black SS uniform in wear

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Here are some early black SS uniforms (note long skirt...) in wear at what I believe is the 1937 Reichsparteitag

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Here are some further images of note...a tunic of the Kaiserslautern Standarte. Although this piece was tailored several kms. westward towards Saarbruecken, it seems, this unit had its HQ in the Westpflazmetropole. Some of the readers will recognize Kaiserslautern as part of the US zone of occupation/stationed forces. Likely a US soldier turned this up either at the time, or in the years since war's end. When in search of black uniforms, the provenance from western Germany is a factor, ie. those areas occupied by the US or perhaps the UK in the veracity of a piece. Another aspect are the Sudeten German uniforms, which seem to have endured in Czechia somehow. This was a nice piece. Where is it now? It was sold by a dealer in the US Midwest.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The collar patch of Sta. 10 in the extra form, or, that which came into standard use after 1936 or so, i.e. general use of alu wire vs. the cotton or rayon Stickerei. Or this was the man's better uniform, and was rendered in better badges.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Here is the Sauerlandstandarte, # 69

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Aachen/Koeln/Bonn Standarte

Here are some collar patches of an officer in the Sta. 58, who also in an engineer unit likely in the Cologne area. This regalia from his service in the HQ of this Standarte. Very rare regalia it is, because one seldom or ever finds this kind of early collar patch or the Sta. # on the cuff title. What most dealers purport to be officer's cuff titles with Sta. # are actually post 1937 or Sturmbaender for the Sturm. The colored bordered cuff titles were phased out (but remained in use...kinda) in 1937. This material was found by Peter Jenkins, who has a knack for this sort of thing.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Here is the Sturmband with the colored border.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

a post 1937 or so Sturmband for all ranks. The colored borders got dropped, for reasons that remain somewhat murky. This information is not in the secondary works, save in a footnote of 1991 by Mollo. Otherwise, you would not know. And, this little irritating fact collides with the handful of nice, authentic and organic, that is, un messed-with black uniforms that made it through the abyss of time and turmoil. There are many details of Allgemeine SS insignia that remain to be unraveled by some adventuresome soul.

[Bob Hritz]

An unterscharfuehrer from SS Standarte 20, Dusseldorf. he wears the standarte honor cuff title Fritz Weitzel. Lower ranks would wear other honor titles, with colored borders.

This is a very large tunic, pants, cap, boots and bayonet, which were all brought back together. the visor hat is the delux model with yellow rayon liner and large RFSS BeVo label, under the sweat diamond.

Bob Hritz

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Thank you, colleague, that is a wonderful Montur. We all admire it. The Honor cuff titles for the Sta. or the Sturm signify a special realm of rarity. You are very lucky to have this fine ensemble. I believe that Bob Coleman has an officer's uniform from the same unit. Duesseldorf is also in the West, a (former) city of steel and heavy industry and no doubt of red vs brown violence in the days of Fritz Weitzel and the SS prior to 30 January 1933 or soon thereafter.

Thank you for access to your fine collection. One does not see the Seitengewehr often with an Allgem. SS uniform (but one does with SSVT and SSTV). Maybe this man had been in the old army, where he wore the Seitengewehr in this manner.

In any case, a splendid Montur. Bravo.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

All of the units posted here are from the Rhineland or its glacis (Sauerland...) and add grist to my mill as concerns where these things were found and collected up in whatever period of time between 1945 and 19XX. I do not want to suggest that a uniform must be from western Germany in order to be real--perish the thought. But in the main, the pieces you see to which colleague Hritz made reference as concerns the SD uniform he recently examined, seem to be western or southern ones, i.e. the British and US zones of occupation. There are surely exceptions to this statement, and I am an enemy of lists, lessons learned and iron clad collector dogma. The latter bespeaks how little its author actually knows.

I have not collected this material quite as long as colleague Hritz, but for a long time all the same, and what I write above is a distillate of experience.

Maybe someone has a better theory, and we would welcome it.

Once more, many hearty thanks for a wonderful ensemble from one of the world's leading collections.