German contractors of headgear for USEUCOM, USAREUR
Article about: On the lord of the flies site, Mr. Chris Stonemint asks whether pieces of US military regalia exist to correspond with the Lubstein/Emhage head wear made for Soviet troops in the SBZ/DDR. Ma
German contractors of headgear for USEUCOM, USAREUR
On the lord of the flies site, Mr. Chris Stonemint asks whether pieces of US military regalia exist to correspond with the Lubstein/Emhage head wear made for Soviet troops in the SBZ/DDR. Maybe there are those here with an association with US forces in Germany from the 1940s and 1950s, whereas my affiliation goes back to the early 1980s. In my experience of clothing sales, these were in the hands of the Army and Air Force Exchange service, which relied on US vendors almost to a fault. I am not sure of the situation in say 1947, but I imagine it was not especially different in that the US forces erected for themselves the same kind of autonomous support structure for which US forces were already famous in the war, itself.
Also, if the US tax payer was paying for some equipment at hand, then such generally had to be procured from US sources. I imagine that the plethora of military suppliers in what was the US occupation zone which later became the NATO area of stationed forces did not survive the process of demilitarization, or they shifted their work to where there was a need. In fact, West Germany was famous for NOT embracing military procurement even once the Bundeswehr was created. Old armaments firms refused to get into military work, and I imagine in the apparel sector, such was also the case after the currency reform of 1948 and with the Korean war. Do recall that the Bundesgrenzschutz was not created until 1952 and the Bundeswehr in 1956.
What would these former military regalia makers have done in the interim as shown in the images below? And, the level of equipment in the USSR forces vs the US forces in Germany hardly can be compared; the former was famous for looting everything at hand in the SBZ, whereas the US forces had their own resources, even if they scooped up Nazi regalia especially during the black market period of 1946-1948.
I may be in serious error, and surely there were German contractors for various services proffered to the US forces, but in the initial and golden period, I do not imagine that such could make a dent in the US system. Of course, there was an unofficial trade in souvenirs and other gew gaws (like Harry's Gift Shop in Kaiserlsautern of blessed memory) but such was for Hummel figurines, Kuckkuchuhren and Kitsch generally.
But I also recall that USAREUR had to import coal from Pennsylvania for the heating plants in Rhineland Pfalz as well as refuse to buy Volkswagen Bullis because it would enrage some member of the House Armed Services Committee.
But maybe someone who collects such things would know. I worked in an Army museum in no. America in the 1970s, filled with many things from the occupation, and never saw such a cap of German source. Postcards of the US Army recreation area at Berchtesgaden and Garmisch Partenkirch, yes...but regalia...no.
Re: German contractors of headgear for USEUCOM, USAREUR
Or, if one was too closely connected with the former regime, as this Nazi industrialist, you got hauled in from the denazification committee as in the case of Thyssen.
Re: German contractors of headgear for USEUCOM, USAREUR
Of course, Major Hirst of the British forces in Lower Saxony did save the KdF Werke from oblivion, it is true.
But I am sure there is an exception to what I have written. The man who would know in my acquaintance, Dr. Heinz von Hungen, died in the early 1990s. He was a US Army surgeon in the period of the introduction of the Deutsche Mark ca. 1948-1949...but he cannot tell us.
German contractors of headgear for USEUCOM, USAREUR
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