I know very little in the wide scheme of things but I do know that everything in regards to the German mutzenindustrie was done for a good reason and was most likely documented, somewhere. I have no doubt that we will find written evidence someday that will explain why the schirm was covered in wool.
The Schlicht Kraus book I cited is the best thing on said subject for the Rw. You should go to the army museum in Ingolstadt and meet the curators there. I am sure they know much that would intrigue us, to be sure.
Also the uniform curators in Berlin and Vienna have something to offer those of us in search of foetid, sweaty old head wear.
I feel like a fool now...took 10 seconds to find these.
No reason to pillory yourself. This digital world of knowledge is a fun house hall of mirrors, really.
You have to realize that some family members here have wasted their lives in libraries and archives on two continents for decades, while others frolic with young women on sunny beaches and enjoy life as God intended it.
But what you have there is plainly the cap that formed the example for the SS field caps that drives everyone bananas.
I could have bought a fist full of the little beggars two decades ago, but did not, since it was too droll then.
I wonder where they all went?
I like Rw caps, as do you. I sold all the ones I owned, though.
Congratulations on your picture research.
I also imagine that the peak was added to compensate for the absence of same in the field caps of the old armies, and, in the second instance, the Rw was a volunteer army that tried to break with the caste and class system that had obtained in the old armies, and thereby organize a more egalitarian climate of service.
The officers' field cap in der alten Armee had had the peak, whereas that for the enlisted ranks in wartime had not, and you need something to keep the rain and sun out of your eyes, but, honestly, who knows.
The part on the more egalitarian aspect of the inner structure of the Rw is very well documented in the primary and secondary sources in their number.
It is a subject to which I have devoted some study.
Happy peaks.
The evolution of which became...
But you had a wonderful field cap with the leather peak, did you not? I think so. It was a handsome piece.
Happy hats.
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