Vereinigte Zünder- u. Kabelwerke AG
1941 ℛℳ 100 stock certificate
WWII Era Third Reich Finance

Vereinigte Zünder- u. Kabelwerke AG
(United Fuse and Cable Works, Inc.)

What You See Is What You Get

• (1x) 100 ℛℳ 100 stock certificate, issued Meißen 1 December 1941

Prime contractor of target ammunition to the Wehrmacht in World War II; supplier to the German war machine. The certificate is in VF+ circulated condition. Lithograph by R. Oldenbourg of Munich and Berlin; watermarks present. Standard European A4 size paper. Punch cancel. Clean, sharp and bright.

'Der Reichsbankschatz' - Authentic historical artifacts documenting turbulent times. The last remaining examples of these canceled certificates from the vaults of the former Reichsbank in Berlin were auctioned off by the German Federal Office for Central Services and Unresolved Property Issues (Bundesamt für zentrale Dienste und offene Vermögensfragen, BADV,) in 2009 through Germany's oldest numismatic auction house, Dr. Busso Peus Nachf.e.K. Proceeds went to aid the victims of Nazi repression. These are the last of them.

Appealing to scripophily collectors, historians, and educators alike, it would be an interesting addition to any Second World War or finance collection. Makes a nice gift for the Old Cold Warrior, student, educator, or history buff in your life!

Shipped FLAT via USPS Ground Advantage, with tracking. YES! Will combine shipping - First lot ships at standard rate, all other lots in same order ship free (except where noted).

Thanks for looking! 

Please see my other items for more Third Reich, Soviet and other historical curios.

Q: What am I buying, and why would I want it?

A: Vereinigte Zünder- u. Kabelwerke AG (United Fuse and Cable Works, Inc.) was a prime contractor to the National Socialist dictatorship for 22LR (5.6mm) cartridges used in target practice by both the military and party paramilitary organizations. It also produced cable, wire, detonators and fuses before and during the war. 

Founded in 1864 the company was sold to the Englishman William Henry Eales in 1866. In 1896 it was renamed the United Factories of English Safety Fuses, Wire and Cable Works, AG Meißen. Following the outbreak of World War I, in 1915 it was renamed the United Fuse and Cable Works AG, Meissen. It operated a plant in Lage (Lippe), near Hamburg in western Germany, and two plants near Dresden in Saxony in the east, in Meissen and Siebenlehn.

In the 1930s the company diversified into the manufacture of 22LR ammunition for the civilian market. Launching a line of target ammo at the start of the Third Reich’s march towards war proved to be propitious. The firm was soon flush with contracts from the Army and the Party, and would continue production in largely unscathed Meissen until 1944. Its cartridges bore a ‘VZ’ headstamp, and its Wehrmacht ordinance codes were 'bxm' and 'vzg'.

Captured by Soviet troops on May 7, 1945, its Saxony factories were duly expropriated. Much of the industrial plant was dismantled and shipped to the USSR. Management fled to Hamburg where the firm continued in a much reduced state until 1982. In 1948 the company’s leftover fixtures and fittings in Saxony were amalgamated by the new communist East German government into the state owned VEB Kabelwerk Meißen combine. Rebuilt over succeeding years, the business was acquired by the Siemens corporation in 1990. In 1995 it was spun off to become Kabelwerk Meissen Wilhelm Balzer GmbH. A mid-sized specialist in cable manufacture, the company today (2023) operates two production lines and can run a thousand tons of stranded conductor wire per month.

You will hold history in your hands.