My dad picked up some antique beer steins when he served in Germany right after the war. They even appear in the detailed inventory of things he shipped back home. I find them fascinating. There's really not an equivalent in our culture.
In Germany during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, almost all men did a period of required military service, then went into the Reserves. After that they still got together for drills on a regular basis. It would be other guys from your community, and there were definite social aspects to the experience. Evidently, near every major training base, there were special military shops where you could order a custom beer stein to commemorate all this. Specific to branch of service, regiment, even the names of the guys in your company. They vary a bit in level of seriousness. As we'll see, they will have the dates of the man's active service as a roughly 18 year old Recruit. So these were a sort of keep sake of your "Army Days" and something you'd get out when the other guys from your company got together for drinks. Presumably Old Stories were told over these.
I have two examples. Each is worth close study and will get its own post. Here's a couple of teaser pics.....
Although fascinating artifacts these things do not have particularly high value on the antiques market. They made a lot of these. And there are many more repros attempting to fool buyers. For these two the provenance is rock solid, some staff sergeant did a complete inventory of all Lt. Wolter's stuff that was being shipped home in 1948. These are listed.
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