Shallenberger, Martin C. (1912-2007) Scrapbook, April 1945-1946
Held by The Filson Historical Society
Creator: Shallenberger, Martin C., 1912-2007
Title: Scrapbook, April 1945-1946
Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department.
Size of Collection: 0.46 cu. ft.
Location Number: Mss. A S528b
Scope and Content Note
Scrapbook kept by Martin C. Shallenberger (1912-2007) in the closing months of World War II while serving as a consultant to the Engineering Section of the Third U.S. Army in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria. It appears that Shallenberger’s role may have also involved work for the intelligence service.
The scrapbook contains Shallenberger’s daily journal entries (typed and handwritten) for April-May 1945 and March 1946. His 1945 entries describe the Allied advance and occupation of Germany, while those from March 1946 are written from Austria. The entries are interspersed with photographs and ephemera from Shallenberger’s journey, especially his travels through war-torn Germany.
Shallenberger’s daily journal entries for April-May 1945 concern his unit’s advance into Germany, with descriptions of his experiences and post-war conditions in the towns of Bamberg, Saalfeld, Leipzig, Göttingen, Hannover, Gifhorn, and Bremen. Shallenberger describes travel by military vehicle, dangers they faced on the roads, and his first impressions of the German countryside. He describes lawless conditions, interactions with the many “displaced people,” and the gradual establishment of order through military governments and actions of locals to administer their towns. He finds local buildings in varying conditions – the posh hotel housing Saalfeld’s military government contrasting to collapsing buildings with the dead still buried in the rubble. He also comments on the attitudes of the inhabitants, and his own sympathetic feelings towards the German people.
Shallenberger’s 1945 entries also describe some of the people he met in Germany, including Richard Finsterwalder (famous geodesist), Emil Weurth (espionage agent), and Zoran Kokic (Yugoslav Partisan under Tito). Some of his entries appear to relate to intelligence work, including searching for German document caches, chasing S.S. officers rumored to be at large, and his presence at the interrogation of a German colonel on the day following Germany’s surrender.
Shallenberger’s entries are accompanied by photographs from his travels. He photographed many scenes of destruction, especially of German buildings, bridges and roads. He was an early visitor at the Leipzig Denkmal – a fortress monument that was a last stronghold of Nazis in the area. Scenes of devastation are interspersed with photos of newly constructed U.S. engineer bridges, pictures of places Shallenberger stayed, and images of what appear to be tourist attractions in the towns he visited. There are a few photographs of the inhabitants of German towns, and displaced people on the roads. In addition, there are photos of several individuals Shallenberger met or worked with, especially officials involved in the military government at Saalfeld, Germany. University buildings and military vehicles are also occasionally photographed. Several images of map depots may relate to Shallenberger’s role with the U.S. Army Map Service. Shallenberger likely shot these photographs with his Leica camera, which he subsequently reported as stolen in Koln, Germany on May 31, 1945.
In addition, the scrapbook contains an inserted set of typed entries for March 9-18, 1946, during Shallenberger’s stay in Vienna and Linz, Austria. Shallenberger primarily describes the Vienna social scene, and the people met and spent time with during his stay. He also writes about people who are still displaced after the war, and especially those who had lands confiscated in Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
Preservation Note:
Due to the fragility of the scrapbook pages, this item has been disbound and is stored in a series of folders. Original order has been preserved as much as possible, with minimal rearrangement for the sake of clarity. Gloves are recommended to peruse many of the photographs (which have been pasted in layers), but not for handling the brittle scrapbook pages themselves.
Historical/Biographical Note
Martin Conrad Shallenberger, Jr. (1912-2007) was the son of Brig. General Martin C. Shallenberger and Ina Hamilton Dowdy Shallenberger. He was born on September 22, 1912, in San Francisco, California. During his childhood, he lived with his family at various U.S. Army posts in the United States and abroad. His father served as a military attaché to the U.S. embassies in Yugoslavia, Greece, and Portugal, and later in Hungary and Austria.
Shallenberger’s family expected him to pursue a military career. In 1934, he graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis and immediately resigned his commission. For the next several years he studied art, his true passion. He studied at the Corcoran Art School in Washington, the Art Students League and National Academy in New York, the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and with the Hungarian artist Abanovak in Budapest.
Returning to the U.S., he visited his sister Sara Shallenberger, who had married into the Brown family in Louisville, Kentucky. During his visit, he discovered that Louisville did not have an art gallery devoted primarily to the sale of paintings. He restored an old house on River Road and in 1940 opened the River Road Gallery. The gallery exhibited and sold modern American paintings, including those by regional artists. However, the venture was short-lived due to the outbreak of World War II.
During the war, Shallenberger served in the U.S. Army Map Service, with the rank of captain. In 1944, he was sent overseas as a consultant to the Engineering Section of the Third U.S. Army. In April 1945, Shallenberger’s unit advanced into Germany. According to his scrapbook entries from this time, he was on a special mission as part of the Hough Team. This mission may have involved intelligence work. In October 1945, the Courier-Journal reported that Shallenberger had tracked down German general Gerlach Hemmerich in Berlin, leading to his arrest.
Following the war, Shallenberger travelled in Europe and the Middle East for work sponsored by the Army Map Service, the Library of Congress, and the American Geographic Society. He also became a professional oil and watercolor artist. His work was shown in galleries across America, including the James Hunt Barker Gallery in Palm Beach and the Cheek Museum in Nashville. He died on March 23, 2007, and is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery.
Sources:
Courier-Journal obituary, March 25, 2007.
Courier-Journal articles, 29 Sept. 1940, 13 Apr. 1941, 12 Oct. 1945 & 8 June 1947. Copies w/ collection finding aid.
Folder List
Box 1
Folder 1: Entries, April 23-26, 1945
Folder 2: Entries, April 27-30, 1945
Folder 3: Entries, May 1-13, 1945
Folder 4: Entries, May 14-16, 1945
Folder 5: Entries, May 17-19, 1945
Folder 6: Entries, 1945
Folder 7: Entries, 1945 & March 1946
Folder 8: Scrapbook cover, including map of Poland
Subject Headings
Antisemitism.
Art objects – Collectors and collecting.
Austria – Social life and customs – 20th century.
Bridges – Germany.
Crime – Germany.
Finsterwalder, Richard, 1899-
Germany – Description and travel.
Germany – History – 1945-1955.
Hotels – Germany.
Leipzig (Germany)
Military interrogation.
Nazi propaganda.
Rationing.
Roads – Germany.
Saalfeld (Germany)
Soldiers – United States – Social life and customs – 20th century.
Tito, Josip Broz, 1892-1980.
Translators.
United States. Army. Army, 3rd.
United States. Army Map Service.
Weurth, Emil.
World War, 1939-1945.
World War, 1939-1945 – Destruction and pillage.
World War, 1939-1945 – Military intelligence.
World War, 1939-1945 – Newspapers.
World War, 1939-1945 – Refugees.
World War, 1939-1945 – Secret Service.
World War, 1939-1945 – Yugoslavia.