Document grouping - East Prussian NCO, KIA Königsberg 1945

Document and ID booklet grouping for Heinrich Kern, who was born in the town of Opladen (now part of the city Leverkusen, Germany) in April 1916. He moved to East Prussia in the late 1930’s and was killed defending Königsberg in early 1945. Consists of:

-Ahnenpass (Ancestry records booklet) “Mein Ahnen Buch”, uncommon Third Reich variant that I haven’t encountered before. A good number of entries, including his marriage to his wife Maria in 1942, as well as tracing his family history to the 1790’s. Very eye-catching booklet in excellent condition. 

-1st edition Arbeitsbuch, issued to Kern in March 1936. The booklet’s entries and stamps state that he was a “land registry worker / technician” (Katasterhilfs Techniker). He worked for the land registry office in Opladen from 1930 to 1936. He then began to work at a land registry office in the East Prussian coastal town of Fischhausen, close to Königsberg. The entries confirm that he worked there from April 1936 to April 1938. Comes with a standard 2-page Merkblatt regulations leaflet. 

-Group of 2 postcards, 8 envelopes and 10 Feldpost letters / postcards. These 20 pieces of mail were either sent to Unteroffizier Heinrich Kern during his time in the army or they were sent by him to his wife. They are all dated between early 1942 and early 1945. The Feldpostnummer on several letters (17182E) indicate that he served in the headquarters unit of Artillerie Regiment 87 (motorisiert). This regiment was surrounded and destroyed at Stalingrad, however it appears that based on the letters Kern was hospitalized in a military hospital during 1942, which would explain how he survived. One of the envelopes contains a letter and an unusually large Death Card for a signals soldier serving with an artillery regiment (Obergefreiten Willy Seck), presumably a friend of Kern. 

-Post WW2 German military war graves commision card, dated March 1946. It states that Heinrich Kern was killed on January 31st 1945 around Königsberg, East Prussia. He was buried in a cemetery in Königsberg, his grave marker is listed on the card. 

Interesting grouping, the associations with East Prussia / Königsberg and Stalingrad, as well as the rare version of the Ahnenpass make it fairly desirable.