NSDAP Nazi Party Membership Book and the Same Man’s NSFK Nazi Party Flying Corps Member Card

Two documents belonging to Robert Von Stedmann, consisting of his membership book as a member of the Nazi Party, together with his membership card in the NSFK, the National Socialist Flying Corps. The NSFK card carries Von Stedmann’s photograph in the NSFK brownshirt uniform and it identifies him as a Truppfuhrer in Gruppe 12. The card bears the date of April 20, 1939 and contains 11 dues stamps from June of 1939 through April of 1940 . Von Stedmann’s NSDAP membership book reflects that he was born in 1896 and that he became a member of the Party on May 1st, 1933, with the book being issued on 30 October, 1936. The book contains Von Stedmann’s photograph in the uniform of a Luftwaffe Oberleutnant. On his uniform Von Stedman clearly wears a drop tail bullion breast eagle and a ribbon bar that includes the award of the 1914 Iron Cross 2nd class. The collar tabs on the uniform are dark, suggesting that Von Stedmann was not  a flying officer, perhaps because of his age. The dark color of the tabs suggest that Von Stedmann was perhaps serving in the Flak branch (which wore red tabs), in the engineering branch (which wore black tabs), or possibly as a member of a Luftwaffe field division (which wore green tabs). The book contains dues payment stamps beginning in 1936 and which continue into 1940. Interestingly, there is then a gap in the stamps until 1944, when the stamps appear again. An internet search found a reference to a “Robert Von Stedman” in a World War II “After Action Report” of the U.S. 7th Armored Division dated March, 1945, The report describes the Division’s capture and occupation of the German city of Bad Godesberg. The report, marked as “SECRET”, contains the following information regarding the unit’s search for war criminals (pages 20-21):                                                                       “WAR CRIMINALS:  As has already been stated, most of the rabidly fanatical NAZIS had already fled town by the time the Seventh Armored arrived. And at first, little WAR CRIMINALS information was forthcoming from the townspeople about possible Gestapo or died-in-the-wool [sic] party members. The front line was just across the river and their fear of these organizations was by no means stamped out. However, seizure of the records of the NSDAP yielded much interesting information, and first, American and British women married to Germans and the neutrals, then, the clergy,, and finally, the German people themselves gave some good leads. ROBERT VON STEDMAN, head of the LANDRAT, rural leader of the KREIS, was found hiding on a farm.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 The Nazi Party Membership book reflects that Von Stedmann joined the Party in 1933 and so, by 1945, he may well have ascended in the Party to hold the position of of a Landrat chief, basically the Chief of a local Party administrative unit in the Kreis. Most of the personal files of Nazi Party members were captured by the American military in 1945, and copies were made and are currently in the United States National Archives in Suitland, Maryland. It is very possible that Von Stedman’s Nazi Party file is within those records, making further research about him possible. Both of the documents show age but they are complete, intact, and in overall very good condition.