SS Hauptamt Tunic

[Friedrich-Berthold]

As one who has spent much time in Berlin and Vienna, the task of resoling a pair of shoes or boots is much easier there than in California.
We have many images of SS officers on this site and you would do well to examine the foot wear.

[tempelhof]

i lived in Berlin for six years, but i did not have time to ride there.

here, you are correct... it is inconvenient to say the least. even i have two pair.

thank you for your response!

i imagine that resoling these types of boots there, especially at the time, might have been simply a much bigger business and therefore a much more convenient proposition.

perhaps i should not only look at these images, but take a closer look at my own rather large number! have quite a lot of very fine and detailed pictures of Allgemeine SS and Waffen SS officers that are full length. odd that i have not thought of this question until seeing these boots here. i suppose it is seeing the soles in such detail that raised the question.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The marching boot and field boot is often double soled, and zwiegenaeht, that is, double stitched. The marching boot for other ranks is shorter than a riding boot.
There are Frentz images of Himmler at the Berghof wearing such conventional riding boots as these.
The Kleiderkasse SS from late 1940 has no entries for foot wear other than spurs and riding paraphenalia.
I have a pair of VA SS marching boots from 1937. There are also images of Reiter SS, I think, in Mollo in which identical boots as this SS Hauptamt Montur are worn.

See my appendix for the SS price list of 1934 below.

[BOB COLEMAN]

If this set was recently found in part of the Old Reich, it is not unreasonable to think insignia was reattached. SS veterans who wished to keep their old woolens would often remove the insignia and store it seperately so as not to run amok of the law. Everything does appear to be original but pricey for the condition.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

If this set was recently found in part of the Old Reich, it is not unreasonable to think insignia was reattached. SS veterans who wished to keep their old woolens would often remove the insignia and store it seperately so as not to run amok of the law. Everything does appear to be original but pricey for the condition.

Well said.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

In my life in Germany in former times, I frequently found uniforms in a denazified state. In fact, such was really the norm. Younger or less experienced collectors, whose frame of reference is solely the internet have no idea of how such material appeared forty or thirty years ago. It was then considered to be worthless junk and the denazification strictures a vivid memory, especially for those at that time who had gone through this experience a couple of decades earlier.
The internet perpetuates many silly myths as the posture of this material with the greatest generation, out of the woodwork, et cetera, never been in a collection and such rather odd persiflage.

[DrCMH]

Some photos for colleague tempelhof of some Officer's footwear...



CMH

[tempelhof]

Thank you, Dr. CMH.

I have not had an opportunity to see the soles and heels of these sort of "standard" riding boots as they were worn by SS officers from this perspective. I do see in this example, that the heels have been reinforced with steel.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

varieties of foot wear ca. December 1934 There are: marching boots, walking out boots, and infantry boots (true dice shakers) as well as alpine boots, work boots and elastic sided boots, and so fort. There are sports shoes and house shoes, and inlays and socks and foot wraps and all the things that are still prominent in life of feet and fashion in central Europe.

Notice the category of Ausgehstiefel, which likely were lightly soled versus the double stitched marching boots.

The boots in question likely fit into this category.

I have read elsewhere in the German army and the SS that the member purchased his own foot wear, which is still the case in the Bw, where the variety of such footwear is remarkable.

Not everything must have three RZM tags and four stamps on it.

When I lived in Kaiserslautern three decades and more ago, the shoe maker there still made wonderful Shaftstiefel with the double stitched sole which you can still find in Austria at huge expense. Those in the Pfalz were cheap.

what is not here are some ridiculous plastic running shoes with blue gel heels that wear out in six weeks and cost far more than many of these things cost originally....

No wonder that ordinary handicrafts in the western world is now treated like luxury goods at the court of Versailles versus the ordinary thing it once was in my youth.

Pi pa po.

[BOB COLEMAN]

In my life in Germany in former times, I frequently found uniforms in a denazified state. In fact, such was really the norm. Younger or less experienced collectors, whose frame of reference is solely the internet have no idea of how such material appeared forty or thirty years ago. It was then considered to be worthless junk and the denazification strictures a vivid memory, especially for those at that time who had gone through this experience a couple of decades earlier.
The internet perpetuates many silly myths as the posture of this material with the greatest generation, out of the woodwork, et cetera, never been in a collection and such rather odd persiflage.

Those who began collecting in the age of the Internet certainly have some strange ideas as to what is, to use their favorite term, "untouched." They lack the common sense to understand that insignia on uniforms would be removed for cleaning. Most cleaners of the era would then reattach the insignia. Insignia could also be removed and reattached or replaced when the owner was promoted or transferred. The frugal people of the era did not dispose of a tunic due to the fact that insignia needed to be changed. What ever occured with a garment between the 1920's until 1945 was not done to satisfy the pickiness of a collector in the 21st Century. It was accomplished to be expedient. Insignia can be changed by a tailor, cleaner, an individual's family or the individual himself. This of course will present a wide array of workmanship.