Allgemeine SS Visor Cap - II

[RichieC]

Gentlemen,

Here I show another example belonging to the same owner. Showing these for him has been an honor for me, but I am trying to persuade him to learn how to post photos on his own and perhaps join the discussion.

I'm afraid it will be a tooth-pulling ordeal, so until then, I am the batman.

As usual, please comment as you wish.

Friedrich-Berthold, I (and he) especially value your comments and interpretations.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Thanks once more for your posts and best wishes to you and the very lucky owner for his remarkable material in which we all rejoice.

Your second cap is a normal model Mueller/Munich black officer's cap for Untersturmfuehrer to Standartenfuehrer of the year 1939.

I own two twins to this particular piece just posted, but this one is in perfect condition as one seldom finds. With both of these wonderful pieces, they do not seem to have endured the collector abuse and bad storage that has otherwise wrecked many other pieces of this type.

The price tag on the sweat band is also noteworthy, as is the price, which is 3 RM higher than the price in the 1938 price list, which one can attribute to whatever market forces. I wonder if this piece was retailed or found in some Garderobe or some RZM outlet or uniform store.

Mueller of Munich and Wagner of Braunschweig made many of the extant pieces on can find, but seldom does one actually find same because black officer caps are much more rare than the enlisted black caps.

Thank you for posting and please do put me on the waiting list for the possible sale of said property. But above all warm best wishes to the owner for showing us some wonderful things, much in contrast to the steady cascade of fake junk and otherwise hopelessly awful things that crowd the SS sites in the internet.

It is a real departure from the ordinary to see something pleasingly authentic, in nice condition and otherwise visually remarkable as these pieces of headwear.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I should note that the cap with the black interior was distinguished from the Sonderanfertigung style (with the traditional silken color of custard or pumpkin shade) in price and quality of materials. The latter seems to have been used for a brief period, i.e. from 1934 until 1937/8, and then phased out, or no longer offered with the golden runics &c. Yet such caps continued to be made for enlisted ranks....go figure. Of course, this assertion is based on having seen a little fraction of all SS caps ever made, surely.

In any case, thanks for showing us. Our site here casts a light in what is otherwise a growing darkness.

I ask colleagues Hritz, Coleman, Peter and d'Alquen to add or subtract for any hare brained generalizations I may have proffered here that are off target.

[RichieC]

Many, many thanks for the enlightenment Sir.

Of course I will relay all comments to the owner and watch him "beam" again thru the fiber-optic phone lines that connect us and during our next meeting at my shop (where he gives me the photos to show here - on a believe it or not - FLOPPY DISK). I'm serious...

A small question coming from me: Is this (image) the price tag that an SS officer had to pay for such a thing during those times?

I would like to know more about this little discussed facet.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Thanks. Yes, the sticker is a price tag with the item number, and some Sutterlin script that I have to think about. And, the wholesale cost of this cap in 1938 in the RZM list is around 5.70 RM, so this piece was rather more costly for whatever reason. I have some other images of article number and price tags. Such things are still in use, actually. I just bought several hats on sale in Vienna and hatters often use such tags or stickers with the stock number and price.

An added bonus of something that usually did not make it.

Attached is a similar piece also in an SS cap, but of earlier make.

As to floppy disks, I am an old fart and have some affection for such objects. My computer literacy is really very bad.

[RichieC]

One last (ignorant), and perhaps superfluous question, if you do not mind:

The dollar amount of that tag (then and NOW) equates to what in conversion?

Just curious...

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Here is the cap in which this earlier price tag is found....
It is an enlisted cap upgraded to an officer cap by some hatter at some point in the dim reaches of the past.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

One last (ignorant), and perhaps superfluous question, if you do not mind:

The dollar amount of that tag (then and NOW) equates to what in conversion?

Just curious...

USD 2.62 I think, if the exchange rate in 1939 was four RM to the US dollar. Someone has to check.

DM were phased out in this decade with the Euro, but some here can do the exchange rate for now. It would be about 5 to 7 bucks in any case, I think, depending on things.

The cap today is worth much, much more, surely.

[RichieC]

One last question this evening as I need to depart from here to prepare dinner for the wife and myself... No excuse, but that's it.

The difference between an officer's cap and a soldier's cap (when SS is concerned) is only the chinstrap, yes?

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I now read that one RM was worth 40 cents in 1938, which surprises me, but there you are. Of course, the question now is what is the value of 40 cents in 1938 dollars today. These caps were not especially expensive in their day, in contrast to what is said in certain secondary hat books. It is easy enough to compare said prices with that of other objects as well as monthly pay scales for SS officers or Army officers. I have all of these somewhere, but will leave same to others.