Ground Rohm Personalized SS Officer’s Dagger by Herder – D091
This listing is for an M33 SS dagger which is attributed to an officer who joined the LSSAH early on, becoming an Untersturmfuhrer in 1935. Heinz Merkel SS Nr. 3 348 went on to be last promoted to the rank of Obersturmfuhrer on November 9th, 1942. In the Dec 1936 DL it lists Merkel as being born May 1st, 1905, and holding NSDAP Nr. 348 912. While not a load of information on this Allgemeine officer, the little which has been found at least puts a name and rank to the individual who owned this dagger. When we purchased this dagger no one had ever looked into trying to identifying the number in the past, nor even mentioned it actually. So in essence, it is kind of a new discovery on to the market. Here is the description.
The grip to this Herder model 33 is pretty decent overall compared to many similar early nickel silver SS daggers we see in existence today. While experiencing a couple very fine hairliner and surface pressure marks, it remains void of any missing chunks of wood, repairs, deep gouges, or chips. A high neck nickel eagle has been expertly set into the obverse just below the center line. Other thank some surface wear to the bird’s breast feather area, it is in good shape. The same goes for the SS runic emblem at the top of the obverse. There is wear and age to the surface of the button, though not all that terribly detracting per se’. Both upper and lower crossguards are encrusted with 90 years of patina, as nothing has been cleaned nor polished on this war time souvenir from WWII. The reverse of the lower guard is Roman numeral district stamped I, for the distribution area of Berlin. Next to that is stamped Merkel’s SS number 3 348. We know that 9,900 Allgemeine members who joined the SS early on were awarded the Rohm honor dagger for their dedicated service in February 1934. Though we do not have the records of Merkel prior to him becoming an officer, we do know that he had a very early assigned SS number in the party. If awarded one of these honor daggers the recipient was supposed to stamp the lower crossguard with their assigned SS number. In looking closely at the blade characteristics and coupled with this 4 digit number, there is a distinct possibility that this is in fact one of those Rohm SS honor daggers presented to the few who qualified to be awarded it.
An excellent scabbard accompanies this early untouched SS dagger. The shell remains straight, void of any bends, splits, dings, hits, or re-paints. While the surface exhibits some oxidation, the bluing is still remains strong at 90%. Both upper and lower nickel fittings are in place, displaying just typical wear with no major challenges. As with the hilt fittings, a muted uncleaned patina coats their surfaces. 4 excellent dome head screws hold the hardware securely to the shell. And as a nice $300 extra, the original short snout nose hanger all complete is shown attached to the upper fitting ring.
We finish up with the blade. It is straight, full length, void of any tipping, sharpening, buffing, or grinding. Yes the surface shows smudging and a few cutting edge ticks. That aside it’s not all that entirely horrible considering that this edged weapon is a rare example ID’d to an SS officer. As shown, the Meine Ehre heist Treue still retain the dark burnished letters to the deep acid etch motto. On the reverse you can see where the top of trademark has a small section missing. Another indication that this dagger was in fact one of those initial rare Rohm honor daggers. I additionally confirmed this by comparing it to another example that I had, showing the same position of the trademark exactly. Remarkably it too had just a speck of the trademark gone just like this blade, and it is definitely a ground example as well.
There you have it. An ID’d dagger to very early member serving in the Allgemeine SS, and officer as well. SOLD
P.S. The Obersturmfuhrer is not included, and sold separately.
Heinz Merkel SS Nr. 3 348
NSDAP Nr. 348 912
DOB : 01.05.1905
Rank : SS-Obersturmfuhrer (9.11.1942)
Service : 1 Sta SS ( 1942 )