Tracing a person who lived in East Germany

[AntonP]

A person I am trying to trace might have lived in East Germany in the 1950s
according to documents at the Saxony archives

"31558 German central bank, district office Karl-Marx-Stadt
Archival Signature   1056
dating   1950 - 1954
Deposit Confirmation Applications and Inquiries (including implementation of the Takeover Ordinance of August 16, 1952)
Werner Porzig, Karl-Marx-Stadt.- Depot basic sheet for drawn Securities".

I have googled the Stasi records but there is no reference to this person, which is surprising as I thought the East German kept a pretty good watch and record on their population.

Are there any other records that might be available that could be searched via the internet?
Thanks for any assistance. Anton

[fiddlerslass]

The latest directory of Chemnitz (Karl Marx Start) I can find is 1943/4. There are 4 Porzig listed, but no Werner.

https://digital.slub-dresden.de/werkansicht/dlf/92256/564

[AntonP]

Fiddlerslass
Thanks for finding this info. Werner would have got out of the German army I suspect sometime after end of 1945. The last place I found him was Schleswig-Holstein where he was probably in a concentration camp for Wehrmacht soldiers, probably operating as an allied spy to suss out middle ranking nazis.
His home town was Meerane in Saxony so possibly he returned close to there.
But yes I am just guessing that the Karl-Marx Werner is the one I am tracing.

[fiddlerslass]

It may be worth asking about Werner on

https://www.forum-der-wehrmacht.de/

Unless you've already tried there. You will have to post in German. I had a lot of help on there with my missing relative in the Luftwaffe.

[AntonP]

Many thanks for this suggestion, I will follow it up. Google translate, despite its idiosyncrasies is still useful.
Do you know if German citizens had to carry special ID issued by the British zone after the war? Also is there a German version of 'find a grave'?
Anton

[fiddlerslass]

I don't know about special ID. I assume everyone had to have an ID card.

I had a look on Billion graves but there was no one with that name.

You could try a search on here

https://gedbas.genealogy.net/?lang=en

[AntonP]

Thank you for this. I will follow it up.
Anton

[Karen McDonald]

Re: ID cards:

There is a wee bit of info in English here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennkarte

The German version has more info. I have done a rough translation of the bit that might be of interest:

After the end of the Second World War, the law on identity cards in post-war Germany was further developed through legislation and orders of the Allied military governments; in particular, the racially discriminatory regulations were eliminated.

Initially, the "Kennkarten" identity cards continued to be used. The national emblem (Reich eagle with swastika) on the form during the Nazi era was covered with a sticker containing the text "This identity card is provisionally valid" as well as the date and the name of the authority.

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the federal government has had a legislative framework competence for the registration and identification system since the Grundgesetz (constitutional law) came into force. On this basis, the 1951 Federal Law on Identity Cards and the implementing laws of the Länder (states) were enacted. It was only in their wake that the "Kennkarte" was finally replaced by the identity card. The word "Kennkarte" continued to be used in part by the older population for the identity card.

Where duplicates of the identity cards deposited with the local authorities have been preserved to this day, they are often the only way to find portrait photos of victims of the Holocaust.

I hope this helps.

All the best,
Karen

[Karen McDonald]

P.S.

Many thanks for this suggestion, I will follow it up. Google translate, despite its idiosyncrasies is still useful.

DeepL is waaay better than Google Translate.