Is there any way to ID an SS Officer?

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The grey cap on the head of the US officer and in the present are possibly the property of the same officer in the first image, or not. Depending on the SS officer's role, he well could have owned both a black and grey cap. In any case, the survival of the cap in the image of the US officer is astonishing and the piece is a very valuable piece of 20th century history.
Congratulations and please take good care of it.
Thanks for showing it to us.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

In re reading the account of where this man was apparently stationed with his unit in Germany, that is in the Koeln-Bonn area, it would be more likely to identify this officer at the beginning. Looking at the images, they could well be from the Cologne-Bonn area as is one of my uniforms I posted here, in fact. The image with the several SS men posing on the tree lined street is not unlike Godesberg, actually. I studied at Bonn and have spent a great deal of time there professionally, so it is possible to examine the officers in the Standarte 58.

In the above account, Andernach, south of Bonn, is mis spelled.

Actually, a fair amount of Standarte 58 material survives in collections.

It is also quite likely that SS officers in this Allgemeine SS unit then served in other branches of the SS or even had a grey uniform, which, though not common for part timers, did occur when in a full time billet.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The method to identify the officer in the black uniform is arduous, however; that is, one has to look at the various rank lists for the years, say, 1936 through 1939 or so and then to figure out all the officers of the Standarten in the middle Rhine area. Such requires an on site examination of all the personnel files in the Bundesarchiv/ B'ln Lichterfelde archive.

The Axis History Forum has some exceptionally talented people able to identify SS officers, but the man at the head of the file here is a small fish in a somewhat large pond, as it were. Moreover, one does poorly to believe that the leadership corps of the SS in the years in question were anything but static. There was much turbulence of SS officers joining the Wehrmacht, getting in trouble and being turfed out and even going to Valhalla or its opposite.

[tfurtado]

I am sorry to revive a post that is 4 weeks old, but it's been a while since I've been able to put any time into this.

Is it possible that this hat is of a Waffen General's rank? I have seen descriptions of them on another site, but trying to google or search for an image that I can use to compare has been frustrating. Maybe there isn't a way to tell without knowing who the owned was, which puts me back to where I started.

As always, thanks in advance!

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Attached is a grey cap for a flag rank in the SS. Such caps had alu. piping. This cap is courtesy of the Coleman collection. Your cap is for officer ranks of the equivalent of company and field grade ( to use US military parlance...)

[texasuberalles]

In the first picture, can anyone suppose what the apparent sleeve insignia is below the low placed swastika armband?

[BOB COLEMAN]

The man is definitely not Brigadefuhrer Alfred Arnold. I own many items from the Arnold family and have many photographs of Arnold Sr. This man is younger and has only a resemblence through the mustache. From his age and physical condition, he is definitely a member of the Allgemeine (General)SS, not the Waffen SS. I must concur that the gray cap can certainly have been the property of either a Waffen SS or Allgemeine SS officer.

[ironcross1]

Very interesting thread , hope it continues , cheers guys , Raymond