An Unexciting Schirmmütze

[stonemint]

& the great Ben VK said it best: "Where is the art in the making of a steel helmet"?!

[Friedrich-Berthold]

You are surely right about the dash and elegance of the clothing of the era. In watching this film on Berlin in 1927, Berlin Symphonie einer Grossstadt, you are impressed that, by today's standards, even the working class are dressed fairly well, versus what passes for same today.
The bourgeois Berliners are all elegant, and well turned out. Do watch the film, it is marvelous. Today the handicrafts are dead in the big box, globalized world of less is more, and no one knows the difference save for same latter day dandies who do not matter, and are freaks in our idiom.
Vienna until recently retained its elegance and dash, but it, too, has embraced general trends of sweat suits, and science fiction story derived clothing to the detriment of civilization and culture.
I beat my drum on the branches of the military based on decades of hard won experience at very close range.

[ObKrieger]

My primary area of interest is not who wore the cap, or what organisation it represents, but who and what went into making the hat. As I have stated before, I think a serious argument can be made in support of my claim that the headgear produced between 1933-45 was the most aesthetically pleasing headgear of any country, any era. Each part of a TR hat means something, whether it be the wool body, the various rings (or lack thereof) of piping; the visor; the band material/color; the cords/strap; the visor, and (of course) the insignia. Then there are the "extras" such as the higher grades of wool (or even silk); the composition of the insignia (ie, bare aluminum/polished/frosted/bullion); the amount of padding; and heighth of the peak and the shape of the crown.

This is in stark contrast to the hat of the US Army Officer corps, which were basically the same across the board (and yes, I have a few of those, too).
Unfortunately, the art of making a visor basically died in 1945. After that we are subjected to plastic visors, vinyl sweatbands, polyester bodies, glued-on insignia and (my personal pet peeve) sta-brite insignia.
I like my hats minty simply because that is the way they looked when they left the Muetzenmacherei, and in this condition they remain a testament to an artisanship that will never be seen again.

A can't agree with you more. However I am equally concerned about the person who used it as I am about its origins. It's all just a matter of personal taste, really. I am like this with all of my militaria.

[ObKrieger]

Collector group think usually gets the truth seriously wrong, not the least for those with no military experience themselves.

Another statement I agree with. I have no military experience, but it doesn't take any to appreciate the quality of these caps.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Another statement I agree with. I have no military experience, but it doesn't take any to appreciate the quality of these caps.

My friend, this comment does not apply to you at all. It applies to many others, though.

[ObKrieger]

My friend, this comment does not apply to you at all. It applies to many others, though.

Thank you, I am glad that many of us are not caught up in 'collector group think' as you described it.

Anyway, stonemint, you have a great cap and I would really love to have one like it. I really like the very green one that I posted the other day. As long as it was made and used before 1945, I am a fan of any cap really.

[stonemint]

A can't agree with you more. However I am equally concerned about the person who used it as I am about its origins. It's all just a matter of personal taste, really. I am like this with all of my militaria.

I have no issue with anyone who values an artifact primarily for the organisation that it represents, or the individual that wore it, and I respect anyone who collects for those reasons. If we all felt the same, and collected exactly the same, this would be a very boring hobby!

[stonemint]

Someone once asked the rhetorical question, what would Third Reich collecting be like if they all wore the same type of Maoist uniforms?

[CARL]

You are surely right about the dash and elegance of the clothing of the era. In watching this film on Berlin in 1927, Berlin Symphonie einer Grossstadt, you are impressed that, by today's standards, even the working class are dressed fairly well, versus what passes for same today.
The bourgeois Berliners are all elegant, and well turned out. Do watch the film, it is marvelous. Today the handicrafts are dead in the big box, globalized world of less is more, and no one knows the difference save for same latter day dandies who do not matter, and are freaks in our idiom.
Vienna until recently retained its elegance and dash, but it, too, has embraced general trends of sweat suits, and science fiction story derived clothing to the detriment of civilization and culture.
I beat my drum on the branches of the military based on decades of hard won experience at very close range.

One cannot help but nod throughout the reading of this post.

[Thanatos]

One cannot help but nod throughout the reading of this post.

Here here.