Super Important!! SS Allgemeine SS Officer's Hat Real or fake?????

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 02-02-2013, 07:17 AM

Here are pictures of some of my caps from forty years ago.....in a different time, to be sure.

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 02-02-2013 07:17 AM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**ObKrieger** · 02-02-2013, 07:32 AM

by Friedrich-Berthold

Thank you. I will reserve it for you when the time comes. My best, FB

That would be wonderful! It might take a while though. I am going to have to sell a lot of pocket lint.

**Paul D** · 02-02-2013, 11:32 AM

by Larry C

WW2fanatic....I do have to say that the photos Friedrich has posted over the years speaks more in volumes,, then what words can express. I am not an SS cap collector,,but within less than a years time I began to see differences in characteristics on many varied caps. I saw the one you posted and knew ,, it had reproductive issues.

You came to the right place when you posted that cap............if you stay awhile and be fed,,your knowledge will grow. I can not hold a candle in knowledge... to the amount of information that is known by some of the greatest minds in this hobby on this forum. Stay awhile if your serious enough,, you wont be sorry,,but the professors here do not "molly coddle" their students. Hard lessons sometimes.... but beneficial rewards

Regards Larry

I can only concur these caps are not my thing by any means but thanks to FB and others exhaustive work on here over a long period of time even i recognised it immedialtely as a fake , so please stick around and be educated , i suspect this forum has already saved you thousands of dollars !!

**aurelius180** · 02-02-2013, 02:23 PM

by Larry C

WW2fanatic....I do have to say that the photos Friedrich has posted over the years speaks more in volumes,, then what words can express. I am not an SS cap collector,,but within less than a years time I began to see differences in characteristics on many varied caps. I saw the one you posted and knew ,, it had reproductive issues.

You came to the right place when you posted that cap............if you stay awhile and be fed,,your knowledge will grow. I can not hold a candle in knowledge... to the amount of information that is known by some of the greatest minds in this hobby on this forum. Stay awhile if your serious enough,, you wont be sorry,,but the professors here do not "molly coddle" their students. Hard lessons sometimes.... but beneficial rewards

Regards Larry

I couldn't agree more! I'm currently in no position to make an SS purchase but in a few months time I've been able to start spotting some fakes when they are posted on here. This is almost entirely due to FB's (and many other members) generosity in continually advising others on authenticity and from posting so many pictures from his wonderful collection.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 02-02-2013, 05:17 PM

Thanks, friends. You might as well profit from my mistakes. I sincerely appreciate the kind thoughts and look forward to more collective exploration of cast off pieces of mass political violence in the 20th century. Happy collecting to you all.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 02-02-2013, 05:45 PM

Black SS officer caps in the main came in roughly two types, or maybe three, I would say: there is the species with the plain black inside, with nothing on the cello shield---this is the simple cap; in the years 1934 through 1936 and likely later, there existed the so called Sonderanfertigung cap, with a pumpkin or yellow silk or satin or rayon interior, with the runes, tags. These do not in my experience have a black interior with the runics; then there is the private made with a logo, which is more or less through 1935, and especially rare.
The styles of SS caps were more or less introduced in 1934. The Sonderanfertigung has long been faked, but not very well, though the fakes are surely much better today than earlier.

**KradSpam** · 02-15-2013, 02:42 AM

FB, do you know anything about the rather emaciated chap with the armband? I'm not suggesting responsibility on your part.

A quick internet search suggests a victim of the Dresden raid? Quite a striking pic.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 02-15-2013, 03:23 AM

I think the corpse is in Dresden, the gruesome result of the opening of an air raid shelter some months after the war with its awful victims who had all been suffocated.
The image is typical of many photos of the rubble in 1945 and 1946 which have artistic and historical merit.
The richness of the past consists of its contrasts and how these illustrate human folly. To highlight this signal fact about our interest is entirely my responsibility.

**greimers** · 02-15-2013, 10:23 AM

Can we please make an effort not to become flippant or non-challant regarding other peoples suffering.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 02-15-2013, 08:26 PM

The richness of the past consists of its contrasts and how these illustrate human folly. To highlight this signal fact about our interest is entirely my responsibility.

There is no flippancy or light heartedness in this statement. Rather, such emphasizes the depths of human suffering worked by the destructiveness of integral nationalism, racism, and a berserk will to power.