German relic hunter.. new to this forum

Hi to all,

I just came across this forum, found it pretty interesting, registered, and just wanted to introduce myself.

My name is Thorsten and I am living in Munich in southern Germany. Being a hobby historian I like to research places and then search them with the help of a metal detector. While I am interested in all historical periods - my oldest finds are some 2000 years old - I have a focus in military history. Here the emphasis is on the wars of Napoleon but also on WW II. For many German units WW II ended in southern Germany so a lot of equipment was abandoned here. Over the years I made some WW finds and if anybody is interested I can show some pictures. Finds range from an ID tag hoard via heaps of ammunition to helmets and firearms. All found explosives and firarems were treated according to German law. So much for now.

Greetings from the old world,

Thorsten

 

Hallo Thorsten -

Schon GruB von unsere forum hier. Wir hoffen das du hast eine guter seit weilst du bist hier und besuchen mit uns. Danke fur das.

Hello Thorsten -

Welcome, and greetings from us here at the forum. Hope you have an enjoyable time reviewing all that there is to see here, and hopefully come away with some perhaps new, educational benifits from your stay.

There is a fine group of members here from all ages, and I am sure, as I have, that you will be able to make some interesting and sound internet friendships.

My own personal interests are in German military history of the period from a mainly Luftwaffe perspective, but, I also have a smaller collection of German panzertruppen, Iron Crosses, and yes, even a slight amount of British Airborne.

Again, please feel welcome, and by all means, yes, we would all enjoy seeing your photographs. Thank you for being willing to share.

Mit freundlichen GruBen,

Bill

[ 25. June 2003, 08:58 AM: Message edited by: Bill Smith ]

 

Hi Bill,

are there any finds you are especially interested in? I think the helmets I found were from the Luftwaffe as there is an eagle on the side of one of them.

If I understand correctly neither HTML is allowed nor is it possible to attach pictures to the posts. This limits my options to present pictures somewhat. All I can do is to provide URLs to my webspace, right? (I am not familiar with UBB).

I wrote some treasure hunting stories in English for presentation in US detectorist forums. Some of them are almost entirely WW II related. I could place them here as well but they require HTML.

Recently I presented a number of pictures in another forum. To begin with, for simplicity's sake, here are the URLs:

http://www.cwbullet.org/viewtopic.php?t=699

http://www.cwbullet.org/viewtopic.php?t=700

If there are any specific requests concerning find pictures or WW II hunting in Germany please let me know and I will provide the URLs if possible. My firearms finds, for example, comprise a Gewehr 98, a Mauser HSc 7.65 mm pistol, a 19. century pinfire revolver, a Carcano rifle, a MP 40, all related to WW II - even the pinfire revolver.

Bye,
Thorsten

 

Hallo Thorsten und welkommen tu der forums. Mein Deutsch ist veri schlecht so i'll only be typing English.

I was able to access the first link you posted and I found it very educational--thank you for posting it here.

I echo what Bill said and I do hope to see you here often.

Cheers-Carl.

 

Hello Thorsten -

Just home on my lunch break and checking in.

Unfortunately, I too am currently unable to link photographs directly to the forum, however, if you get in touch with Volkbert, or one of the other members who can with url's, etc., they might be more suitable to assist you with this. But yes, we would welcome ANY of your photographs concerning a link to World War II history of any sort. And thank you for your interest very much.

And Carl, don't worry about his German. His heart, at least, is in it.

Bill

 

Mine too and I need all the help I can get.

Oh and for the benefit of Thorsten--there are two others on these forums who are also from Bavaria. My friend Rene and also Thomas. I hope now that your here that they will be able to meet you and see your relic finds. I think Thomas also has some relics as well.

 

Hello,

thank you very much for the friendly welcome!

When using the links given in my last post please allow some loading time. The links are operational, I just checked it.

I am not sure whether you are interested in the process of relic hunting or prefer just to see the results. If you don't mind a story here are two more links. Again, please allow some loading time. The size is 1.5 to 3 MB.


Story 1

http://www.findmall.com/metal/garrett/config.pl?read=16572

The title is "Reading The Land or Nine Hills ". I describe a way to find places which might have served as hideouts by observing topographical details. When I searched a hill found using this method I encountered various WW II relics and had to figure out what happened on that hill.


Story 2

http://www.findmall.com/metal/relic/config.pl?read=1677

The story is titled "A friendly forest " and describes the investigation of a small forest within a battlefield of the era of Napoleon. Relics from various periods are found, also WW II.

Bye,
Thorsten

 

Impressive Throsten ! Especailly enjoyed the materials covering the Napoleonics. Would you say the items could be dated to 1813 and the "kicking" out of the French in Germany ?

~E

 

Very well documented finds--this certainly is a great pleasure to read and look at.

I hope you have many more expeditions to come--I would love to see if you will find any helmets--spear and arrowheads etc. Perhapse even a stoneaged item or two.

 

Hi Erich and C.Evans,

I am glad you find the stories interesting.

@Erich: The Napoleonic finds were made on the battlefield of Hohenlinden, some 35 km / 22 miles east of Munich. The battle took place on Dec. 3, 1800. The allied French and Bavarian troops fought against Austria. It was one of several so called coalitions wars. The coalition wars were led by the monarcs of Europe against the revolutionary France. In this battle, the French/Bavarians won. They managed to surprise the Austrian army that was stuck in woodland - an example of the devastating results of bad reconnaissance.

I spent countless days on various of parts of the large area (some 10 km x 10 km / 6 miles x 6 miles). Finds include many, many musket balls, a button with the two headed eagle, grape shots, grenade fragments, a cannon ball, and other small items e.g. a barrel cleaner. The pistol and the revolver were found there, too. They were hidden at the end of WW II when the US ordered to hand over all weapons. Oh , also found a US coin dating from the 1940s!

Since you are both interested in non WW II relics I will add a few more URLs. They cover all metal using periods of mankind with the exception of the bronze age. With the exception of one big stone which was worked by man all my finds are metallic.


"Looking for WW II, finding Roman and medieval "
(Attn. C.Evans, here you see an arrow head)

http://www.findmall.com/metal/garrett/config.pl?read=17317


"Thursday, September 1st, 1796, somewhere in Germany"

http://www.findmall.com/metal/garrett/config.pl?read=17316


"My favourite finds" (as of June 2002)

http://209.83.132.74/metal/relic/config.pl?read=1408


Bye,
Thorsten

 

@C.Evans

You asked for helmets, spear heads, and arrow heads.

Helmets:
http://www.cwbullet.org/viewtopic.php?t=700

http://520083239907-0001.bei.t-online.de/FlakstellungStory/StahlhelmM42LWGereinigt.jpg


Spear head and medieval knife

http://520083239907-0001.bei.t-online.de/ReliclandStory/SpeerspitzeMesserKlein.jpg

The items look like coated with sugar because they were taken out of the freezer to make the picture.


Arrow heads
See links from last post

http://209.83.132.74/metal/relic/config.pl?read=1408


and

http://www.findmall.com/metal/garrett/config.pl?read=17317


Bye,
Thorsten

 

Thank you again Thorsten--I really anjoy your finds and I have always had an interest in doing some searching for items like you have been successful in doing.

When I was much younger--I had found several Indian Arrowheads along a river bank near where I grew up. The prize of what I found was a spearhead made of Obsidian (SP?) I wish I still had these itmes but--no longer do. I gave them all away to a friend of mine several years ago.

Anyway--thank you for posting these finds here.

Because of your vast knowledge--I have a question I want to ask of you because I cannot find anything on the net about this period--except for maybe a brief sentence or two.

Do you know anything of the history of any military campaigns that happened in 1848?

Reason I ask is I have as my oldest piece of militaria--an 1848 Austrian-Tirol Campaign Medal. I simply cannot find any info about this campaign except for a tiny fragment.

Do you know anything of this period? If so--please let me know. I want to research that campaign and find out what units were involved--who commanded-and what this campaign was all about.

 

Thorsten, wundebar ! you have much experience I see with your detection device. wonderful information and images.

Say have you been able to roam through the forests north of Ingolstadt as there are some old Roman ruins/bunkers still in place through WW 2 era.... ?

a couple of friends told me 6 years agao that they come from Kösching and Mannsching to play paint ball there till governmental officials kicked them out....but they did find some interesting pieces.

~E

 

Hello C.Evans,

1848 was the year of the (failed) German revolution. This event was preceded by a French revolution (these things often seem to start in Paris) and led to several battles in central Europe. It was a long and painful way to democracy over here.

Since the larger Munich area was not affected in terms of battles I did not study this period in detail. Maybe your medal is related to this.

Bye,
Thorsten

 

Hi Erich,

no, Ingolstadt or the Danube are not my area since I prefer places closer to my home. The Danube area saw a lot of activity since dawn of mankind. Manching was a celtic oppidum (very large settlement). It is examined by the archeologists for many decades. Still, they just have excavated 5% of the area.

Kösching belonged to the Limes (Roman border defense) if I recall correctly.

Bye,
Thorsten

 

Thorsten - many thanks for your most interesting postings !

I am fascinated by history 'emerging from the soil' and read your post with great pleasure....

 

Hi all,

would you be interested to hear more about the search of two WW II sites in 2001? You have seen some pictures of the finds but hardly any background was given. Finds often have a story to tell. Often we hobby historians value this story more than the find itself. By searching an area you try to find out what happened there. If you wish I will try to show you two more WW II relic hunting stories.

Currently both stories are not online so I cannot provide a link now. If you are interested I would try to post them in a treasure hunting forum that supports HTML and then post the links here. One story is enriched with an original US reconnaissance aerial picture of the searched area.

Bye,
Thorsten

 

Hi Martin Bull,

thank you very much for the appreciation! It is always nice to meet people who enjoy history.

Bye,
Thorsten

 

Thorsten, yes you are quite correct, the Limes and now I remember this.....I suppose the area has been visited to some extent but only 5 % you say ? my gosh this opens a whole new world. I do recall though that my friends did say in the heavy timber there were several WW 2 bunkers they investigated but sadly no-one took a photos....

~E

 

Hi Thorsten--certainly I'd love to see and read more. please post as much as you feel like posting.