Bruno Zins

[stonemint]

Thanks, Bob. Strange that they were never given RZM approval--an SA contract would have been significantly greater than the one with the NSFK.

Agreed--the SS must be a put-together based upon the lack of RZM approval.....

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Your statement is incorrect if "they" means Zins. If "they" means NSFK, I cannot explain this fact other than the later date at which the NSFK was created. It was a branch of the NSDAP. Zins had an RZM license. The NSFK was created in 1937, whereas the requirement to mark items delineated those entities came into existence in 1934 and 1935 in guidelines that listed objects ca. 1934. The RZM also oddly exempted certain items from the need for marking, in fact. Such exemptions are throughout the circulars. Neither the Luftwaffe nor the NSFK existed at the time that the requirement was enacted to mark regalia, i.e. in 1934. The Lw of course was not part of the NSDAP, but I also think that certain of the predecessors of the NSFK were also outside of the party, too.

I own all the Org books of the NSDAP, and the NSFK appears in the later 1937 edition.

[BOB COLEMAN]

I have no doubt that the owner of Zins made his contact to furnish the bulk of the NSFK kepis the old fashioned way-through political connections and favors.

- - Updated - -

I have no doubt that the owner of Zins made his contact to furnish the bulk of the NSFK kepis the old fashioned way-through political connections and favors.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I have no doubt that the owner of Zins made his contact to furnish the bulk of the NSFK kepis the old fashioned way-through political connections and favors.

- - Updated - -

I have no doubt that the owner of Zins made his contact to furnish the bulk of the NSFK kepis the old fashioned way-through political connections and favors.

and he did have a license in order to do so. Or he had a license from the RZM as a result of such politicking. It is in the RZM handbook.

[DougB]

First class knowledge and experience on display in this thread, my compliments to all involved.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

First class knowledge and experience on display in this thread, my compliments to all involved.

Thank you. It took a long time for me to figure some of these things out, and even greater expense in treasure.....

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Winsstrasse is parallel to Prenzlauer Allee east of the Alex in a neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg not so very far from the later premises of Lubstein. I have been by it a zillion times, in fact, heedless of its past because I was always thinking of something else.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Here is how it looked in the DDR time; how it looks today (and I should have bought an apartment here in 1999....) and one of the Stolpersteine in the vicintiy of Bruno Zins to commemorate the murdered Jews of the neighborhood, apropos my statement as to why the address would have changed.....unlike many parts of Berlin, this part did not get smashed as much, and has lately become very more the site of gentrification and social tension as a result. My roots are in west Berlin, in Dahlem and the Free University and such, or Charlottenburg.

[Wilhelm Saris]

When the RZM handbook came into being in 1935 permission A1/987 was Joh. Zins from Berlin, NO 43
(A1 = a headgear-manufacturer). The permission expired February 29, 1936.
With the same day, February 29, 1936 the A1 was classified as A2/987 (private company). The concern was still
named as John. Zins from Berlin NO 43, but from this day on the concern was owned by Bruno Zins. They held
the number until the end of the war, when the concern was located at Berlin NO 55.

The RZM was not responsible for NSFK headgear (or whatever). This was noted in many magazines, as for example
"Uniformen-Markt", nr. 22 from November 16, 1937 (page 338; here it is literally said: Nunmehr erklärte die RZM, dass
sie für das NSFK nicht zuständig sei).
Responsible was the "Beschaffungsstelle des NSFK" (the NSFK central buying organization) at Berlin SW 29.
Due to their RZM-permission Zins was allowed to manufacturer for eventually the SA, HJ and political leaders. I cannot remember
ever having seen a cap from them with the number A2/987.
Remember that when the Reichsarbeitsdienst became an official fact many headgear-manufacturers voluntary stopped their RZM-permission
and continued to manufacturer headgear specifically for the RAD.

The NSFK was a legal corporation under public law and not an NSDAP affiliated organization. Do not confuse this while it is in the
organizations-book from the NSDAP (Organisationsbuch der NSDAP). The RAD was as the NSFK.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Thank you for the exhaustive analysis and I had not been aware that the NSFK had such a legal status. We are grateful for your profound expertise to help us solve these riddles.