Black SS uniform in wear, 1943

**Walter** · 01-03-2010, 08:19 PM

Don't know if this counts or not, but this is Gunter D'alquen wearing the SS "tuxedo", sometime after his promotion to Standartenfuhrer in either 43 or 44

This one was actually taken in 1938.

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 01-03-2010 08:19 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**stonemint** · 03-13-2010, 03:06 PM

I do not know the name of this Brigadefuhrer, but he put on his Sunday best for Himmlers inspection of Mauthausen in 1941:

**HPL2008** · 03-13-2010, 03:14 PM

by stonemint

I do not know the name of this Brigadefuhrer, but he put on his Sunday best for Himmlers inspection of Mauthausen in 1941:

That would be August Eigruber. More from that visit can be found here:
Category:Mauthausen-Gusen Himmler visit - Wikimedia Commons

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 03-13-2010, 05:16 PM

by HPL2008

That would be August Eigruber. More from that visit can be found here:
Category:Mauthausen-Gusen Himmler visit - Wikimedia Commons

Eigruber was Gauleiter of Upper Austria (with his honorary SS rank) and a major stakeholder in the effectiveness of the slave labor business model embodied in Mauthausen and DEST. He was also a good chum of Adolf Hitler.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 03-13-2010, 05:53 PM

The other piece about this visit is the large contingent of Waffen SS officers in tow, which puts the lie to the generalization found among certain persons that the camp system and the armed SS were somehow unconnected and existed in separate spheres of state and society in the III. Reich. Himmler frequently visited this locale on the Danube near Linz and the images of these visits are well preserved. Mauthhausen is far more frightening a place than say Dachau in its appearance and as regards its present state of preservation.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 03-13-2010, 06:02 PM

Thanks to Mr. Chris Stonemint for his ongoing interest in this arcane and generally meaningless aspect of Uniformkunde im III. Reich. If you look in November 1944 oath taking ceremony of the Volksturm in the Deutsch Wochenschau newsreels you will also see examples of the black uniform in wear at this rather late date, and surely a date that does not accord with the collector drivel to the effect that the Allgemeine SS was issued grey uniform across the board in the course of the war. Those few persons in staff positions that were full time (i.e. hauptamtlich vs. ehrenamtlich) got a grey uniform.

Postscriptum: this uniform is not mine.

**HPL2008** · 03-13-2010, 07:29 PM

by Friedrich-Berthold

The other piece about this visit is the large contingent of Waffen SS officers in tow, which puts the lie to the generalization found among certain persons that the camp system and the armed SS were somehow unconnected and existed in separate spheres of state and society in the III.

Interestingly, in addition to at least two Knight's Cross holders, the group contains none other than Paul Hausser himself.
Unsurprisingly, Karl Wolff, Oswald Pohl and the instantly recognizable Ernst Kaltenbrunner are also among the visitors.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 03-13-2010, 07:57 PM

by HPL2008

Interestingly, in addition to at least two Knight's Cross holders, the group contains none other than Paul Hausser himself.
Unsurprisingly, Karl Wolff, Oswald Pohl and the instantly recognizable Ernst Kaltenbrunner are also among the visitors.

Hausser and his post war apologia did a lot to perpetuate the myth that these spheres of the SS existed in different solar systems. This idea was part of coming to grips with the past in the late-1940s and early 1950s. See image.

All part of the enduring fascination of history in central Europe in the 20th century. The move by the Bundesarchiv with the pictures is part of a generalized trend of enlisting us likes to help archivist figure out what they have. There was an interesting series of pictures from a photographer in the Luftwaffe on the eastern front on the Spiegel website where our kind allowed the identification of images that would otherwise languish in obscurity.

Thanks for the kind aid from Europe with these further images.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 03-14-2010, 05:22 AM

Here is Hausser's book which first appeared in the 1950s at the time of the foundation of the Bundeswehr and of intense debate about the role of soldiers in the recent past. The contents of this book do not jibe with the reality of the images from Mauthhausen. Not especially the reality of "wie es eigentlich gewesen.." as Ranke taught us.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 03-14-2010, 05:25 AM

This being said, I am a great fan of SS Verfuegungstruppe material, but the Waffen SS was also constituted of the former Totenkopf units, as well. As you all well know....