Post your favorite SS Item!!

[Scout]

The decorations he wore.Attachment 326179Attachment 326178

Very nice uniform.
I quite like the Reiter Abzeichen. I quite like those and the odd (for the TR) institution which was the SS Haupt-Reitschule.

[Eddie]

Just to think; A chicken farmer will live forever in history while those of us who have lived an honest, hard working life will maybe, one day be forgotten. Does this mean he has won?

Not to be a pendant, but as a point of information, Himmler wasn't really a "chicken farmer", though he was engaged in chicken farming for a short period of time. He was really a nationalist, racist activist, which is where he got into chicken farming, as a means to "get back to the soil". Calling him a chicken farmer is meant to make fun of him, but that bit of information is more interesting when you know that he became a chicken farmer for a reason, not simply that he was a failure at one period of his life, or that he came from humble beginnings(he was firmly middle class with all the classic middle class strivings for financial and status betterment). Himmler was a far more complicated and terrifying individual than simply a chicken farmer. A man who never really served in war previously was put in charge of an entire multinational army because he was such a fanatic and so completely dedicated to his Führer. I also like to look for Himmler's "Reiterabzeichen", an award for horse riding, which he usually wore on his dress uniform. For such a powerful man, it's always seemed funny to me that he wore an award that displayed his horse riding aptitude so prominently.

Artaman League - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (This is where Himmler was a chicken farmer)

Edit: HPL2008 points out further in this thread that I was thinking of Himmler's SA sport badge, which can be seen in the photo a few posts down. Himmler never received the "Reiterabzeichen" as I stated in the second last sentence of my post.

[Eddie]

More on topic, here's my SS sports shirt patch(pictures are from the seller). I received this the other day and I had to pack it away for my upcoming move, but I wanted to show it off. I love thinking about how important athleticism was to the previous owner, more so than in other branches of service because this represented his racial fitness as well. It's also really nice to own an article with such attractive Sig Runes. While still just the patch for some guy's gym shirt, the importance that the SS put on fitness makes this a more valuable and desirable object in my eyes.

[Scout]

Himmler sure was no great soldier - just look at the mess which was Heeresgruppe Weichsel under his command.
For one who so longed for being in a war, he sure failed miserably.
When he fell, he fell hard. His last days were a far cry from his days as the 'émminence grise' of the Third Reich.
He actually suffered from the illusion, that the Allied would treat him with respect and as a force to be reckoned with. Instead he ended up on a dirty floor having the commited suicide.
What an ignominious end for one who at one time wielded so much power.

But I digress. Sorry for going OT.

[Eddie]

Himmler sure was no great soldier - just look at the mess which was Heeresgruppe Weichsel under his command.
For one who so longed for being in a war, he sure failed miserably.
When he fell, he fell hard. His last days were a far cry from his days as the 'émminence grise' of the Third Reich.
He actually suffered from the illusion, that the Allied would treat him with respect and as a force to be reckoned with. Instead he ended up on a dirty floor having the commited suicide.
What an ignominious end for one who at one time wielded so much power.

But I digress. Sorry for going OT.

I appreciate your information filled digression. Thanks for including the SS Reitschule as well, Heini's horse riding badge makes a lot more sense with that info.

[M18922]

He has Won? Even the Chicken Farmer knew there's only one that always wins. Who will know we were even here 100 years from now,in any case? How many of us know where lie the bones of their Great Grandparents? or Their parents? I suspect that all these expensive bits of treasures today will be meaningless crap to the peoples of the distant tomorrows. How many people today are frantic to obtain small uniform parts and insignia's from, say, Friederich the Great's armies? Napoleon's? Xerxes? What is all consuming today means nothing tomorrow. Guelphs vs. Ghibellines? The Tatars? How many fools died because a Danish cartoonist drew a unflattering picture of Muhammad? The "War to end all wars!"-WWI, is now quickly fading into legends and myths. There's no one left who was in it anymore-no more witnesses. Today, famous battlefields are no longer even known as to their locations. Where was Clontarf? No one really knows. Who was the Norseman who held back the Harold Godwinson and his Anglo-Saxons at Stamford Bridge? The great Roman massacre in the Teutorburg Forests-where? Don't know. Where did Hannibal cross the Alps? Did he really have elephants? Surely we must know exactly where Cannae was? Nope. Where are the still buried explosive mines of Messines? Was Arthur real? El Cid? Did Roland of the Marshes and the Bishop die saving Charlemagne's army at Roncesvalles? Even WWII now is fading into stories and legends-many of which may well be garbled up myths of real events we may never know now. The master Russian sniper of Stalingrad? Rudolf Hess-what really happened? Today people live, eat and die where terrible things happened once-and never have a clue that they did. Whether it be a huge conflict, or a small private pocket of Hell and Nightmare fighting between a handful. Where are the other thousands of Polish officers -the Flower of the Poles-buried that were not at Katyn? Under someones corn field today? 100,000 dead building the White Sea Canal-some say over twice that many. Who remembers their names today? There are no end to the questions-and more coming all the time. And even fewer answers. With every passing year, History fades just a little bit more and Legends grow believable. Masters of today are the dust of tomorrow. Always has been that way-always will be. I read today that Hitler's ashes were flushed down the toilet into the sewers of Magdeburg. And so the Mighty and the Unknown all end up. Equal at last in the End. Was it all just "a tempest in a teacup"? The "man with the sickle" doesn't Leer at Anyone. To him, we're all mere motes of passing dust...Here today...gone tomorrow.

I was reading that with Peter Dicksons voice in my head.



Cheers, Pat

[HPL2008]

I also like to look for Himmler's "Reiterabzeichen", an award for horse riding, which he usually wore on his dress uniform. For such a powerful man, it's always seemed funny to me that he wore an award that displayed his horse riding aptitude so prominently.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but... I've never seen Himmler wear a horsemanship badge.

[Eddie]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but... I've never seen Himmler wear a horsemanship badge.

Hi HPL,
I probably misidentified this award, is this his SA sports badge above his belt and under his strap?



Edit, it must be, as Himmler didn't receive the Equestrian Badge.
German Equestrian Badge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sorry for the misinformation in the thread.

[HPL2008]

I probably misidentified this award, is this his SA sports badge above his belt and under his strap?

Yes; that's right.

Sometimes - as seen here - he wore the SA Sports Badge and sometimes the German Sports Badge (but apparently never both at the same time).

[Himmler was entitled to more than half a dozen pinback badges/awards (even without counting the foreign ones), but - like Hitler - went for a "humble" image and sometimes wore only one or two of them, but never more than three at a time, in varying combinations.]

[Scout]

IIRC he didnt have any military decorations per se