schwarze Muetze aus grosser Zeit

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The Bundesarchiv files seem to have on line finding aids now, as you recall, I found the bit there from the 1935 correspondence on the new Hoheitszeichen which colleague d'Alquen followed up with the full documentation. But I have never delved into these in good order. Since this Kaienburg SS Wirtschaft book and the Schulte Pohl book have extensively used the SSWVHA files, I was wondering if you have, as well, or your research has been in the RFSS files? Aka T 175 of blessed memory?

Research design for advanced study is my daily thing, of course, so you will have to bear with me. Happy foetid woolens and happy piles of dusty files or twisted microforms.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The project to do is some on line guide for beginners to make sense of all of this, since there is a small number of people who can more or less navigate their way through the primary sources. Or, of course, one could also say the hell with it, since so many of the collectors here plainly don't give a damn (i.e. "is my dead head real?") But perhaps I am in error? The totally atomized nature of knowledge in the internet is, of course, frustrating. I guess one of the younger types can embark on a Wikipedia entry of some kind, but that is a bridge too far for me. I still work with paper and am proud of it. One thing one has also to do is memorize what is in Mollo so when one bumps into his raw material, it sets off some reflection. He deserves credit as a young man for having pioneered all this analysis. Writing takes a lot of guts, not the least because everyone else will then tell you how they would write the book, except, of course, they never have the energy or guts to do so...
Thanks to my British, Canadian and German colleagues for enriching this thread that otherwise is seized of foetid woolen burlesque and vaudeville......

[Tricot]

Thank you everyone for your work in this thread. This arcana is truly riveting.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

When I bought my first black cap in 1971 or 1972, no such information other than the Mollo books existed, that is for certain....
Adrian S and Richie C have done the beginning collector a huge favor, that, by the way, is not done on the lord of the flies site. There the proprietor makes money off of the slaughter house. As the righteous indignation generates far more smoke than light, which only aids those who goal it is to create confusion and uncertainty in order to scoop up the spoils.

[jHAM]

Many thanks to all participants for this interesting thread.

[Tricot]

As the righteous indignation generates far more smoke than light, which only aids those whose goal it is to create confusion and uncertainty in order to scoop up the spoils.

A dark and sadly accurate assessment.

My lack of German skills is quite the handicap. It seems the idioms of the period are somewhat opaque even to the advanced linguist.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

A dark and sadly accurate assessment.

My lack of German skills is quite the handicap. It seems the idioms of the period are somewhat opaque even to the advanced linguist.

The language in the Mitteilungsblaetter is stuffy, bureaucratic German, with many long sentences and subtle meaning, as well as a lot of technical vocabulary.
It is also Nazi German, which is its own species. But Victor Klemperer wrote about the latter with great clarity.

My comment about obscurantism concerns the dingbat maroon website and the posturing that goes on there versus the search for knowledge, despite all puffery and dishonesty otherwise.

[BenVK]

I wasn't sure where to post this but here will do.

To refresh memories, the idea that an RZM licensed firm held on to their RZM number for the duration was in doubt considering how the Mitteilungsblatt made it clear that those licences were revoked from time to time. The question in my mind was whether the numbers were recycled. The answer is yes. I found some interesting research today done by a badge enthusiast who did find evidence within the Mitteilungsblatt of this recycling of numbers. Not many but enough to proove that it did happen. Oh and the last M1 RZM licence number was issued in October 1944.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I wasn't sure where to post this but here will do.

To refresh memories, the idea that an RZM licensed held on to their RZM number for the duration was in doubt considering how the Mitteilungsblatt made it clear that those licences were revoked. The question in my mind was whether the numbers were recycled. The answer is yes. I found some interesting research today done by a badge enthusiast who did find evidence within the Mitteilungsblatt of this recycling of numbers. Not many but enough to proove that it did happen. Oh and the last M1 RZM licence number was issued in October 1944.

Thanks for this. Knowledge about the past is never static, and without putting too fine a point on it,the MAX and SOS shows to say nothing of the maroon nut house hardly exhaust the outer reaches of such knowledge.
Through my colleagues here, the door has been thrown open to marvelous primary sources which have much to teach us versus the list making mania that operates elsewhere, and which promises to embrace all of the past. A bad joke, in fact.
The past is filled with riddles, it laughs at these lists, and thinks how ridiculous are the internet savants with the wrenched off cap badges who declaim that they are the heirs of the Deschler and Soehne.
Pi pa po.
Ben has a subtle mind in addition to being a skilled artisan with old hats.

[BenVK]

Thank you dear friend.

I came upon the information by accident as is always the case but it was interesting to note the researcher made note to the fact that nearly all previous published RZM hersteller lists on the web and in books are inaccurate and I don't doubt him for a second.