Rare BAT2850

Please show all the writing on the lantern for the most complete information about this customer mark. The letters on the left side are not recognisable.

Okay, first general things.

Stuebgen offered its lanterns optionally with customer marking. This was mainly used by local authorities such as city councils, organisations and associations as well as companies from the construction sector.

The stamping cost extra, per letter! And the number of letters was limited. The embossing did not serve advertising purposes, but rather as protection against theft.

For cost reasons, the clients often used abbreviations. Some of them were generally known, others rather only of local significance, which can make identification difficult today.

The present lantern contains three markings:

RAB

Sm

S'lehn

RAB was the abbreviation for "ReichsAutoBahn", the large motorway construction project in the 1930s in Germany which created fast road connections between East and West as well as North and South and could be used excellently for fast transports and troop relocations with the beginning of the war.

Unfortunately, I do not know the significance of Sm. Perhaps I will have an epiphany at some point.

S'lehn is a very uncommon slang abbreviation for the small town of Siebenlehen. Siebenlehen lies directly on the A4 motorway, one of the first and most important east-west connections. At Siebenlehen there was a special prestige project, in 1936 the largest and longest Reichsautobahn bridge ( 403m long, 72m high, 24m wide) was built there.

And so the circle closes. It is very likely that the lantern was originally purchased for the construction work on the Reich motorway in the bridge construction area of Siebenlehn.

I hope the explanations are also historically comprehensible outside Europe.

Unfortunately, I do not understand why this historical relic is in Japan. It should not be.

Hi there!

"RAB" means "Reichsautobahn" - I had come that far...

I think "Sm" means "Straßenmeisterei" (road maintenance) - it seems logical.

The last "S ' lehn" was a problem. Last night I searched the whole german location database (zip codes) by letter "S", but didn't find anything.

It seems to be "Siebenlehen" is the solution. Nice found!

Micha.

I like the association of Sm with "Straßenmeisterei" (road maintenance), even if I personally would have used large letters for it.

Officially the designation was the other way round " SM RAB".

Accordingly, the lantern would have belonged to the RAB - Straßenmeisterei of Siebenlehn. Makes sense.

In fact, I found the RAB Straßenmeisterei Siebenlehn in an old list:

https://www.autobahngeschichte…/autobahnmeistereien.html

A very nice successful research, thanks for the inspiration Micha.

> In fact, I found the RAB Straßenmeisterei Siebenlehn in an old list

Bingo!

Ich meine, mit dieser Lösung kann man leben.

Greetings to Japan!

Micha.

(> I used a translator, but ...

Me too, cause I'm somewhat lazy when things have to go fast. )