For f-b's todesschaedel (tk) thread

[vady]

Super image of the early danziger deaths head dating from the kampfzeit worn with the ss-vt uniform. Unusual and fine. Permission from 'panzer bill.' for which, thanks.

[vady]

no reax?

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Very nice image and nice hat, surely. Nice uniform overall. I cannot date it with any certainty, either. It is, however, not ca. 1935 or what some speculated elsewhere. The Danziger badge was retained well into the war, in fact. The evidence of same is everywhere. A nice, clear image. Thanks.

[vady]

thanks f-b for this.

it seems there was, indeed, an 'out-with-the-old tk, in-with-the new' transition period with the early Grays as there was with the Blacks. just in my limited experience, in prewar days both were worn co-terminus a lot more often with the black uniform than with the gray. happy foetiditry.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

thanks f-b for this.

it seems there was, indeed, an 'out-with-the-old tk, in-with-the new' transition period with the early Grays as there was with the Blacks. just in my limited experience, in prewar days both were worn co-terminus a lot more often with the black uniform than with the gray. happy foetiditry.

In the early days of the grey uniform, this badge was surely worn. You have to date all the pictures carefully, to the extent such an enterprise is worth it. The grey uniform only predominated later. Who knows how this badge ended there, but you can be certain that the system was not as centralized, standardized, and over determined as our unhappy world in the year 2011. One surely had more choice, despite the regulations.

[vady]

ably stated. wish I had time to study the bundesarchiv holdings as you have - esp. in situ as there's prob'ly lots of stuff not yet digitized. last time I was in d'land studying Real Documents and Fotos I found great lashings at the militaergeschichtliches forschungstamt, freiburg i.breisgau. I suspect they've accessioned even more since the DDR's fall....

[vady]

>forschungstamt< forgive the misspelling. es tut mir leit.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The MGFA is today located on the Zeppelinstrasse in Potsdam. The military archives of the Bundesarchiv are still in Freiburg, at the foot of the Black Forest.
The pictures archives of the Bundesarchiv was in Koblenz, but I am not sure now. A lot of it is on line, now. Many NS era files are in Berlin either in Lichterfelde in the former Hauptkadettenanstalt, LAH, US Army Kaserne in Finckensteinallee, or in Hoppegarten.

note: Forschungsamt.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Other issues of passing note.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The use of the army 1935 cap badge in the LAH did or did not cause the introduction of the so called 1936 cap badge, which, in reality, was a late 1935 cap badge, just as the second death's head badge attributed to 1934 was in trial use ca. the end of the summer of 1933. Colleage Derek C. knows much more about this than I do, but I did find the documentary evidence of this picayune point in the BA on line finding aids. The use of the army cap badge was apparently widespread in the LAH.