The SS price list ca. late 1934, details on cap insignia, or "dead heads and more...."

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Here an extract from the SS price list from late 1934 as published in the Mitteilungsblatt d RZM, and one notes that while the Hoheitszeichen worn on the lapel is described as to its metallic construction, there is no entry as to Werkstoff at this time for the cap insignia, whose cost was quite minor.

[ObKrieger]

So, what are the prices?

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The prices varied from time to time, and I did not make an extract of same. I can tell you that such items did not cost what they cost today. They were a few pfennigs.
My point here, unless it is too subtle, is that there is no mention of what these things were made of...whereas for other metal insignia here there is some description of the Werkstoff, as well as a "heavy" or "light" badge.

[ObKrieger]

The prices varied from time to time, and I did not make an extract of same. I can tell you that such items did not cost what they cost today. They were a few pfennigs.
My point here, unless it is too subtle, is that there is no mention of what these things were made of...whereas for other metal insignia here there is some description of the Werkstoff, as well as a "heavy" or "light" badge.

I understand, I was just curious about the prices in particular.

Why do you suppose the metal was not listed?

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I am in the process of reading the Mitteilungsblaetter in detail, my first target being the SS portion, which is considerable in the years I have before me.
There are extensive specifications for other items of uniform and equipment, but I have not read them.
The collector of today poses questions for which the sources have no answer, so one has to grapple with the sources as they are.
The only source of the era of which I know that speaks to the composition of these things is the Assmann catalog, and in this case, it says nothing.
I regard much of the collector lore as regards "sculls" with a large dose of skepticism. For this reason, I am adding primary sources not found otherwise on this site or on the maroon reform school website. Especially not there.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi FB, as per usual, superb primary source info.

Hi Mo, I do have an SS price list buried somewhere. I did have this Heer kleiderkasse sales list to hand, circa 1936/37, so I will post it here to illustrate just how cheap similar things were at the time.

Cheers, Ade.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Thank you, Adrian. Here are some more extracts as concern a cap I own of the SS Gruppe West, that is, SS entities circumventing the RZM to contract their own material, and the extract for the introduction of the alu piping on the Oberfuehrermuetze. These extracts are from mid to late 1934.
I think that the Totenschaedel badge cost about 10 or so pfennigs in 1938 but we are dealing with the formative period a bit earlier here.

The price list in the Mitteilungsblaetter (versus the separately published fold out edition) had the selectio of articles and their respective prices separately listed. Apparently in the period 1934-1935 that I have at hand, the prices were subject to fluctuations, which is also borne out by the data in the UM. What is pretty overwhelming, and which is not at all captured by the English language sources (esp coffee table books), is the effort by the RFSS to standardize and regularize the uniform in 1934, even before the Roehm Putsch, ie. once the SS got free of the SA--not at all, in fact; plainly, the SS was growing beforehand at a great clip, and such explains further the motivation for Himmler and Heydrich to bump off their boss, One can read same between the lines the energy of bureaucratic friction, as well as the attempt to separate the regalia from the rest of the overall SA.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Here as a tangent: how uniforms appeared in a Berlin shop window.and the usual images of surviving examples in their foetid splendor.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

here are the prices for the items above early in 1935...

Item 5 on said list is the Totenschaedel, and it cost the same as in 1938, Pfg. .15.

Think about it, and why, on God's green earth, would some lunatic pay USD 5,000 for such a thing, even with some odd mark on the back from Pforzheim? For this money, you could go to Pforzheim and have the local show you a good time, nicht wahr?

I mean, a few years ago, said monies could buy a very nice SS officer's cap....

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Another data point as concerns collector lore and legend versus the record of the past is contained herein. As you know, SS insignia went through a major revision in late 1934 as concerns collar patches and cuff titles. The new insignia, however, did not all appear in use overnight, but underwent a process of transition, which stretched well into 1935, as nicely described in this excerpt which portrays the reality of this regalia, and not ahistorical fantasies proffered by persons scarcely with a secondary education who have never set foot on the continent of Europe.

Thanks to Robert H for his nice images. We wish him well in his new home, too.