WW2 German Miniature 1st Model Luftwaffe Dagger Mounted on Propeller Captured 1945

A rare 1st Model Luftwaffe Dagger mounted on a propeller shaped stand that sat on the desk of a WW2 veteran school teacher. He gifted it to a student who expressed interest.

A photograph that accompanies the dagger indicates it was taken from the desk of the Luftwaffe Commander in Ulm, Germany in April 1945.

During World War I the Royal Württemberg War Ministry decided to build an air station southeast of Dornstadt. Construction began in 1917, but the airfield existed only briefly, because it was closed in 1919.

The Wehrmacht began preparing the 7 hectares of land as an emergency landingfield in 1934. Not without reason, because only two years later the military begun setting up a regular air base (Fliegerhorst) to the north of the field. To camouflage the whole complex they also planted severeal hundred trees.
Like most Fliegerhorste of the time it had a railway connection to the national railway grid, located on the southwest of the airfield (just north of the autobahn). Shortly after the first 80 pilots and mechanics arrived.

In October 1942, in great secrecy, the Institute for High Frequency Research (german: Institut für Hochfrequenzforschung) was set up at the air base. As a result, its use by regular aircraft was severely restricted and visits became fewer and fewer.

Elements of the US 7th Army entered Ulm on April 25, 1945. The city had been bombed earlier in April, 1945.