First World War Commemoration Site Ettlingen, Germany: This Week: The Papers of Sergeant Franz Alois Lemmen

This week we return to the story of Sergeant Franz Alois Lemmen, brought to us by his granddaughter Beatrix Braun of Ettlingen. Franz served as a doctor's secretary at the front, writing medical reports and doctor's notes on his typewriter, as well as the poetry he sent home to his family.

Franz looked after his various army papers very carefully, and they have been so well preserved in the family that we have been able to photograph them and reproduce them here. Shown below are the "Orders of the Day of the 7th Army".

"Armee-Tagesbefehle der 7. Armee" - "Orders of the Day of the 7th Army"

In October 1916, and in accordance with his desire for a new post, Franz was promoted from the position of a divisional doctor's secretary to the position of secretary to army doctor 1. His army "Reference" is shown below. It confirms that Sergeant Franz Lemmen was employed from June 1, 1915 to September 25, 1916 as a secretary to the divisional doctor and that he was very hard-working, skillful and reliable. He had thus earned his promotion.

The second part of the "Reference", which was added in October 1919, states that Franz was active in the ambulance corps for more than 5 years and possessed sufficient theoretical and practical knowledge in medical care to become an officially recognized male nurse.

Franz's References from 1916 and from 1919

The promotion enabled Franz to return to his old troop unit, the 52nd Infantry Division, where he served again from December 19, 1916. The letter below is from the Medical Ambulance Service Department and officially confirms Franz's promotion and his desire to return to his old unit.

The official letter from the "Krankentransportabteilung" - the "Medical Ambulance Service Department" confirming Franz's promotion to army doctor's secretary.

Franz also kept bank notes of a fairly large denomination, which have been preserved by his family. These are not bank notes printed during the inflation of the 1920s, but notes that were printed in 1908, 1910 and 1914. At this time, 100 Reichsmark was equivalent to at least one average monthly income.