Named Luftwaffe Helmet Writing Identification

[dtrsss]

I have a DD luft helmet.

There is writing in an old script. I have tried to identify it using old script information. I believe his name was K. K. Lippel. Am I correct?

The part that I am having trouble with is the first 3 letters. I thought that it may be an abbreviated rank but I am not so sure after looking at information. It looks like Sls but I am not sure about that. Any ideas?

See enclosed picture.

Thank you.

[P.J. Gray]

It's Flg. I am not at all knowledgeable about the Luftwaffe, but I would be rather surprised were it not an abbreviated rank, i.e. Flieger, the lowest enlisted rank in the Luftwaffe. Would Aircraftman be the correct analogue?

Also, I strongly suspect K. Klippel is the correct reading. Observe the identical form of the two ''l''-s, a lower-case form.

The script is 'German black-letter', of several names as e.g. Fraktur, Gothic script, opposed to Latin/Antiqua letters. The debate about the use of the two was, I have read, ended by a decree of Reichsleiter Martin Bormann in '41, I think*, condemned as ''Schwabacher Judenlettern'' (Schwabach in Franconia gave its name to a common black-letter type). Prior to that literary works in my experience were printed in blackletter and scientific in Latin script.

If this is all-right in forum policy, it is not that difficult to learn, you might like to have a go. I used an old German grammar that included 'deutsche Buchstaben' and the cursive form (Kurrent, then Suetterlin) as I was the only German pupil at a small school so we had to make do. Neither were required, but I taught myself anyway. You can find dozens of old grammars on archive.org and print off the letters, then pick up a pre-War Kinder-und-Hausmaerchen or something simple anyway for practice.

If not, I notice there is a special forum for ''Breaking the Sound Barrier'', lots of native speakers and better scholars than I.

* As for the effect of the decree, the adoption of Latin letters in time and scale, see a native speaker. I am merely an amateur.

[dtrsss]

Sir,

Thank you very much for the information. I believe that you are correct. It will be interesting to look into this subject matter even further now that I have more knowledge.

[P.J. Gray]

Not at all -- I hope your studies are profitable.