Anfaenger der Wiener SS

[Friedrich-Berthold]

This book is a real must for anyone interested in our topic. The other Allgem. SS book is also very good, but the detail and insight of this work on the character of the Austrian SS and its development through 1938 or so, is astonishing.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

There are also a number of very good photographs, well reproduced for Uniformkunde, as well as a discussion of the price of uniforms in the year 1932 or so.
The cost of a complete SS uniform in equivalent terms was more or less Euros 450, which is quite costly if the Staffelmann was unemployed.
The author examines the organizational development of these Austrian SS units against the background of the end of Austrian democracy, the rise of the Austrofascist regime, the illegality of the NSDAP and its organizations in Bavarian exlite, and much more in superb detail and based on excellent research. I am full of admiration for this woman and her years of labor. The roles and missions of the Allgem. SS in its infancy are well interpreted in superb detail. The collective biography of these SS figures is every bit as interesting to me than the chewed over and cliched Waffen SS Ritterkreuztraeger types that over populate the other sites.