Help identifying German cooking pot

[texaswildcat]

Greeting comrades,

This might not be the best place to post this, but I've been looking for information on this German cooking pot that one of my reenacting friend has. We're stumped trying to figure it out, but perhaps someone here can help. It is a green enameled cooking pot with 'THALE' on it with a symbol of a hollow T in a hollow diamond with '16cm' on the bottom.

 

[donna]

Interesting to find out. Maybe this could be moved to Food Forum.
I know Thale dates back to 17th century in Germany.
Maybe our German forum members know more.
Hope others try to find date on this particular pot.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Paging @FarawayFriend , please? Would this enamelware be something familiar in Germany?

 

[jgoodguy]

Moved at request.

 

[donna]

Thanks for moving.

 

[FarawayFriend]

@JPK Huson 1863 definitely we have these kind of enamel cooking pots, my Grandma had a similar one. Will have to look up "Thale". There is a small city in the Harz Mountains named Thale (close to Blankenburg, birthplace of Gen. Steinwehr) about two hours from where I live, maybe they had a factory for cooking pots there. I'll report back!

 

[Schwallanscher]

16 cm makes it indeed a cookin pot (they are meassured and named in 2 cm intervalls)

 

[FarawayFriend]

@texaswildcat and @JPK Huson 1863 yep, got it!

There was a factory for steel helmets in Thale.


It was the only steel press that produced the helmets. I have found an article in a German newspaper here ; if you want, I can translate it for you. After the war they made cooking pots from the old helmets.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

@texaswildcat and @JPK Huson 1863 yep, got it!

There was a factory for steel helmets in Thale.
View attachment 127359

It was the only steel press that produced the helmets. I have found an article in a German newspaper here ; if you want, I can translate it for you. After the war they made cooking pots from the old helmets.

Ah!! Thank you so much for taking the time with that! Don't you love one, more piece of History, however small? I'll now bore the pants off my husband with that- who will not be interested- but I love this stuff. War and helmets to peace and pasta strainers? What's not to love?

 

[donna]

Andrea great find. Love to know about all old cooking utensils and pots and pans.

 

[texaswildcat]

Thank you for your hard work. So, this particular one is a refurbished helmet from the war?

 

[Patrick H]

I am depending on our "Farawayfriend" to help us out on this one!

 

[Schwallanscher]

Thank you for your hard work. So, this particular one is a refurbished helmet from the war?

nope - the guy in faraway friend's post#8 holds a helmet in each of his hands

 

[FarawayFriend]

Thank you for your hard work. So, this particular one is a refurbished helmet from the war?

I am depending on our "Farawayfriend" to help us out on this one!

nope - the guy in faraway friend's post#8 holds a helmet in each of his hands

Sorry guys, I haven't seen this earlier. And now Schwallanscher has beat me at it. I think the pot was probably not made from a helmet, but they re-did several other military items, cartridges, gas mask boxes etc.
Sorry for quoting in German from the above German article, I'm doing this for my fellow Germans and will translate it for you as best as I can:

"Becher, Tassen und Kannen der Nachkriegszeit entstanden hingegen aus Gasmaskenbüchsen und Granatkartuschen. Auch die Panzerfaust erhielt eine neue Bestimmung. Aus ihren Teilen wurden Kerzenleuchter, Tassen, Vasen und Schöpfkellen hergestellt. "Es gab damals Schrotthändler, die Rüstungsschrott aufkauften und an kleine Metallbetriebe abgaben, die daraus zivile Haushaltswaren herstellten." Solche Metallbetriebe betrieben zudem eigenwillige Tauschgeschäfte und warben mit Anzeigen wie: "Tausche drei Stahlhelme gegen einen Kochtopf" oder: "Tausche drei Gasmaskenbehälter gegen eine Milchkanne"
http://www.moz.de/artikel-ansicht/dg/0/1/1004362

Translation: Mugs, cups and jars were made in post-war Germany from gas mask cans and grenade cartridges. Also the RPG (rocket propelled grenades) were redesigned. Candle holders, cups, vases and ladles were made from it. "There were scrap metal dealers, who bought scrap metal from the military and sold it to small metal working businesses, that redesinged it for civil use as houseware. These small businesses ran odd barter deals, like : "Will exchange three steel helmets for one cooking pot" or "Will exchange dree gas mask cans for one milk jar".

The article says that these mugs cups and ladles are very rare finds nowadays. So probably the cooking pot from the OP is a small treasure nowadays!

 

[texaswildcat]

Excellent work! Figured that it wasn't made during the war as the factory was, as pointed out, was dedicated solely to the manufacture of helmets.

 

[Schwallanscher]

Excellent work! Figured that it wasn't made during the war as the factory was, as pointed out, was dedicated solely to the manufacture of helmets.

you got the wrong - it was the only one to press helmets - that's something to be done rather fast