"D" RZM/SS Tagged Party Arm Bands?

[DerKerl]

So, was the procedure for the SS to send the tags to the manufacturer for them to add or did the manufacturer make their own tags for their own products or both that changed over time any idea? Doug

Who knows? As these were made over an extended period of time, undoubtedly they have some connection to the SS. Too many of the examples with the later paper tags exist for it to be any accidental misapplication of the proper tax label.

[BOB COLEMAN]

The tax tags were issued by the Reichzugmeisterei.

[harryamb2]

when the man speaks we all listen.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The manufacturer had to secure a license from the RZM; the tags were issued by the RZM, and their primary role was to carry the license number of the maker, as trade logos were forbidden. Might I correct the term 'tax,' which is a misnomer. The RZM levied fees to cover its expenses from each item sold, and the amount charged varied depending on the item sold. This system is described in the Mitteilungsblaetter d. RZM. If you look in the contemporary works on such things, "taxes" were levied via a different mechanism on different things, of which there were a lot to displease any libertarian. The uniform trade was tightly regulated in various ways to restrict the market, reduce costs, nurture raw materials, reward those close to the regime, punish those whom the regime loathed, etc. Some of the tags were changed from time to time, I guess in order to defeat fakers or those not entitled by license to make such regalia, who indeed, existed in the epoch. The latter are not solely a plague of our time.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Here is a table of such sales upon which fees to the RZM were calculated from a retailer. The basis of this was a law enacted in 1934 to "protect" party uniforms from fakery and "attacks," which coincided with the standardization and regulation of the uniform trade by the party, and also an attempt to regulate the economy and exclude Jews from the uniform trade. The law required that items be marked. The RZM carried out the standardization and specification, in this case, of the RFSS, which began in mid 1934. The follow on regulations to the 1934 law detailed what had to be marked, and the specifications via the RZM explained how it was to be marked. Trade marks ca, early 1935 were nixed on party items from Hitler himself. The SS procured its regalia either with party funds, or via the members, or via the national budgets of either the Ministry of the Interior or the Ministry of War, i.e. in the case of the SSVT and SSVT. The origins of the RZM in the SA are in the year 1928 with the predecessor organization as early the 1925., whereby it became a branch of the party treasury by 1930 and enacted its marking and standardization efforts after late 1933. The phrase "pre-RZM" is in almost all cases quite in error. The fact is the requirement to mark items emerged more or less in the course of 1934.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

It has taken me exactly fifty years to figure this out. I began to learn from Clyde Davis in the 1970s, who was the first author to put some of this on paper, but the digital regime of the primary sources has made all of this more transparent.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

This German site is a fine resource. The Clyde Davis book in two volumes, however, was the point of departure. The Organisationsbuch d. NSDAP was also essential for me as a young pup.

Reichszeugmeisterei

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The person who runs this site adds nice things all the time, and it is a picco bello source.

[DerKerl]

So, the RZM sent out these tags for the SS to at least three different manufacturers at various times to make these armbands. Therefore, it is rather less likely that these armbands are some kind of fluke and more likely that they were used by the SS for some reason for a period of time. Who knows, we may yet dig up something out of some archive sometime in the future about this. I have been collecting this stuff for 50 years myself and am still learning and growing. Thanks guys, Doug

[Hugo Rietzel]

The person who runs this site adds nice things all the time, and it is a picco bello source.

I thank you for your recognition F.B.


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