new work on Allgemeine SS in German

[Friedrich-Berthold]

This catalog of the exhibition at the Prinz Albrecht Strasse new museum is first rate.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The serious collector requires a sound library.

[Glenn66]

How refreshing to see a shift away from the skulls and sig runen nazi-porn of contemporary historical literature.

[HPL2008]

If either of you have time and I know which one that is likely to be it would be appreciated by us non German speakers to read a few translated paragraphs that you might find of particular interest within these publications.

I am currently roughly 1/3 through the Hein book and it certainly makes for fascinating reading.

The "problem" is that the whole subject of the SS' growth and development as described in this study - especially when it comes to such matters as the selection, indoctrination, training and disciplining of its members or the way the organization presented itself to outsiders - is a highly complex one.

Thus, the work really has to be read in its entirety and it is practically impossible to pick out particularly significant individual quotes and paragraphs. Anyway, Friedrich-Berthold has already outlined its overall contents better than I could ever do.

Still, here is one bit about the SS' earliest history that is worth quoting:

"Just how weak the first SS leadership around Schreck, Heiden, Maurice and Schreck's 'right-hand man', the unemployed laborer Alois Rosenwink, and thus the SS itself initially were, is illustrated by two episodes from the winter of 1925/26. When a competing organization called Schutzabteilung was formed within the NSDAP Ortsgruppe Munich-Schwabing under one Josef Lidl, Schreck had to ask Hitler to prohibit such things. With the 'Führer' not intervening at first, a National Socialist Christmas celebration saw a verbal confrontation between Heiden and the Schwabingers, during which the former threatened to rip the self-made insingia off the latters' brownshirts. This led to Schreck, Heiden and Rosenwink being attacked and beat up by Lidl's men during a Hitler event at Munich in February 1926. When Schreck repeatedly made written requests to the Westphalian SA leader Viktor Lutze to name him men from his Gau who were suitable to become Schutzstaffel officers, Lutze simply ignored the man from Munich altogether."
(Hein p. 41f., translated by me)

I found this one interesting because:

a) I had never heard of this short-lived competing quasi-SS.
b) it nicely illustrates the often violent in-fighting of those early days (giving way to more subtle intrigues post-1933).
c) one cannot help but wonder just what those self-made insignia were!

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I am currently roughly 1/3 through the Hein book and it certainly makes for fascinating reading.

The "problem" is that the whole subject of the SS' growth and development as described in this study - especially when it comes to such matters as the selection, indoctrination, training and disciplining of its members or the way the organization presented itself to outsiders - is a highly complex one.

Thus, the work really has to be read in its entirety and it is practically impossible to pick out particularly significant individual quotes and paragraphs. Anyway, Friedrich-Berthold has already outlined its overall contents better than I could ever do.

Still, here is one bit about the SS' earliest history that is worth quoting:

"Just how weak the first SS leadership around Schreck, Heiden, Maurice and Schreck's 'right-hand man', the unemployed laborer Alois Rosenwink, and thus the SS itself initially were, is illustrated by two episodes from the winter of 1925/26. When a competing organization called Schutzabteilung was formed within the NSDAP Ortsgruppe Munich-Schwabing under one Josef Lidl, Schreck had to ask Hitler to prohibit such things. With the 'Führer' not intervening at first, a National Socialist Christmas celebration saw a verbal confrontation between Heiden and the Schwabingers, during which the former threatened to rip the self-made insingia off the latters' brownshirts. This led to Schreck, Heiden and Rosenwink being attacked and beat up by Lidl's men during a Hitler event at Munich in February 1926. When Schreck repeatedly made written requests to the Westphalian SA leader Viktor Lutze to name him men from his Gau who were suitable to become Schutzstaffel officers, Lutze simply ignored the man from Munich altogether."
(Hein p. 41f., translated by me)

I found this one interesting because:

a) I had never heard of this short-lived competing quasi-SS.
b) it nicely illustrates the often violent in-fighting of those early days (giving way to more subtle intrigues post-1933).
c) one cannot help but wonder just what those self-made insignia were!

Well said. I have read more or less the leading literature on the SS since the year 1969, and Hein has truly found some intriguing and interesting things of merit.

I hope it is translated into English.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

How refreshing to see a shift away from the skulls and sig runen nazi-porn of contemporary historical literature.

Thanks. Such is my goal with this post. That is, some of you have a genuine interest in history in its more demanding aspects and want to learn more.

[Glenn66]

some of you have a genuine interest in history in its more demanding aspects and want to learn more.

Quite right. One of my favoured reads recently has been an insight into the funding of the Nazi welfare state via systematic domestic and international plunder. Hitler's Beneficiaries: Plunder,Racial War,and the Nazi Welfare State: Götz Aly: 9780805079265: Amazon.com: Books

No images of swastikas, skulls or black uniforms were contained therein.