Totenkopfverbande IV Deutschland Erwache Standard

**Bob Hritz** · 02-09-2009, 05:24 AM

Sadly, this is an enlargement of a tiny snapshot. However, if you look closely, the Deutschland Erwache standard of Totenkopfverband IV is flanked by two of the Sturmbannfahne.

Interesting desk ornament, if I may so add!

Bob Hritz

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 02-09-2009 05:24 AM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 02-09-2009, 05:29 AM

Thanks for this. The juxtaposition of the Totenkopf and the bust of the Fuehrer also merits note.

The depiction of death as a human skeleton or parts thereof is a very real part of central European culture and its symbolic world, actually. Its cultural meaning is different than in the US, or in the English speaking world, actually.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 02-09-2009, 05:31 AM

For instance, the work of Rethel, "Auch ein Totentanz..."

This image depicts death leading the revolutionaries of 1848 to their doom. Of course, this image is not strictly the SS Totenkopfverbaende, but it helps explain why the skull is on the desk of an officer and what it meant to those around at the time.

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 02-09-2009, 05:38 AM

We thank colleague Hritz for the nice pictures. I surely think these photos are more informative than constant repeats of fake cap insignia and the pillorying of militaria dealers. One of the signal virtues of the internet and the digitalization of archives is the spread of these remarkable images. Vielen Dank.