GRENZ - POLIZEI Uniform Ensemble

[RichieC]

VA and a year in a rectangular in size of matchbox

Where on the tunic would this be located Dim?

[Bob Hritz]

I would be most pleased to own this group. Please keep me posted should this go for sale.

Bob Hritz

[herrgeezer]

While I am by no means an expert, but that cap looks solid to me and would be super rare! Beautiful group!!!

[BenVK]

I also don't see anything to be concerned with about the cap. For me, it pushes all the right buttons for a cap of this style and compares favourably with the very few other original examples I have seen. The Deutsche Wertarbeit logo is well documented and attributed to many various hat makers and/or retail outlets. It simply means German Craftsmanship or similar (maybe FB can confirm?)
A wonderful piece in superb condition and I also would be very interested in purchasing it should it become available although I probably won't be able to afford it!

[Dimas]

Where on the tunic would this be located Dim?

Usually most visible places on the liner

[Friedrich-Berthold]

This is a VA stamp in a black breeches.

This uniform might well have been privately made, and hence not issued and devoid of such an issue/property stamp.

These stamps are faked, too, so their presence is no assurance of authenticity.

The cap with the cloth peak looks tailor made, too.

This is a truly spectacular, fabulous and wonderful uniform.
The Gestapa piping on the SD Rhombus is another powerful plus in this ensemble. Bravo.

[BenVK]

FB, could you help clear up something that has puzzled me for a while and this cap just reminded me.
Deutsche Wertarbeit. I've seen dozens of caps with this mark now and I recal Bob Hritz saying once that it "meant the cap was made by Aryan Germans and not by German Sematic Jews".
I disagree with this because from my research at the time, the mark "ADEFA" was in fact what Bob was referring to.
Any knowledge of this area?

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The ADEFA mark is an expressly anti Jewish logo of the Nazi attempt to ethnically cleanse the textile industry for uniforms, Uniformteile of Jewish sources, personnel &c. This attempt was not apparently successful in certain cases. "Deutsche Wertarbeit" is product of high quality from a German source, and is implicitly anti Semitic (in the context of the policies of the time), in that the Nazis claimed that Jews were not really Germans; ergo, Germans made inherently better products. But this idea of "deutsche Wertarbeit" had existed since the 19th century too, without an expressly anti-Jewish teint. From a certain point in the 19th century or early 20th century, goods exported to GB were marked "made in Germany," which came to by synonymous with good quality at a cheap price. The rise of German imports of manufactures to Britain in the late 19th century was accompanied by nationalist posturing on both sides. The outbreak of war in 1914 was preceded by trade wars co mingled with imperialist and xenophobe propaganda. So, simply, "deutsche Wertarbeit" is not as weaponized, as focused as this ADEFA organization was in the context of the era 1935-1938 or so. All very sad and stupid, really. I was just in Berlin around Alexanderplatz, which was the textile making and apparel heart of old Berlin, and also the place where the owners of Lubstein were able to secure a large premises when the Jewish owners of the original real estate were forces to emigrate amid Aryanization in the wake of 9 November 1938.

The other thing to note is that the handicrafts and guild organizations resisted the trend towards mass marketing and Americanization of goods that took hold after 1919. These handicrafts and guild types associated themselves with the Nazis, and the mark "deutshce Wertarbeit" can be identified with this sector of society that resisted modernization and the leveling of consumerism to a broad populace. Woolworth's Five and Dime stores (which still exist in Germany...) were an object of Nazi scorn for destroying traditional commercial relations with cheap goods.

Hence, there is more here than meets the eye. Thanks for the question.

Happy headwear and rather sad European history.

[stonemint]

The ADEFA mark is an expressly anti Jewish logo of the Nazi attempt to ethnically cleanse the textile industry for uniforms, Uniformteile of Jewish sources, personnel &c. This attempt was not apparently successful in certain cases. "Deutsche Wertarbeit" is product of high quality from a German source, and is implicitly anti Semitic (in the context of the policies of the time), in that the Nazis claimed that Jews were not really Germans; ergo, Germans made inherently better products. But this idea of "deutsche Wertarbeit" had existed since the 19th century too, without an expressly anti-Jewish teint. From a certain point in the 19th century or early 20th century, goods exported to GB were marked "made in Germany," which came to by synonymous with good quality at a cheap price. The rise of German imports of manufactures to Britain in the late 19th century was accompanied by nationalist posturing on both sides. The outbreak of war in 1914 was preceded by trade wars co mingled with imperialist and xenophobe propaganda. So, simply, "deutsche Wertarbeit" is not as weaponized, as focused as this ADEFA organization was in the context of the era 1935-1938 or so. All very sad and stupid, really. I was just in Berlin around Alexanderplatz, which was the textile making and apparel heart of old Berlin, and also the place where the owners of Lubstein were able to secure a large premises when the Jewish owners of the original real estate were forces to emigrate amid Aryanization in the wake of 9 November 1938.

The other thing to note is that the handicrafts and guild organizations resisted the trend towards mass marketing and Americanization of goods that took hold after 1919. These handicrafts and guild types associated themselves with the Nazis, and the mark "deutshce Wertarbeit" can be identified with this sector of society that resisted modernization and the leveling of consumerism to a broad populace. Woolworth's Five and Dime stores (which still exist in Germany...) were an object of Nazi scorn for destroying traditional commercial relations with cheap goods.

Hence, there is more here than meets the eye. Thanks for the question.

Happy headwear and rather sad European history.

I will throw a little twist into this. I possessed a DDR (East German) DRK visor made by a maker that somehow continued to exist after the war, using the same logo, also with the words "Deutsche Wertarbeit", which I found to be an anomaly, given the "egalitarian" nature of the DDR. The hat was probably from the early 1960's--I will try to see if I can find a pic from my archives.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I am sure the "deutsche Wertarbeit" logo was used in the GDR. Certain guild like crafts and industries were able to live on in the first years of the regime, and the GDR claimed to be more German than the FRG, which was Americanized and hence also inferior. Afterall, the uniform of the NVA with its field grey and "Prussian tradition" (at least that is what its proponents said...) was introduced after a public backlash to the Ike jacket of the first year of the Bundeswehr.

While the SED was not avowedly anti-Semitic as was the NSDAP, it could still pose as German. And, I am also sure that simple inertia plays a role in this logo of yours in a GDR era cap. Actually traditional anti-American sentiment and Nazi propaganda against the US (with its anti-Semitic sub text...) lived on happily in the GDR until 1990.

Even the particularist Austrians in the era 1918-1938, that is, until the Anschluss considered themselves to be the better Germans, especially in contrast to the III. Reich.

The history of central Europe is interesting and there are aspects of our beloved headwear that mirror this phenomenon.


But Ben's point about ADEFA is warranted. I wonder whether in the Weimar era caps hattters used the phrase "deutsche Wertarbeit"? That is the operative historical question to get to Ben's point, for at said time, there was no racist policy to cleanse ethnically the apparel and uniform sector, obviously.

Maybe Mr. Chris H. Stonemint has some Weimar caps that illustrate the issue. The ones I have owned had no such inscription.