Clarinet from the 7th Panzer Division

[mike peters]

Recently I found a WW2 era German made Clarinet that uses the old "German System" for the fingering ...it's similar to the outdated Albert System but with a few extra keys. Some Musicians still prefer the old systems but , they're harder to find. Anyway , the Clarinet came from a Flea Market in Duisburg Germany. It has the WW2 Veteran's Badge with the the dates 1935-1945 mounted on the case and is engraved "Gespensterdivision ,Georg Stumme , Wehrmacht ". We know General der Panzertruppe Georg Stumme commanded the 7th Panzer Division from 1939 to 1940 when Rommel took command and the 7th was nicknamed the "Ghost Division" ---so the engraving makes sense. However ...the 11th Panzer Division also used the nickname "Ghost Division" ....I can't figure out why they would allow 2 different Divisions to use the same nickname. But given Stumme's connection to the 7th , I think it's a safer bet than looking at the 11th Pz. General Stumme died in North Africa in 1942 so , could the 7th Pz Band have been renamed in his honor ? One collector suggested that maybe Stumme was a Clarinetist and it could have been his personal instrument ...I highly doubt it. But I've searched all over and can not find anything on the 7th Pz Regimental Band or any Pz Band being named in his Honor. If any of you have any ideas or info that will help me research this , I'd appreciate it.