You then have extramutzen made from the most god awful hairy, wood pulp laden wool and cheescloth interiors. These are caps that were bought and not issued.
Such reflects the declining quality of textiles in the later phase of the III. Reich.
Certainly true but I'm not convinced that's the complete answer...
The use of inferior and/or ersatz materials is evident in private purchase garments made before the war even began. The reason why is less interesting IMO compared to why would someone would choose to buy such an item out of their own pocket when superb quality items were available from thousands of sources as we know from the documented lists of Artisans.
The quality of textiles declined from the Four Year plan onward, i.e. 1936.
As to why a person made a given choice of things, I imagine price was dominant as well as less than ideal tailors and cheapo goods.
Price was no doubt a reason...
I have another theory though but it's just a theory.
German society at the time were no doubt very much aware of what happened during the great war. Many of the fabrik manufacturing firms and uniform outlets were long established, a lot dated back to before the turn of the century. We tend to ingore that fact, as if everyting TR related, all started at the same time, i.e. in the 30's.
Therefore it's important to realise that Germany as a manufacturing base of clothing had gone through shortages of materials in the extreme, long before WWII and were, as a society more than aware of the consequences of blockades etc.
My theory is that even though the TR armed forces totaled millions of men, they were also human beings with totaly different ideals and principals. We are all individuals after all. If my father had been struggling to survive due to the treaty of versailles for instance, perhaps I would have placed a huge importance to being a consumer of goods produced by the Nation/Fatherland at a reasonable cost and not wanting to conform to the American ideal of buying the best you can afford.
It's not easy to translate this into modern day thinking but I know first hand that my Grandparents thought that buying "luxury" goods, whether or not they could afford them, was going against the efforts of the nation as a whole and therefore be considered as being unpatriotic.
The two new volumes also underscore the point in Kaienburg as to the finances of the SS, which differed from those of the SA to a degree that I had not been aware.
Generally, these new works make clear the diversion of institutional character from the SA and SS well before 30 June 1934.
However, as concerns patriotism and consumer purchases and what not, naturally there was great emphasis on German production and thrift at all times.
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