Unknown SS branch (for me...)

[Pascal BERNHARD]

Hi gentlemen,

I found this pic on the net...
Do you know what's the branch of this early (I would say 1933/34) uniform please ?

SS Oberabschnitt "Nordost" ?

Thanks,
Pascal.

[Vocht]

Looking forward to seeing this mystery solved. I browsed some literature to see if it could be foreign SS but found nothing. Cuff could've spelled NORGE but I doubt it.

[d'alquen]

Yes Pascal, the picture shows a member of staff of SS-Oberabschnitt Nordost in 1933, (as shown by the collar patch piping). During that year staff members wore the name of their group on the collar as well as the cuff title. There are numerous photos of members of SS-Oberabschnitt Ost wearing the 'Ost' collar patch but I have never seen other Oberabschnitte examples in photos.

[d'alquen]

I should point out at that point in time the districts were SS-Gruppen (prior to the establishment of SS-Oberabschnitte in the winter of 1933/34).

[Pascal BERNHARD]

Thank you d'Alquen,

A long word for a Small collar tab

[d'alquen]

Yes, it's not surprising that this insignia was abandoned fairly quickly. Not only due to the complexity of the patch but also to the fact that it was rather redundant, given that the cuff title already supplied the same information.
Similarly specialist diamonds were abolished a couple of years later because the unit information (signals, motoring etc.) was already on the collar patches.

[KRISSE]

Very interesting insignia.
Are there surviving examples of these?
Must be extremely rare...