Article about: I picked up an SS armband years ago. It passed the blacklight test and the black cloth RZM tag looked good to me so I took a chance on it. I took it to a so-called expert to look at it and h
I picked up an SS armband years ago. It passed the blacklight test and the black cloth RZM tag looked good to me so I took a chance on it. I took it to a so-called expert to look at it and he said it was a repro, and offered me $25 for it. This same expert told me my Lend Lease 1911A1 was a parts gun, a Remington Rand frame and a Colt slide, and offered me $650 for it. I told him about the overlap in serial numbers between Colt and RR which he knew nothing about. I pointed out the GHD inspector marks on the pistol and he still insisted he was right. I had also verified that the serial number on the slide matched that on the frame, which I did not tell the "expert". I later found the value of the Colt to be between $2700-$3000USD. I put the armband aside for years and haven't thought about it until I joined this forum. I'd like to get the opinions of the experts here on the forum. I will say that if it is a fake, it is a finely wrought one for sure. The "expert" said the stitching was not right on the white field, as there is a bar-tack stitch around the perimeter of the white field. He said it didn't look right. I'll post pics and let the experts here give me their opinions. Supposedly it came from the estate of a WW2 vet, but I take the words of someone trying to sell me something with a grain of salt. I am having some trouble posting pics, but if I can't get them up tonight, I will. Your opinions would be greatly appreciated.
Kampfbinde bis zum geht nicht mehr. I also propose that there exist a category for crooked dealers and what not, and that such be separate from those on authentic regalia.
Between the "scul" threads and the dealer high jinx threads there is not a lot of regalia left to see anymore.
These men are not thinking about the stitching in their arm bands. They are thinking of the joys of motorization at a low price for the German working man, though.
I would like their uniforms. I used to drive a Volkswagen, too. I imagine most of the kids in this picture, if they lived after 1945, did as well.
Nor are the men in black clothes in this picture concerned whether their "sets match" on their caps. Nor would they comprehend that certain personages would steal the insignia from said caps and discard the cap in this peculiar year 2010 for what would have been the price of a KdF Wagen on subscription.
A more edifying question is: when did the RFSS authorize the various pieces of uniform and impose the requirement to have this tag affixed to many things you and I want instead of investing in our Roth IRA accounts?
Do you know?
Do you have the document to this effect?
My theory on this derives in part from some of these images, but I am not even sure I am right. Likely not.
But then....when, why and how did they stop affixing it...?
Various sources indicate that in the course of 1934 this system must have come into existence that gave rise to the tags and contract numbers we see here.
That is, the Verwaltungsamt SS established its own presence in the RZM (not a major step, granted their physical proximity in Muenchen) and the SS freed itself from the SA and became a separate entity, with an ever growing budgetary requirement associated with its diffuse roles and missions. The latter in turn led to new sources of funds in the state and even in germ of the SS system of economic enterprises, with its base at Dachau.
Also, the fussy and bitchy psyche of Himmler, himself, must have played a role in this requiement, as well as the tendency of others to make what were, for all intents and purposes, fake Nazi uniforms at the time. These were either poor quality imitations, or Nazi like uniforms, which confused the civilian and enraged the NSDAP leadership who were at pains to impose totalitarian order in the face of various source of friction and resistance.
I have not found anything on this score in Uniformenmarkt, but in reading about the RZM there, you can read between the lines and piece all of this together with the excellent literature on the SS economic enterprises, in which the Verwaltungsamt SS has a central, decisive role.
Happy labels and tags to all who accord such picayune things their magical meaning.
Postscriptum: you will also notice that these threads of our little heap have also set the Google listings of black SS uniform off its trunions somewhat. This war relics site is beating out the competition.
Another SS Armband thread
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