Theodor Eicke gut ????, am definitivsten ja !!!!

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Well spoken as always. Episodes of being a failed police officer, corporate security guard, terrorist plotter and psychiatric patient as stepping stones on the way to highly-decorated general officer and divisional commander.... Ah, well, it was that kind of age.

Dear Colleague, thanks for your excellent comment in turn. How the world goes from a period of peace to one of promiscuous violence is a question of high relevance, is it not? Servus, FB

[prosty zolnierz]

usually when I am depressed I throw " Siegfried's Rhine Journey " on the platter , then I go suicidal ! but then the Rhinemaidens lure me back with foetid woolens and metal things. I suppose my spouse Brunnhilde has plans before her final Immolation !

[Friedrich-Berthold]

usually when I am depressed I throw " Siegfried's Rhine Journey " on the platter , then I go suicidal ! but then the Rhinemaidens lure me back with foetid woolens and metal things. I suppose my spouse Brunnhilde has plans before her final Immolation !

I am very fond of Wagner for just this reason. It is the original Gesamtkunstwerk. My ex girl friends gave me the idea that they would burn my wretched carcass with my pile of Harris tweed sports coats, to which one could add the historical foetid woolens. By the way, your uniform is wonderful and we thank you for showing it to us. Until the Twilight of the Gods, your humble, FB

[Killroy]

worms don't eat ss collectors, they move on to more tender pickings. And besides by the time "we" die you won't be able to afford the tunic anyway.

bah!

[operaman]

Scary guy

[Doktor No]

It is easy to sit in a Chair 60 plus years later and discuss what an evil and foul Man Eicke was, but why was he Fired from those Jobs mentioned above? Was he liked by his Men? Was he effective in the Field? Why was he at an Insane Asylum?

1. Fired again and again for being a Nazi and refusing to renounce the Nazi Party
2. Loved by his Men and affectionately called "Pappa Eicke"
3. How many times did Army Generals thank God Eicke's Troops were close by to Bail them out?
4. Was in hiding at a Sanitarium in Italy until things cooled off.

I enclose a picture of Lino Masarie who was in charge of the Recon Unit that recovered Eicke's body. Lino was of Italian descent and quite a Pianist.

And one picture of the original hell raiser of the TK Division, Helmuth Becker. Helmuth knew how to drink and celebrate. Investigations were open for riding Horses to death while intoxicated, fornication in public and getting drunk and firing off Salvos at midnight in Russia on the Fuehrers Birthday.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Many senior officers were held in high esteem by their subordinates in the Wehrmacht and Reichswehr. I leave the fornicating in public to others, but as regards command, leadership, and morale in the German armed forces, as some of you know, I know a thing or two about it. And also in other armed forces, too, with which I have nearly as long a professional familiarity as I have collected regalia.
I think if you look closely at Eicke in the opening years, he held regular soldiers in contempt for various reasons, and did not identify at all with military command and discipline in its traditional measure, nor as I know also from say, the USMC. Being a hell raiser might make for a picturesque role in one's biography, but I am sure our readers here know that there is much more to company, field and flag rank command than hell raising. Finally, while the memoirs or ripping yarn accounts of certain ex SS Totenkopf officers might make for nice reading, they hardly count as the actual account of what happened in the past. They are memoirs, which are often enjoyable to read, but they do not count as much more than that.

I do not want to get into a pissing match here about politics and history, either, since our site is about regalia. There is a very energetic attempt in the US government now to understand why certain people are violent and others are not for reasons that need no explanation by me here. The case of the early biographies of certain SS men are interesting, and while hell raising and living large are all well and good, you go try do the same in the US armed forces or other forces today on the model of Eicke and you won't get very far, I can tell you.

In the British and German armed forces there was long a place for an individual and even a military eccentric. I have known some from the USMC, too, whom I esteem greatly. I think in this case though, one has what was once called a military desperado by an expert among my teachers, and such a person is somewhat different or much different from a regular soldier. I could extend the list, actually.

Mention was made of the murder of Roehm, himself a type made by the manner in which war burst its boundaries in the 20th century. Eicke saw the real battle field in his ideal of war and political soldiers in his concentration camps, and waged war their against the inmates, who were subjected to a kind of cruelty and willful abuse of state power made grand in the early 20th century. His ideal of obedience and command was perfected on this battle field before he extended it to others. I also think that those British veterans of the French campaign might have a different view of this man, as well. Of course, in this connection, as regards love by his men, Roehm did not keep his light behind a bushel, either. Eicke's type existed in many forms in the III. Reich.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Dr No has some nice fotos albums and we thank him for sharing them with us. The collector's guild has one for sale of an Austrian who was in the SSVT and TV and various Waffen SS units. You, Dr No, should buy it and share its contents with us.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

There is not good biography of Eicke in English save for the Sydnor book, whose focus is wider. I think there is a scholar in Germany working on a biography of Eicke, which would be very interesting to read. The Longerich one on Himmler is first rate.

The Masarie man failed to heed the order to ditch his colored piping on his field cap, too.

Imagine.

[sitges1990]

I wish you would share your brilliant insights with us more often F.B. It's facinating to read your cultivated opinions on these subjects, especially when you "let your hair down". Your photos are to die for Dr No.

Jay