West-German early official passport

 

1953 Ministerialpass issued to a former Stalingrad 6^th Army POW.

 

The document in this article is interesting and rather unique for several reasons, making it an attractive addition to any archive.

 

For one, it is an early example that was issued and used by a West German government officer travelling on official business abroad, and secondly, and this is for me more vital due to my keen interest in World War Two, the background history of its user.

 

West Germany was created in what were formerly the Western Allied occupation zones and it existed as a state from May 29^th 1949 up to the point of German reunification on October 3^rd 1990.

 

So an early example of a Diplomatic or Ministerial passport (the holder had diplomatic privileges and some immunity according to international law) being issued from 1950 and up to the second version of its official passports which appeared around 1955 are rather scarce and desired among passport collectors.

 

The passport in this article was issued at the end of 1953 in Bonn, then the capital of Western Germany. DIPLOMATENPASS numbered B2437 was issued on December 30^th by Alexander Török, born November 2, 1914 and during the war he held diplomatic posts in Romania then Berlin towards the last year as secretary of the Hungarian legation (he joined the Hungarian Foreign Service in 1939). After the war he was Hungarian Red Cross secretary, returning to Berlin in 1948, becoming a German citizen 2 years later and then joining the West German Foreign Ministry as well, where he obtained Legationsrat status at the Bonn government by 1953, this could also explain the passport hand signed by him the same year.

 

Back to the official passport in this article: Its holder was Dr. Albrecht Grussner, who was around 1937 in Finland, most likely working for the Abwehr on mapping and preparing an official report on a special area located west of Finland known as Åland Islands (in the report he warns that Finland could be invade in the future by the USSR from this region, which would be a good staging ground for such an attack) – some reports by the Swedish General Staff also claim that he was an agent that enjoyed protection and cover by the German Diplomatic mission as well. Nevertheless, Albrecht Grussner eventually married a local Swedish woman from Aland and returned back home as war broke out to join the army. He was serving at the Military-geography department of the army and according to online sources he ended up in Stalingrad and fell into captivity in 1943, only to be released from a POW camp around 1947, reaching back home the next year and joining the West German Foreign Ministry in 1953, the same year this passport was issued to him which was used for travelling to Austria the following year.

 

I have added some images of this interesting passport.

 

Smaller image source: Wikipedia.

 

 

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