Article about: A Saarbruecken and Cologne black uniform as an adjunct to all the caps. Mr. Hritz will remember this uniform because of the roman numeral on the Sturmband, which I believe designates the 1st
A Saarbruecken and Cologne black uniform as an adjunct to all the caps. Mr. Hritz will remember this uniform because of the roman numeral on the Sturmband, which I believe designates the 1st Sturmbann in this case. Mr. Coleman has a similar uniform with a roman numeral on the cuff from an officer in Essen, i.e. the 20th Sta. There is no mention of this feature in the noted 2dary sources, but one knows that these works are far from perfect in their description of the uniforms in the Allgemeine SS, or even in the other branches of the SS with their staggering complexity.
Last edited by Friedrich-Berthold; 07-06-2008 at 05:28 PM.
The Saarbruecken uniform was originally offered to the world by Manion in 1978; later it passed through Wolfe-Hardin; thereupon it resided in the hands of a noted NSDAP uniform collector; then it was sold to a further advanced collection, when I had the chance to examine it on its way to its present location; the Koeln uniform came from a noted collector in the Old South known to Mr. Coleman, and the owner of exceptional material: cast off textile bits of the 20th century.
The collar patch for Standarte 58, with HQ until 1937 in Aachen and later in Koeln, as is so typical of Allgem. SS units. Who was its original owner? When was this uniform worn? All riddles that I cannot answer. The buttons on the tunic are RZM'd/SS'd and of later date, i.e. 1939 Somehow the thing made its way from the Rheinland to Dixie.
A most unusual and interesting Totenkppfverbande tunic of the 1934 era. This is the earliest RZM authorized tunic I have, dated 1934, with the first pattern piped officer's insignia which went out in late 1934.
The second photo is the RFSS authorization label and RZM tax label.
Dear Friend, thanks for your wonderful SS Wachverbaende item. I believe the second Bevo tag is the Verwaltungsamt SS contract number, and the date of 1934. As I have written elsewhere, this year marked the start of the SS clothing economy more or less as we have come to know it. A wonderful piece. Such pieces may also have had a large white tag with SS Dienstrock, an example of which I shall enclose later. The large white tags are identical (in most details...) to those in caps and other piece of clothing and equipment. I think these tags were placed directly on the lining and hence had a tendency to get worn off. Thanks so much for your kind sharing of your wonderful pieces.
Even in the ' Good Old Day," when 3rd Reich material was abundant, tunics like this were seldom encountered. Many were stripped on their insignia, which was sold seperately. It is always a plesure to see tunics of this quality level. Many thanks to Herr Berthold and Bob Hritz for sharing these treasures.
BOB
LIFE'S LOSERS NEVER LEARN FROM THE ERROR OF THEIR WAYS.
Mr. Coleman, himself, knows this material quite well. I take the liberty of affixing some pieces known to him and me. He is quite correct that such material as this in the US collector world was never particularly common and was violated by hunters and gatherers of shiny insignia. The pieces I have enclosed here in this thread appear to be organic, complete and un-damaged. When I saw the Sta. 85 uniform again a few years ago, I had thought the Saarbruecken uniform was put together by a prestige dealer; but I had actually seen the thing in a catalog in 1978 (and totally forgot...); and likely bought the black peaked cap that went with it at that time. The Saarbruecken uniform was 1500 dollars at Manion's in 1978, which was very costly. It had the same appearance in 1978 as it did when I examined it a couple of years ago.
As our Estonian friend rightly points out, the heap of black uniforms found in Russia in the early 1990s has meant that these pieces are more plentiful than in previous times, but one has to be alert to the added or fake insignia. The pieces in this thread are organic, complete, and intact from the III. Reich. The stripped uniforms also have enabled the fakers to make good copies of these pieces, too.
Thanks for the useful post. The two uniforms herein were the property of the same man. Who was he? What was he? We have only the most faint idea, other than his unit was the so called. "Sauerland" Standarte, with its HQ in Hagen, Westfalen. Those who take the train from Cologne to Berlin (or drive for that matter....) have passed through there frequently.
One can also see that the man updated his cuff title in about 1937/8, when the color bordered cuff titles were phased out....
Thanks to Mr. Coleman and Mr. Hritz for their time and generosity. I would also offer that I personally find these black uniforms as interesting as the field grey combat uniforms which are so much in favor on other websites and among the breathless descriptions of the prestige dealers. Surely this statement will put some of you off, but the unknown stories of 1933-1945 interest me as much as some of the potted-plant propaganda c.v.s of the regime darlings. Who knows, the owner of these hum drum black uniforms might have gone on to have a notable military career in the Wehrmacht or Waffen SS and we cannot discern said fact from the remnants here?
black uniforms
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