Preliminary expert opinion: Erika typewriter

State Criminal Police – Munich, February 18, 1943

City Police Headquarters Munich
Crime Lab

1. Preliminary Expert Opinion.

The objective is to determine whether the addresses submitted for the leaflet “Fellow Students!” [Note 1] were typed on the portable Erika typewriter Model No. 507540/6.

As already noted in the expert opinion dated February 18, 1943 No. 1375 g/43, certainly some of the addresses were typed on an Erika typewriter, while others were typed on a different typewriter.  A number of addresses and leaflets that were collected have been typed on the Erika typewriter No. 507540/6 in our possession in order to perform the necessary comparisons. This comparison has yielded the following results:

Pronounced type defects are missing. The lower case letter o is noticeable in the horizontal position; it is [positioned] higher. Compare the addresses 1 and 2 with family names Vocke and Hofstetter. A slight inclination of the lower case “i” is also perceptible; compare addresses 3 and 4: Ottis, Schiller Str., and Mariannen Str.

The typing of individual letters indicates that several letters are dirty, especially lower case e and u, the bottom half of lower case s and k, upper case H, and the number 4. Evidence of dirty typeface is most evident with lower case e. Critical to the rendering of our opinion is the fact that the degree of the individual dirty letters is the same with the addresses and with our comparison attempts. In contrast, letters that usually acquire a greater accumulation of dirt more quickly, such as lower case a, c, g, and n, are in good condition.

The typewriter ribbon is the same color, at least as far as can be determined under artificial light.

Although the results of our examination do not carry much weight when considered on a case by case basis, together they provide powerful proof and are of great consequence.

With the caveat that another examination and screening of all the materials will take place later, today it can be asserted with fairly reasonable certainty that a large portion of the addresses for the leaflet “Fellow Students!” were typed on the Erika typewriter Model No. 507540/6 in our possession.

/Signature: Möll/
Criminal Inspector

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Note 1: The actual title is Kommilitoninnen! Kommilitonen!. The first is plural female students, the second is plural male students. Hereinafter, the leaflet will be referred to merely as “Fellow Students!” without this footnote. This is a Bavarian term for fellow students not widely used outside the region.

Note 2: Time is estimate, based on approximate time that Robert Mohr started using evidence against Sophie Scholl.

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Source: ZC13267 (15 – 16)