Adolf Hitler's field visor caps

[mgalat]

There are a LOT of adjectives that could be associated with Hitler... but holy is not one of them...

I am sure there was a lot of stuff that was taken from the bunker... probably the handgun Hilter used on himself is still around somewhere as are the brass cyanide capsule containers. All in boxes under the Kremlin.

Taken way out of context Sir..

Have a good day

Cheers
Murray

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I cannot rule out these hats on pics alone. I have seen a lot of supposed "Hitler Hats" that were good, but nowhere near as good as these.

I am (somewhat) surprised to see that the bullion wreaths are not embroidered directly to the hat, but I have no ultra-sharp wartime pics to tell if that was the case.

I would have to believe the 2 wartime (field-gray) visors were pulled from the bunker. The Holters is an early hat, and I doubt it would have been in the Bunker, so it must have come from somewhere else.

Still these are the best pics I have seen of these hats, and thanks again for posting them, Dimas.

Hitler's private residence from the renovation of the building in 1933 until life began underground stood in the Palais Schulenberg, i.e. old Reichskanzlei on 77 Wilhelmstrasse, that stood around the corner from the Vossstrasse and to the eastern side of the bunker. It very may well be that these objects were found in whatever was left of his old quarters in the former Palais Schulenberg/pre 1939 Reichskanzlei (actually, which remained thus, the new building designed by Speer was essentially offices and representational space), which are never shown in these odd and ghoulish dramatic films about the bunker. His coterie lived in the same building, in fact, that is, the persons of his direct entourage. Today no trace of these structures exists for the seeker in this area of Berlin.

I assume the Soviets bagged a ton of such stuff and thanks for showing it to us. I will leave it to other to dissect things with speculation.

[BenVK]

I read some interesting comments on this old thread today. Axis History Forum • View topic - Did Hitler wear a steel-lined cap?

Such as:

by berghof on 05 Feb 2008, 03:19

Having handled two, one that Guensche kept after the Juli attempt, that had loosened the peak, and another belonging to an Italian collector.
Before Herr Guensche's, and Frau Junges untimely deaths, I had chance to discuss the chiefs uniform and caps, and he assured me that no such visor existed with a steel lining. It was in fact Krause and Linge who 'presented' him with the grey uniform just before the outbreak of war. He said words to the effect of ' put that away, no need for it'. But after a few days, he called for them.
The inside is bereft of any makers mark as is often thought 'Holters', but just a white printed monogram almost identical to the formal 'Bruckmann' silverware style. (Closed wing eagle and AH.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Hitler wore a field grey uniform on or about the start of the Polish campaign, and retained same for the rest of war, as near as I know. These are not "field caps," but the normal cap he wore with all orders of dress whether in Berlin, Berchtesgaden, or at his various HQs in the west and east.
These pieces seem more well made than the fakes one sees, if they are fake, and I rather expect that the Soviets took everything they could lay their hands on in the government quarter as it lay in ruins in 1945 and this before is the swag in fact. Kempka also made plain that Schickelgruber had a lot of uniforms, and he likely had them at various locales. Whatever, the images are suggestive and interesting. I find the attempts to by certain persons (not Ben VK) to dissect these things with little insight to be pretty funny, actually, especially by the triangulation method of the life styles of the rich and famous extrapolated back to 1939.
This comment is not directed to Ben VK, by the way. There are numerous accounts by those in the entourage of the most sublime and arcane details of AH's private life, the daily routine, the meals, and whatnot. They repay reading. The Holters outfit was also, to be sure, not some enormous and grand spectacle, either. The Nazis had their own old fighter commercial pillars, to whom they gave business, and plainly Holters was one of these granted all the UM data on him. If the cap is unmarked, so what? The key is the cap has the more or less typical traits of a bespoke cap. The Wolff peaked cap, and the Dietrich peaked cap have no marks, if I recall. This obsession with trade marks is also an anachronism foisted on a naive collector public by dealers and others to make money.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Of course, to partake of the paranoia and fear that are today's norm and codex, a clever faker could have these Schickelgruber caps made in the Abbotabad redoubt where bin Laden was in Pakistan and garnish them with Soviet museum stamps and cards and then have said caps modeled atop the blonde noggins of Sharapova look a likes with little clothing. Such is likely. Sharapova is much more interesting to me than these hats, especially when she grunts. She should grunt more often, when we learn that these marvelously faked Hitler hats originated not in Abbotabad in Pakistan, but onboard the Lustiania, sunk by the Red Baron with one shot, while he had an affair with Marilyn Monroe, who was murdered by Jack Ruby in drag as Elvis Presley.

[BenVK]

I just find it rather peculiar than both hats exhibit distinct but odd sweatbands that don't correspond with any other hat made by Holters that I've ever seen.

But what do I know!

[Friedrich-Berthold]

My point in posting in this thread was to suggest that the Palais Schulenberg was Hitler's traditional residence in Berlin, not all of the contents of which were likely shoved into the bunker once the siege of Berlin began in earnest. My ridicule of paranoia reflects my substantial doubts that have accrued about militaria websites.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Steve Wolfe owns the Hitler cap that came from Zyla and was found in the Prinzregentstrasse apartment. Maybe you can email him and ask whether the Soviet origin caps accord with his piece.

[RH1941]

I dont know if these caps are real but we had a local GI Richard Marowitz liberate his top hat . They even did a documentary on the guy. Gary

[Karl S.]

As for the armored cap. I just read the biography of the German Theologian Deitrich Bonhoeffer ( Bonhoeffer 2010) who was involved in the anti- Hitler resistance. When interviewed,
Lieutenant Fabian Von Schlabrendorff gave some details about Hitlers security measures. Here's what's said about the cap, page 428; "He also wore a fantastically heavy hat. On the sly, Schlabrendorff hefted this fabled chapeau when the generals were meeting at Kluge's quarters. It was "heavy as a cannon ball".
lined with three and a half pounds of steel.