Lebenslaufakte documentation

[Richard T Eger]

From within a thread on 12 O'Clock High!:

Andreas Brekken
andrebre@online.no
Stammkennzeichen
Sat Jul 17, 2024 11:17
83.109.184.139

Hi, Marko

The Stammkennzeichen was as Artie Bob states more than a ferry code, more like a social security number for the aircraft - assigned at RLM birth!

In addition to the reports mentioned by Artie Bob, there are also pieces of 'evidence' regarding this system in the archives.

When an aircraft was taken over by the Luftwaffe, the RLM issued an Übergabeschein. This was in effect a receipt from the RLM that aircraft type 'X' with RLM Werkenummer 'YYY YYY' and stammkennzeichen 'ZZ+ZZ' had been accepted by the RLM. I have examples of these in my collection and will write up an article on them and publish on my webpage after my vacation.

Also - an aircraft identification document was issued, printed on some kind of waterproofed paper - feels a bit rubbery to the touch. These were made in duplicate - one of them supposedly to be carried in the aircraft as far as I have been able to find out.

Also - for a given aircraft a so called Lebenslaufakte was prepared - which were filled in with data concerning the technical state of the aircraft.

One piece of information that I had forgotten was also brought to my attention - the centralized distribution of WNr were not effective until the middle of the war (I do not have access to my files here and cannot check) but after this date one can in fact assume that the internal factory WNr COULD VERY WELL BE misaligned with the RLM Werkenummer.

Conclusion:

RLM Stammkennzeichen and Werkenummer was supposed to last the lifetime for a given airframe.

Factory worknumbers could be misaligned or follow another system than the above mentioned RLM equivalents - after the centralized distribution of WNr became effective.

Unit level tactical codes were used and reused - depending on what unit used the aircraft, who flew it, and the other aircraft present in the unit.

Regards,
Andreas

(For the complete thread and another discussion involving Lebenslaufakte documentation, the reader is referred to the topics "Stammkennzeichen System - 2" and "Bf 109 factory numbers versus Werknummern versus Stammkenzeichen" on the "Aircraft Designation Systems" forum.

Regards,
Richard)