Allg. SS tunic with early visor

[HPL2008]

These three volumes, I mean.

Having already read the other two, I think I will get myself the Endzeitkämpfer volume as well. It sounds quite interesting. For those who can read German, here is some "official" information on it...:

http://www.wewelsburg.de/de/aktuelle...og-03-2012.php

...and a review by Bastian Hein, who incidentally is the author of the "Elite..." title also shown above:

http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=36296

I have to get the Ulrich Needhams book, which my senior mentor is enthusiastic about.

Another one for my shopping list, it seems... It certainly looks impressive; I found a review (with some images of pages from the book) for that one, too:

http://www.themodellingnews.com/2012...e-book-on.html

As always, many thanks to Friedrich-Berthold for pointing out new titles of interest!

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Thank you for the review of the catalog.
The British book is flashy, and its title does not correspond wholly to its contents.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I liked this post.
The last two lines clearly shows us how different people were thinking less than 100 years ago, and is important in todays shrunken world when we all are connected together thru a computer- and do not clearly understand how difficult life really was so short time ago.

It goes without saying that the mentality of consumption and national pride at the time of the First World War differed greatly from our own time, not the least because the rise of free trade and, for instance, the intrusion of German manufactured goods into Britain in the generation before 1914 gave rise to intense anti-German feeling. A comparison with today is difficult, granted the degree to which we are all jumbled together. Even twenty years ago, the world was a bigger place than it is after two decades of the globalization of capitalism and the homogenization of consumer goods, especially clothing....which is much worse today in quality generally than even a decade ago.
Consumer behavior as we know it also eventuated more or less in the epoch (the last 3d of the 19th century) in which nationalism assumed its more destructive and hateful guise in the time in which Hitler went from being a teen ager to young adult. The mood gripped more than merely Vienna of the time.
The Nazis pushed the idea of autarky, that is, the self sufficiency of the German economy autonomous of the world economy. The Four Year Plan reflected this trend. The impact of same on the textile branch is contained in the UM articles as well as the RZM circulars.
Also, the impact of American consumption on Europe was a democratization of things, whereas luxury goods and elite consumption were traditionally for court, the upper estates, and the grande bourgeiois who had to affect exclusion of social inferiors. To equate the latter with Ford, Hollywood, etc. is incorrect.
Lately, to be sure, as the elites in the U.S. have rocketed away from the rest, American ideas of consumption have veered into a poor imitation of former grande bourgeois mentality, i.e. such oddities as Ralf Lauren, but this is a function of the recent past. In no way can this phenomenon be said to have operated 100 years ago other than among a very small circle of Americans. Rather, nobles and grande bourgeois associated with them set the tone in London, Paris, Berlin and Vienna, especially in elite regiments say of cavalry, where one was expected to maintain a lavish and elegant style, regardless of the debts it created. This phenomenon said much about the tastes of officers. The other point, naturally, is that the Nazi organizations had great difficulty getting a uniform for their members and keeping it at an affordable price which in 1932 currency or so was hardly a bargain by any means.

[backtothefront]

Greetings. I suggest all members to take close look at the discussions and wide-ranging relevance of this thread. This information and level of detail is not found by reading any number of the commonly available books on such matters. The considerations, if and buts make this truly riveting. Many thanks. Paul