:: Hermann Plocher

[sheriffof0]

I recently acquired a large cache of photographic negative spools - several dozen - which were taken by a seemingly high-ranking German officer (or functionary) throughout 1937 and possibly earlier and later.

I have (rather primitively) scanned and inverted the negatives in order to view them and identify locations, people and events. There are several hundred photos in total.

In doing so I can see that some include images of the battle for Belchite, time spent in Palma, Majorca, locations in Avila, Spanish enclaves in Morocco and various other towns and cities which I am still attempting to identify.

A number of the Germans in the shots are fairly high-ranking and I believe the photographer was close/adjacent to Hermann Plocher. There are a number of images of an officer with his rank insignia who very clearly strongly resembles Plocher. Indeed there are a couple that show him meeting Kindelan (possibly in Palma). I attach this to give you a flavour. There are many photos of training locations, shots taken from and inside J-52s &c. I'm confident none of these have ever been seen before.

I purchased these spool along with many dozens more (which are the later post-war family holidays of the photographer) from a young woman at a car boot sale in Chiswick, West London. She told me that they belonged to her grandfather whose name was Hans-Henning Erdmann. He had a successful career as a European banker. I believe it was his father who took these photographs and who may have been a Luftwaffe Officer in the Condor Legion.

I also have a picture of the house in Berlin where the family lived before the outbreak of WWII. I was able to track this house down using the street sign shown in the photograph. Incredibly the actual street sign is still there!

I have offered this archive gratis to Spanish academics specialising in this period but I am very keen to identify some of the figures in the images.

I will post some here to give a flavour and see if they ring any bells....

Could IMG_5283 be v. Richthofen?

I have hundreds more....