NSDAP Schirmmütze

[reyndiesel]

My father in law got this cap from a warehouse in Belgium after Normandy. It is brown w/ blue piping. What is it? What is it worth? Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Brad

[Bob Hritz]

This is an ORTS level political leader visor hat. The ORTS level is designated by the light blue piping and is the lowest leval of NSDAP political leaders. Your hat is missing the eagle and the gilt chin cord. The hat, complete would be worth $450.00 to $750, depending on size, condition, completeness of interior, RZM label, etc.

Bob Hritz

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The following is pedantic and didactic. Since this is an international site, might I suggest the use of proper German and also the proper terms taken from the NSDAP. The term you want is die Ortsgruppe as a level of organization and command in the NSDAP. Or, in the extreme, der Ort. Der Ort is a town, a municipality. Of course, the NSDAP had Blockleiter or even more focused, lower echelons of hierarchy, but no colored piping worn on the cap to distinguish it. I think there was even someone who was supposed to organize the stair well in an apartment block, even. Do look at the relevant pages of the Organisationsbuch.

Please allow me to be very pedantic: "Orts" is a made up US collector word. It is akin to "algmine" to mean die allgemeine SS or Allgemeine SS.

I do not think it was an abbreviation used in the NSDAP, either.

Rather: Der Ort, (singular) die Orte (plural) des Ortes (possesive)

Der Ort, der Kreis, der Gau, das Reich. The Nazis also deliberately wiped out a traditional level of political life and social operation, das Land via the Gaue, as well as the micro management horizons opened up by the Kreise and the Orte as a focus of power within the Gaue. The Laender have their origin in the political order of the First Reich, i.e. the Holy Roman Empire and its political system of electors, pp.

But the Nazi Gaue did not always correspond to these traditional, organic and feudal and dynastic local levels of politics and society of the Laender. Look at how Prussia was broken up, even if the Nazis had the cult of Prussia in other propaganda ways. These Laender were recreated in the FRG, but not in the GDR.

Thank you for your kind patience. Dear Friend, I sometimes cannot control myself, and this intervention in no way impeaches my high esteem of you in all ways.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

a small audio visual aid....

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Here is the regulation for the lowest levels of the party, and these men likely wore blue piping on their caps as in the piece so enshrined here. The Block and the Zelle were part of an Ortsgruppe.

[BOB COLEMAN]

The ortsguppen leiter mutze you have shown is missing the eagle, the cap cord and side buttons. The latter being very difficult to locate. For any collector, this becomes a restoration project with the parts likely costing in the area of $250. Based on the hat also having been compressed and lost it's shape, i would value the hat slightly less than bob's low end estimate.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

One might save much time and sorrow in the search for an intact, complete piece of this kind. These PL caps for the Ortsgruppeleitung always have moth eaten blue piping, of course. I have the sense that such regalia is more rare in continental Europe than in No. America. If our colleague is in Europe, it is more sensible to shop around on the safe and sane websites here and just buy a nice example. The earlier caps tend to be of higher quality, but I would not swear by this generalization. Many of the later types were flimsy, with inferior components. They were also costly at the time, as well, actually. RM 11 versus say RM 7 for an SS officer's cap in 1938. I guess it was inflation. The more interesting of these caps are the earlier variants, with the leather peak. The Canadian site had a complete Montur for the Ortsgruppe with a very nice early peaked cap with such a leather peak. Colleague Coleman is much more at home with this regalia than am I. The image of the uniform and cap is still on the Wammond site.