Waffen SS General officer schirmutze

[Koguryo9]

Hi Bob,

Are most of the Waffen SS general visor caps private purchase or bought from the Kleiderklasse system? Do most of these caps show the maker mark? Thanks!

[BOB COLEMAN]

I have no doubt that hats were available from both sources. That said, of the few originals I have seen, all but one were private purchase.

[AZartmann]

Bob-

Super stuff...simply stunning.

Z

[stonemint]

Terrific lid, Bob. I am one of the few who prefer a private purchase A-SS or W-SS over an RZM or Kleiderkasse piece--and one by my favorite maker to boot!

[Friedrich-Berthold]

See attached.. it is item # 63....all of RM 8.50 in either black or grey. Thanks to friend d'alquen for his furnishing of this nice image.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

In German there is the phrase: "mit den Schulden eines Majors," which is to say with a major's debts.

We live in a world where debt has lost most of its social sting, but such was not the case in Germany of yore.


The SS Kleiderkasse was the mandatory cooperative for SS members, among whose chief missions was the management of credit to preclude indebtedness among SS officers. The same role obtained for the Kleiderkassen of the other services. Hence, the products sold in the Kleiderkasse were per force something other than luxury items, in contrast to what would have been the case among those tailors and military outfitters who catered to the elite in the III. Reich. One need only mention Holters or the other elite establishments as a contrast to the Kleiderkassen.

I also had a cap made in Vienna in 1973 that I wore around as a student, and it was not costly by any means. Today, I am sure it would be very expensive, indeed, if one could even find a firm to make such a silly thing. Look at the prices of this maritime cap maker in Hamburg, who has a website, and you can get some idea of what the modern equivalents would be. His bespoke caps cost about 300 bucks.