Black tunic, original?

[Friedrich-Berthold]

All aspects of the past, no matter how minute, require a steady scrutiny.

On the Keynesian side of things, however, the thinking of the time was likely that the expense for uniforms gave work to many, which was the central goal of the regime and the cost was secondary. Read the Kaienburg book, which apparently is a bridge too far, because it is out of print. It treats the money thing very clearly, actually.

After all, the Nazi credo was that the economy existed for the state and party, and not the state existed to serve the economy as has become the norm in these unhappy times.

The Nazis were not bean counters quite in the way that dominates our present, at least not mine. They did keep track of expenses, as well as imbibe in Prussian thrift when it suited them, but the mentality of management was different from our day.

Maybe if they had had programming, planning and budgeting, they would have done better in grand strategy.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Apropos your interest in the Polish textile area as Nazi booty, the old Marxist school of thought about the Nazi economy when I was a pup was basically when the Nazis over heated the economy and got into a pickle with rearmament, they started the war to smash and grab resources, markets, and capacity to even things out.

That was Tim Mason's idea, but he is dead, and I am now much too old to care about such arcane debates, and you of the younger generation can noodle it all out.

You'd better learn German, or crank up the vacuum tubes on your Google translator widget, though, or else none of it will make sense.

Also, the purpose of this thread was to offer basics for young people to collect black SS tunics.

[BenVK]

Surely it would be a rather simple task to study the period documentation to ascertain if there was an official decree as to the preference to using trikot right accross the board as the official uniform material? If not, fair enough but at least that would be proof in the form of a negative official order.

I don't know whether any of this kind of material exists but my frustration is always having to ask the German language speakers and seem like the annoying idiot even when I bend over backwards to supply those people with the period documentation that they quote from..

And I'm sorry to say, it's starting to get on my tits especially when they constantly remind me to learn German...

[Friedrich-Berthold]

You might address your query to Wim Saris or Mr. d'Alquen here. While I have read secondary literature on Wehrmacht uniforms, my focus here has been on the black SS uniform, since I collect them. I have never read the circulars of the quarter master branch of the army or the air force, though I have some of their clothing regulations in primary form. I would also observe that these sources in the original are pretty complicated, and you need adequate experience and training, usually of the postgraduate type, to make sense of them.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Surely it would be a rather simple task to study the period documentation to ascertain if there was an official decree as to the preference to using trikot right accross the board as the official uniform material? If not, fair enough but at least that would be proof in the form of a negative official order.

I don't know whether any of this kind of material exists but my frustration is always having to ask the German language speakers and seem like the annoying idiot even when I bend over backwards to supply those people with the period documentation that they quote from..

And I'm sorry to say, it's starting to get on my tits especially when they constantly remind me to learn German...

A point of information as to prices and costs and the management aspects of same, you will note on this document that the prices of textiles were set by the RZM. The latter had nothing to do, as near as I can tell, with the prices for items of the armed forces. Moreover, this is not a free market in this instance, but one branch of the party state apparatus dictating prices to the other, in this case, the SS or SA, for instance. Such was more of a cartel, that is, a divying up of the market to regulate competition. A very typical phenomenon of the era.
The issue of prices, raw materials, and specifications for uniform items is exhaustively interpreted in Uniformenmarkt, which, by the way, was not provided to me by any third party.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Here as promised is the list of the kinds of textiles for the army and air force, or DLV, at the time. This is the list as offered by one whole saler of textiles, mind you. There were many, as a short glance in the RZM Handbook reveals. This list includes much other valuable material, no pun intended. Note that the terms of art here are: Reichswehr and Flieger. The Luftwaffe as such may not have existed formally when this price list was published, as there is no date I easily found and Flieger is the DLV.

In any case, many different types of woolens were at hand for these branches, more so and at a higher price than for the NSDAP branches, for reasons that I cannot fathom, other than the Selbsteinkleider had the option of a more luxurious kit.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Here is the page from the RZM Herstellungsvorschriften of 1936 as concerns cap textiles. These addenda are primary documents, not gun show lore or tales told by besotted idiot. Moreover, I am not in a position to translate these because such takes a great deal of time, at least for me, as I make no use of machines.

Further, without a specialized vocabulary, you cannot make much sense of this or the others, really, in any case. A lot of the German connected with technical terms in the textile trade is archaic, as is frequently the language of the RZM circulars as well as Uniformenmarkt.
That is, it is not the German you hear a 16 year old of today rattling off on Pro Sieben or RTL. PS The Wilkins book makes a brave attempt at some of these terms, but is not especially transparent.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Now someone on the maroon malevolent site thinks this odd tunic at the head of the column is real.

Pfui Teufel.

PS this enclosure is one of the redyed BGS wonders of Studio Breuer, as is this nifty tag with the magic 28. Notice, as well, the lower pockets are without the tell tale slanted cut....a sight that brings much joy to all.

Of course, the fakes of the last twenty years are made up of whole cloth and include this feature.....the little bastards.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Contrast.....

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Once more, for emphasis, authentic black uniforms. How odd that on the other site, the maroon madness and hatred site, no one bothers to post any authentic regalia? Why would that be?