1952 Cold-War service passport
Diplomatic officer at the Yugoslavian embassy in Bonn.
Here is an interesting official passport that was used at the newly founded West German Republic.
Following the end of World War Two, Nazi Germany was occupied divided into four zones run by the 4 Allies who defeated the Third Reich after 6 long years of war and carnage.
The “bondage” and solidarity that united all sides during the war years quickly evaporated and turned into suspicion, then hostility, after the cessation of hostilities. The part of Germany which was controlled and run by the Red Army and Moscow turned into a satellite state and part of the Communist sphere of influence known as the German Democratic Republic, while as the western part of the country became the Federal Republic of Germany with its capital being Bonn, and East Berlin for the former.
Thus we can find embassies located at the newly established capitals of Bonn and East Berlin.
The passport in this article was issued for service at the West German Republic.
Service Passport number S-1567 was issued by the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia or SFRY in short on January 29th 1952 at Belgrade. The holder was 2nd Officer Vasiljevic Zivomir who was dispatched for official duty at the embassy.
The passport has numerous official visas being issued by the consular departments of Germany, Austria and Holland. The interesting part of the passport is the first German visa that can be found on page 10: West German visa number 306 was issued by foreign office official named Willi Przybill (May 23rd 1896-April 27th 1976). Apparently as being fond of pre-ear, war-time and post-war passports I managed to locate several sampled passports that hold German visas all being issued by the same official! Apparently he was stationed in pre-war Yugoslavia at Pressburg (Bratislava), his 1939 issued visa inside a British Palestinian passport and also in a Slovakian passport with a 1942 issued visa from Pressburg as well and inside this passport, 1952 issued visa from Belgrade. Though he was not a diplomat, he held official service status and thus was working inside the embassies and consulates. I find it very intriguing that he held to his job even though he was active before and during the war for the Third Reich’s Foreign Ministry. There was no attempt even to conceal his past service because he was serving at the same diplomatic missions. But I leave to you, the reader, to reach your own conclusion on this issue.
I have added sample images.
Thank you for reading “Our Passports”.
