Uncle sam just relocated me to Germany. So where are some good places to go to look for original ww2 militaria out here?
There was a place in K-town but I cannot recall name or location though. The Ramstein Air Show usually has vendors there.
there are many German on-line sites......in fact how is your Deutsch ? Fortunate that many have English sub-titles or translation device installed. Are you looking for purely German or other countries while stationed there .. ? Another thing that we US boyz have to realize that you just cannot go around asking for the local gun-smith to see what is for sale, much is governed extremely heavily and the closest that one may come to seeing visually is at a museum there are options, you should be able to even use your clout while in the Military. Erich ~
Definately dont go around asking where the concentration camps are either. Most will walk right past you or claim that they have no idea.
If your being stationed somewhere near Heidelberg, I know of a militaria shop there. I know it is still there since I was in Germany in 2000, because a good friend of mine was there a few weeks ago and found the store I am talking about. If you are near Goslar, there is a great Antiquitaten und Militar shop on Breitestrasse. This shop is owned by a huge German by the name of Herr Menzel. When you enter the shop-you see tons of IMperial German stuff, next room is usual antique stuff, the room after that he had hundreds of bayonets and swords hanging on the walls and tens of thousands of photographs. For WWII German stuff, you have to go to the cellar--Erich and Martin Bull both, would go nuts at what was in there when I visited. I came away with a few sets of various ranking shoulderboards-cloth cyphers, and I traded my black Cowboy hat for a nice Luftwaffe Officers M-43 cap. And then there is Hamburg ;-))
I'm in Baumholder which is really close to K town. Once I get a car I'll be able to do some traveling. I just missed a USO tour to normandy this weekend. Kinda pissed me off that I could go, but there's always next time. If i truly need a dose of ww2 I can just walk a quater mile to where the 88 and hetzer are sitting.
We had a U.S. army delegation here in Orleans from Bamberg, Germany on August 16th. I guess there are trips to France all the time. After all it's less than a day by coach and even less by train or car. The best to go to Normandy would be in June for the D-Day ceremonies.
