1951 early German official passport

 

Ministerialpass, one of the first to be issued.

When it comes to rare collectibles – the item here can truly be considered as a treasure and not an item one can see every day. The combination of it being an official passport, similar to a diplomatic issue, that gave its holder official and protected status, post-WWII, and also one of the earliest recorded to date as well makes it even a rarer artifact and to add to it the reason for being issued, well, sometimes such a cluster of conditions are truly remarkable. Today, I have decided to write about it and share the images with other historians and collectors.

 

1951 West Germany governmental passport numbered B0072 (such a low SN is exceptional!) was issued on February 3^rd, 1951 to the wife of senior German diplomat Erich Muller who has been already posted before to the United Sates in the 1930’s. The passport was issued to Katharina Muller, who was accompanying her husband the chancellor of the German diplomatic mission in New York already there since 1950, as we can see by the added RARE diplomatic ID issued to her on November 7^th and signed by him as well. Ministerialpass, which is considered also as a form of Diplomatic passport was issued not to diplomatic representatives abroad, such as attaches, counselors, consuls or ambassadors, but was given to those travelling on official capacity abroad, from various governmental ministries or for brief short trips as well, but could not be given diplomatic passports. The document here was issued by Herbert Schaffarczyk (1901-1979), Head of Section III at the Foreign Ministry in the West German capital of Bonn. He was in the Legal & Administrative department in the AA, Head of Ref III State and Administrative law, citizenship law, passport division and was assigned by the AA at the Federal Chancellery (he held similar positions in the 1930’s and in 1952 was sent abroad to the West German mission in Barcelona and becoming an ambassador in 1959 in Portugal).

 

The document here has official visas issued at Washington by the Italian diplomatic mission and by the Austrian embassy as well, in Rome, Italy. Allied Military Government (AMG) related stamps inside added to its appeal: an official German passport with occupational force applied stamps are a bit rare, since they ceased, most of them, to be added into German passports once the allies gave full authority back around April of 1951, a month after this passport was issued and most likely sent by diplomatic pouch to the United Sates to be used.

 

Have added images of this treasure & of the special ID that came with it.

 

 

 

Thank you for reading “Our Passports”.