Dietrich post card, December 1935

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Perhaps born of a wish on the part of these asphalt soldiers to give a clear visual indication of their role as an armed security/military service vs. the purely political/ideological mission of the Allgemeine SS?

Such attempts at internal elitism and separation or, dare we say it, individualism within the SS were very much to Himmler's chagrin...

Attachment 690710

Thanks, Andreas, for the nice data. There are many examples of this discomfort on the part of Heini H. with the Prussian fashion orientation of said troops, which bespoke estate, dynasty, and caste that cut against the racial elite grain of SS ideology. The tendency of parts of the SS to pull away from the whole is also well documented. After all, Heini H. must have had a bad conscience, as his part of the SA (which it was...) had turned on its leadership, and the SA units had often revolts against Gauleiter (Stennes, Eicke etc.) and such. These were not nice people, and aped the ways and means of gang land as much as they did guard regiments of the old regime.

Elsewhere is the data to the effect that the preference in the LAH for the army cap eagle sped the introduction of the 1935/6 SS cap eagle. We have that document somewhere here.