black SS caps in the firmament

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The Mona Lisa smile of the racial elite.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

This smile endured briefly, meant misery for millions and ended badly for those doing the smiling, in turn.

[backtothefront]

Greetings. This has been a most interesting thread to follow, with some wonderful pictures of prized collectables and some insight into the lives of our esteemed colleagues. For myself, I enjoyed studying history in high school but always sensed i wasn't quite being told the full story. Unfortunately, too much of the education system in my country is about regurgitating the "correct" answer to pass exams, then its about getting into a university course, then its about getting a good job. Sometimes the other side of the coin is overlooked. History has the potential to be quite particularly controversial if one chooses to dig too deeply.... too many "inconvenient truths". I feel much more secure with the objectivity of science.
It is in this field of our mutual collecting interests that the worlds of science and history collide. I deeply appreciate the expertise and knowledge that our colleauges possess. Yet just as musicianship is no longer a prerequisite to "generate" music, nor vision & insight required to "produce" art, I wonder whether a methods of scientific analysis could be employed to solve questions of authenticity and put the fakers out of business for good. I hope not, as I would rather rely on the knowledge of our members than a technologist using X-ray diffraction, metallurgical micrographs, Carbon 13, etc etc. regards, paul

[Friedrich-Berthold]

History is controversial. It is part of the humanities and profits from such. My goal here is to add rigor and discipline to what otherwise is more or less a catastrophe of poor thinking, lack of evidence and sloppy analysis. The German daggers and Wehrmacht Awards website suffocated in circular analysis, blow hard ism, silly theories, and group think of an alarming kind. Adrian and Bob made this site a place where knowledge could assert itself over snake oil and half truths. Gut so.
As to some bomb proof way to determine age, I am sure such a thing exists, but a collector can also learn how to use the evidence properly and do quite well without the natural sciences. I am sure the latter have their role. I do not know about education in Australia. I know same in North America and Europe. I was trained as an historian in Germany.

The simplest way to determine age is with a lupe, with magnified optics, as a close examination of these things reveals more than enough.

Mr. Stonemint has enclosed some well made fakes, but none of these are eighty or seventy years old, even if they have old parts in them.

The other piece is how real things were made versus fakes, and in the case of the latter, the craftsmanship is almost always deficient.

The simple thing is to compare several real items to a fake.

This comparison is not possible, really, through the dominant modus of the electric picture line up, which is as misleading as not.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Courtesy of d'Alquen whose documentary research is legendary, a break down of where Allgem. SS personnel served in wartime.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The cap on the Kelly Hicks site is a Sonderanfertigung, which is wrongly dated to 1935 (again because of the RZM tag,) but is a Wagner of 1938 or so. It is a rare cap and fairly priced, even if it presents a couple of minor flaws easily repaired.

[tempelhof]

The Mona Lisa smile of the racial elite.

i can never get enough of your collages, Friedrich-Berthold.

there is simultaneously both focus and breadth within them. i always find this juxtaposition you achieve incredibly interesting.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

i can never get enough of your collages, Friedrich-Berthold.

there is simultaneously both focus and breadth within them. i always find this juxtaposition you achieve incredibly interesting.

Thanks. Others apparently are pitched into hysterics by my "cup cakes," but I am inspired in this by John Heartfield, who invented this kind of thing in the Weimar era.

I have always liked pictures, and they were as much as feature of the III. Reich as "crimped prongs," if not more so. Hitler, Goebbels and the rest used photos as a weapon, otherwise we would not collect the regalia.

I have collected III. Reich photo propaganda as long as the foetid woolens.

[Little Mermaid]

From old photos - and cupcakes - we can learn alot.

[tempelhof]

i'd pay up quite aggressively for any of those three with the blue watermark. fantastic photos and i feel examples that would compliment my collection nicely. thank you for posting them. they are a pleasure to see.