[78-L] War/peacetime souvenirs?

[goldenbough at arcor.de]

.
>From interwievs with now retired technicians, managers and librarians of that time in the 
German record companies, we know that the situation was different from Japan. 

There was a monthly ('Leg auf') that listed systematically ALL records published in Germany. 
And yet, some odd records appeared every once in a while on the market that were never 
listed there or in any company catalog. 

We now know that, for example, TELDEC (TELefunken-DECca) of Hamburg pressed RCA-Victor 
material on German 'Teldec' label and these records were clearly aimed at American GIs - not the 
German public.  So, these records were only sold in PXs, but never to Germans. Many of these 
records had minor runs of 50 or 100 discs only. 

The record companies' invoices went to the German institution called 'Amt für Besatzungslasten' 
(Office for the Costs of the Occupation' who paid all costs incurred. In other words, the PXs 
could order freely and received these records free of charge, as a part of Germany's compensations 
for war damages. 

In this context, it may be of interest that Germany paid its last instalment for damages of the First 
World War (!) in April 2010 (this year).  This was not in your U.S. newspapers, was it? Compensation 
payments for WWII will continue for another 50 years or more.  Wars can indeed be financially 
rewarding. But who am I preaching to, here? 

Benno 


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