people and utilized concentration camp labor, yet he was brought to the U.S., given a head position within NASA, and then hailed as a hero in the U.S. space program. So in some cases, the U.S. disapproved of Nazi party members as long as they had no useful purpose . The U.S. has also romanticized the expansion in the "Wild West" during the frontier days, and has totally neglected to remember how native populations were persecuted, deceived, and forced off of their homeland in devastating, long-distance marches. In another example from WW2, General Lemay has been reported as saying he was fully aware that his strategy of massive fire-bombings on Japanese cities would certainly be considered a war crime if Japan won the war. The victors get the fortunate advantage of picking out who was right and who was wrong. In other words, every nation has "skeletons in their closet". The history of the Third Reich and their rise to power, along with what they did with that power, should be remembered. You can only learn from the past if you can accurately remember what happened, and I'm sure we can all agree that what the Nazi party did should NEVER be repeated if possible. Artifacts like your typewriter keep that memory alive, and should be kept safe and preserved for generations to come to ensure those events remain as memories, and not rise up again as present experiences.

Last edited by Retro-Z (14-7-2015 04:47:23)