littledesertfox

[littledesertfox]

With pride month around the corner I think it would actually be a great opportunity to talk about Fritz Bayerlein's relationships and his (not 100% proven, but in my opinion certainly not unlikely) bisexuality. In the 1950s he was actually confronted with police suspicions that he'd had sexual relationships with other men (which sadly was still illegal in Germany at the time), and while there's unfortunately not a ton of published material to work with, there are quite a few police documents on the case and testimonies from several acquaintances talking about what they believed in regards to his sexuality. Last year I got myself a copy of Bayerlein's file from the US National Archives, so I do actually have these documents at home now. I did talk a little bit about them in that one super long post I wrote a few months ago, where I summarised Bayerlein's entire life, but I think now would be a great opportunity to read through them more in-depth and analyse them and share some insights. Unfortunately I do also have a lot of project deadlines in the next few weeks so I don't know if I'd be able to finish it in June (as I'd want it to be a well-written post and also maybe to some more extensive background research), but one can dream I guess^^

[littledesertfox]

someone wrote a fanfiction about you...

Oh damn is that starting again?💀 I remember this whole thing a few months ago, when at least two other people on reichblr got written fanfictions about themselves without their consent. Is it the same person doing it again? To be honest I don't even remember their name because I just kinda avoided the whole topic. I don't remember exactly what the content of the fanfictions was because I never read them, but if I recall correctly what others were telling it was really weird and breaching personal boundaries.

I'm assuming whoever is doing this really just wants attention, so the best thing to do is probably to not engage with the whole thing at all and just ignore it. If I come across the blog I'll probably just block on sight. Although a tiny part of me is curious and at least wants to know roughly what the story is about, I also don't want to read anything potentially inappropriate about myself that I didn't consent to, and I don't want to give them my time and attention for reading it because I don't think they deserve it.

Thank you for letting me know though, at least this way I can be prepared in case I stumble across it.

[littledesertfox]

Me: I have important final exams coming up. Some of them are hard. I should study

Also me: *watches a documentary about Erwin Rommel*

I think it's very unfair that academics exist when that man's face is that cute. But he would want me to study, I think. Truly tragic

That's such a mood, I really want to read more history books and research about historical people and events or dig out interesting old photos, but university deadlines don't care about any of that and I still have a number of open assignments until the end of the semester.

I think Rommel would probably want us to study, although he himself was more of an average student at school, he was a bit of a nerd specifically for mechanics and engineering and actually seemed to have a talent for it too (I mean, he literally built a small glider together with a friend when they were just 14 years old!) When he was young he even wanted to become an aviation engineer, but his father only let him choose between becoming a teacher like himself or joining the military. He still enjoyed studying these topics in his free time later on though, even if it was just for his personal enjoyment and didn't have that much to do with his work. I sometimes wonder how differently his life might have turned out if either his grades had been good enough to attend university, or his father simply had let him choose his career path on his own.

Good luck with your exams though anon! Here's a motivational Erwin for you :D

[littledesertfox]

I've noticed in the past days every once in a while I get the little notification bubble but when I check it I don't see from who it is or what kind of interaction it even was, I'm sorry if anyone commented or sent an ask and I didn't answer, I literally can't see it😐

[littledesertfox]

Holocaust remembrance day (Yom HaShoah) took place a few days ago. i hope each and every one of the victims of The Holocaust are laid to rest easy. nothing can compare to the tragedy that happened less then 100 years ago - never again.

[littledesertfox]

Fritz and his goat

I've been wanting to share this photo series for ages, but somehow just never got around to doing it until now, even though it's probably one of my favourite parts in Bayerlein's photo collection.

During the North African campaign Fritz unexpectedly acquired a fluffy companion! In early 1943, the German and Italian forces in Africa were already on retreat, moving westwards from Libya to Tunisia. Bayerlein reportedly got along quite well with the locals there, so much that at some point he was gifted this little goat by them. It was probably intended as a meal, but Bayerlein preferred to keep it as a pet and the way it looks on these photos he seemed quite content spending his free time with it. Aside from these handful of photos, I couldn't find much more background information about this event in his life though. The fate of the goat was not mentioned in the book, I assume that Bayerlein probably just had to leave it behind when he made his final departure from Africa a few months later. I wonder if he gave it a name. And also, if he ever showed his new pet to his friend Rommel (just imagine, the two of them sitting together, trying to get a bit of rest while Fritz' goat is scurrying around them, probably begging for food).

Also some bonus pictures:

Bayerlein with some locals (not confirmed that they specifically were the ones who gifted him the goat, but he seemed to have gotten along well with many of them). He had at some point acquired quite a tan due to the African sun. He apparently had a favourable skin type in that regard, unlike Rommel for example who always seemed more on the pale side in comparison, even though he was most likely exposed to the sun just as much (honestly, same😅 I'm either pale as milk or sunburnt).

And also funnily enough there's another photo of Bayerlein with a different goat! Apparently he liked them. This is an earlier picture, probably from September 1941. Between his return from the Eastern front and his departure to North Africa in October, he was able to take some days of much needed vacation. The photo was taken in the Bavarian alps, one of his favourite places to go on holiday, most likely accompanied by his sister Ellen and her family. I feel like there are also not a lot of photos of him that were taken during WW2 that show him in civilian clothing.

[littledesertfox]

the most underrated man ever i fear

(i do not condone fascism or nazism. please leave my profile if you condone or support any of their ideologies.)

[littledesertfox]

WW2 German Artefacts passed on by POWs 1945-1946

As @cursedreverie1945 was interested, below is a small collection of pins given to my grandad by German POWs in 1945-46.

List of pins

EBoat, Panzer, Party badge, Service pin 1939, Red Cross and Radio Operator/Air Gunner/Mechanic

My grandad was a sergeant in the RAF and had joined at a young age in 1938 before the war broke out. He was a mechanic and driver and served in 500 Squadren based in Kent.

After the war ended in Europe he was assigned with picking up Wehrmacht personal in his truck and delivering them to where they would be transported to larger camps. The prisoners were mainly Luftwaffe but occasionally from the other services also.

He was a man who enjoyed talking and would often try to engage in conversation with the prisoners to put them at ease and to ensure the transfers went smoothly. He remembered there was generally respect between the Luftwaffe and RAF men and he particularly liked taking to his counterparts, the drivers and mechanics on the other side. It seemed to him that everyone including his own men wanted to go home.

The photographs below are of my grandad (with the mustache) and Luftwaffe prisoners. He is only in his mid 20’s here but he looks much older.

As well as in the previously occupied countries, the RAF played a large role in providing humanitarian aid to Germany and Austria immediately after the war and my grandad was a part of this also. He eventually left the RAF in late 1946 having finished his service based in Innsbruck (inside the British Zone of Austria).

Between the end of the war and this time he was passed on a number of military items by German prisoners as allied personal were looking for keepsakes of the war they had fought in and many prisoners were happy to give them away. Originally he had a much bigger collection including many more photographs but due to living in government housing for many years and often moving, only a few items sadly remain.

The pins now all show signs of age but the radio operator pin still has the box and is in very good condition. The initials on the back of the pin say CE. Junker Berlin. It was a common pin at the time but is now sought after among collectors.

He was also given an Ehren Chronik (Honour Cronical), a book presented to milititay personal so they they could record details of their service in war. It is a fascinating book containing many propaganda statements and photos of Hitler and the heads of the Wehrmacht. It also has a section where the owner could list their Aryan heritage going back several generations.

This particular book does not contain any personal information or photographs and the generic contents can be found online however if anyone would like me to post more of what is inside, I will.

[littledesertfox]

Erwin Rommel

[littledesertfox]

Rommel 10x

Why is the max image limit so low 😞

[littledesertfox]

I've been a bit absent here because real life's been busy, however some important deadlines are done with now and I feel like posting again! Starting with a smaller post (well, at least I thought so) as I'm still taking my time to rest a bit, but today I want to share a couple interesting things about Fritz' father Donat Bayerlein that I've recently come across:

First up we have his birth/baptism entry in the baptismal register of his home village Bütthard. A while ago I've found out about this super interesting site called Matricula Online, that has digital scans of a whole bunch of church documents (mainly baptism, marriage and death registers) from a few different countries. Super useful for family research, but I thought it would also be fun to look up historical figures and find out more about them from primary sources.

According to this entry, his full name was Donat Joseph Franz Bayerlein and he was the second-born child of his parents (their first, a son named Joseph, died only 3 weeks after his birth though). His father was Michael Joseph Bayerlein, a merchant, and his mother's name was Barbara (I had trouble deciphering her maiden name but according to the parents' marriage entry it's Meckel). They were both Catholic (the most common Christian confession in Bavaria) and lived in house number 77 - the village was so small that it didn't have any street names. Donat was born on the 28th of March 1861 at 3 in the morning, and baptised about 12 hours later in the afternoon on the same day. I admit I was too lazy to decipher the names of the pastor and the godparent though😅 Reading this old style of cursive handwriting can be challenging, although I feel it does get easier with practice.

Of course I also tried finding Fritz' own entry, but it showed to be much harder, for once because he was born in Würzburg which is a bigger town and I had to look through the records of a whole bunch of different churches (whereas in villages and small towns usually everything is in one place), but also because Würzburg was subjected to heavy bombing during WW2, and some of the books may have gotten lost or destroyed. So far, I could find neither the parents' marriage entry nor any of the children's baptism notes. However, I'm also not sure if they could even be found in the Catholic records in the first place. First of all, since Donat was Catholic and Louise Protestant I'm not sure if they were even able to have a regular church wedding in either confession. I'm not that well-read on the topic but according to a quick Google search, marriage between partners of different confessions in Germany was really difficult (and heavily frowned upon) until way into the 20th century. Maybe they only had a civil marriage after all, Fritz' biography unfortunately doesn't give any detail on that. It only mentions that the children were baptised (I'm assuming Catholic, as it was the primary confession in the region and also since back in the day the father's affiliation probably held more weight). Based on the book, it doesn't seem like religion held a particularly important weight in the Bayerlein family in general though (later in life, Fritz would switch multiple times between listing his mother's or father's religion as his own on official documents, simply depending on whichever he assumed to be favoured by authorities in the situation), so maybe they just did it as it was customary and to avoid questions, and otherwise didn't really care.

The second interesting thing I found was Donat's name showing up in an annual report of the University of Music in Würzburg. It's from the school year of 1877/78, meaning he was 16/17 years old at the time. He's listed as a "Hospitant", from my understanding this means he wasn't a regular but kind of a "guest student", and took classes for violin and choir singing.

Lastly, I found a digital version of an entire book which Donat wrote! It's about the Peasant's Revolt that took place in Würzburg in 1525 and was published in 1925 for the 400th anniversary of the event. This is the only one of Donat's works that I could actually find, but according to Fritz' biography, he also enjoyed writing poetry and plays in his free time besides his job as a civil servant, and was even decently successful with it at least in a regional context. His passion and affinity for music and literature was something he also shared with his wife Louise, who worked as a music teacher and reportedly was known as a talented pianist. In her free time she also enjoyed writing articles as a music and theatre critic for local performances. I don't know for certain if their shared interests were the reason for them falling in love and getting married, but it's a sweet thought, and overall from all I've read about their relationship it seems to have been harmonic and mutually respectful, almost progressive considering how strict gender roles still were back then compared to now.

[littledesertfox]

Reichblr, this is your friendly reminder to be careful with who you interact with online.

Reichblr, PLEASE be careful with who you interact with online and what information you share. In fact, I believe everything I’m gonna say applies to any community and any social media app, not just Reichblr or Tumblr. I'm not trying to act like some mom or anything, I know you've probably heard this all before. But you should really be careful. Communities have both good and bad people, and this includes Reichblr. Just because someone has "I don’t support Nazism" in their bio doesn’t mean they’re actually telling the truth. Anyone on Tumblr, or anywhere else, can be a neo-Nazi in disguise. Just be careful, please. I have already made a post talking about how you can identify real neo-Nazis and how you can protect yourself from them.

In communities like Reichblr, it is especially hard to identify real neo-Nazis. We can’t always tell whether someone is actually a neo-Nazi in disguise or just a person who is heavily interested in Nazi history. So, again, be careful. Reichblr is dedicated to people who are safely interested in Nazi history, and it's so disappointing to see actual neo-Nazis here.

If you see someone actually justifying the actions of a Nazi, they are a Nazi themselves. There is no doubt about that.

Also, Reichblr, please be mindful of what information you share online. At art school, we talked about AI, its consequences, and how controversial it can be. We also discussed how, when you apply for a job, some employers can basically search your image using AI. Now imagine you posted your face on Reichblr, and ten years later, someone finds it through AI. How will you explain it? Unless the person is truly understanding, it’s going to be hard for them to believe that Reichblr is just a community for people interested in Nazi history, especially because, unfortunately, some people in Reichblr are actual neo-Nazis, even though the community doesn’t allow them.

I mean, it literally is a space for people who like WWII German history, but people are so quick to judge that they won’t even bother trying to understand. Again, I’m not trying to act like your mom or anything, but please be careful with what information you share online, especially on Reichblr, and especially if you’re underage.

And now for a not-so-friendly reminder: Once you post something online, it will exist forever, and you will never truly get rid of it. Yes, the delete button exists, of course. But think about it: What if someone screenshotted your deleted post before you took it down and reposted it? What if someone has hacks that allow them to see deleted content? I remember someone I knew on Discord had a function that let them see deleted messages.

So before you write a ten-paragraph post about all the nasty things you want your favorite blorbo to do to you in bed, think carefully before you post it, PLEASE.

I am by no means trying to scare anybody. I’m sure you’ve heard all of this before. And, of course, I’m not saying you should be purely anonymous or stop posting whatever you want. In fact, you’re free to ignore everything I just said.

I just want to spread awareness, that’s all. Especially considering that some idiots in Reichblr are actual fucking neo-Nazis and are trying so hard to hide it.

I hope I didn’t scare anybody and that I did what I intended to do, which was to spread awareness.

Happy blogging!

[littledesertfox]

I remembered that I still haven't finished my Krebsdorf holiday fanfic that I started like half a year ago😭 Technically I could probably finish it as it currently is, it is already longer than I first thought anyway (a section in the middle just came to me out of nowhere, but I think it is very cute). It would just need a little bit of polishing, but there is a certain part that I really want to include and I just haven't found the words yet to write it out.

Aside that I've also been wanting to make a post about Walter von Reichenau (because the guy really makes me mad), and also about another lesser known officer that I learned about recently, but agh writing takes its time :/

[littledesertfox]

IMPORTANT

The account @kurtcobainremingtonmodel11 is likely a neo-nazi. They have promoted rascism, transphobia, and antisemitism.

Please block and report them.

Below is a few of their posts:

[littledesertfox]

Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel (1891 – 1944), popularly known as The Desert Fox (German: Wüstenfuchs)

Among his British adversaries he had a reputation for chivalry, and his phrase "war without hate" has been uncritically used to describe the North African campaign.

A number of historians have since rejected the phrase as a myth and uncovered numerous examples of German war crimes and abuses towards enemy soldiers and native populations in Africa during the conflict.

Other historians note that there is no clear evidence Rommel was involved in or aware of these crimes, with some pointing out that the war in the desert, as fought by Rommel and his opponents, still came as close to a clean fight as there was in World War II.

In 1944, Rommel was implicated in the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler. Because of Rommel's status as a national hero, Hitler wanted to eliminate him quietly instead of having him immediately executed, as many other plotters were. Rommel was given a choice between suicide, in return for assurances that his reputation would remain intact and that his family would not be persecuted following his death, or facing a trial that would result in his disgrace and execution; he chose the former and took a cyanide pill.

Rommel was given a state funeral, and it was announced that he had succumbed to his injuries from the strafing of his staff car in Normandy.

The Rommel Myth has been debated even before his death in 1944. Is he a "Good German" or "our friend Rommel," specifically by the British.

Alas, it is not so simple and unless something new is unearthed - we will never know the truth.

[littledesertfox]

Can we all appreciate this one scene in Downfall where Eva announced the party in the Reich Chancellery and Burgdorf actually ran to the front on the line whooping like a child. This is a 50 year old man and he is literally a blur on the screen going woowoowoowoo!!!

[littledesertfox]

It also frustrates me how hard it is to find pictures of young Rommel. I was trying to find pictures of him as a child once (because he was probably really cute), but I could find one picture of him probably around age 20 with his brothers and sister and a few of him with his son. Did Erwin's parents not like photos or something? Makes me sad.

True, I also wish there was more! Even though I already have a whole folder with pictures of him, but I just really like collecting them. My guess is that it probably mostly had to do with the technical limitations of photography at the time. In the 1890s when Erwin was a child, taking photos was still much more complicated and therefore probably expensive and less accessible, I imagine it would probably only be done for special occasions (like that family portrait of him with his siblings). I found a picture that supposedly shows his parents (it's hard to find reliable sources though and I don't know from when exactly it is).

I know of a few photos of Erwin that were taken during or around WW1, however they are still pretty scarce in numbers compared to later on. It was probably still more common to only take photos for special occasions. There some of him and Lucie together (like a wedding photo and some portraits of them), and some more of just him in uniform, maybe also for official war reports or something.

Later on, when he was older and already quite a famous officer, a lot of photos of him were probably also taken for propaganda reasons. I read that he kind of enjoyed the attention although it also seemed to make him nervous sometimes (he often looks more relaxed when he's not posing stiffly, but rather talking to someone or doing something else in a photo and not really paying attention to the photographer). He also liked taking photos by himself, I think one time he was actually given a camera by Goebbels so he could document his successes in France and Africa, which would of course be used for war propaganda. By that time, photography as a whole was also a lot more advanced already, cameras had become smaller and cheaper and a lot more people had access to it, even during the war.