What color brown was the original SA/SS brownshirt?

[dimitrov2012]

The van Eekeling book ca. 1934 is also a nice source on the evolution of early NSDAP, SA and SS uniform.

What this so called von Lettow shirt (in honor of the guerilla hero of German resistance in Africa?) widely worn in society?

I am not aware of this fact, but it is not my thing.

I was just looking at a pdf of that book this afternoon, I can tell its very informative, even with my very scarce knowledge of German

According to Wilfred Von Oven (SA Mann), Goring had an Adjudant named Gerhard Rossbach, Rossbach knew of a store of Imperial Army shirts destined for General Von Lettow-Vorbecks troops in Africa, they
were never shipped to Africa due to the war ending, Rossbach did a deal with a friend Edmund Heines, who he fought with in the Ruhr.

Through the firm Sportversand Schill owned by Edmund Heines the shirts were bought, Heines went on to join the SA

This was 1924, according to Von Oven the shirts were referred to as "Lettow shirts".
while in Landsburg prison June 1924 , Hitler gave the approval for the shirts possibly for his newly formed Frontbann, Rossbach wanted them for his youth group, he and Hitler had disputes over policy

"To be uniformly equipped for this trip, was a remnant of East African Lettow-shirts, as they had last worn the officers of the protection force, acquired kauflich IMD distributed to the cyclists.

These shirts were beige-brown, so much brighter than the later Hitler-shirts and studded with white pearloid buttons.

Later I introduced in 1924 these shirts as a community clothes in my organization and also in the Salzburg Schill Youth.

By Edmund Heines they were then taken over for the SA and also marketed.

Their color was darker from month to month. "

The shirts apparently had 3 names during their short life: Lettow Shirts, Salzburg Shirts, Hitler Shirts

when the SA and SS were rebirthed in 1925, forms of these shirts were worn 1925-1927. Hitler wore a form of this shirt with leders in his 1926 test photos but not in 1926 Weimar. It wasnt until 1927 Reichsparteitag that the that the shirt was seen widely worn by SA,SS and early youth groups and possibly other sub groups. Following the short weekend of the 1927 RPT, the dark version of the shirt dissappeared and all future versions were a lighter brown.

It is my belief that it was from these original dark shirts (possibly dyed a darker brown to emulate the fascist black shirts) that all future NSDAP uniforms came.

the dark brown shirts gave birth to the braunhehd traditions which was later replaced by the jacket and tie uniforms to avoid the brownshirt bans. which , in 1932, gave birth to the SS black service uniform

[BOB COLEMAN]

All of the early brown shirts I have seen had metal buttons whose color matched athe kepi button color of the Gausturm and later Gruppe

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The uniform of the imperial Schutztruppe to which you refer was more classical khaki as worn in most armies of the epoch.
The Nuremberg Reichsparteitage were very staged, i.e. the order of dress was closely regulated, whereby your point
as concerns the more or less singularity of these images is very sound. The question you always have to ask is, whether these Nazi sources of the Kampfzeit
are accurate, which they are often not, in the cold light of day. The Ulrich of England person has purported to own uniforms of the epoch of the pre 1923 and
post 9 November 1923 era, and I do not know about Stephen Wolfe. He is in Southern California and he also has a kind of website.

viz:

Wolfe-Hardin - Finest Quality Antiques




As I wrote, these uniforms, as Wim demonstrates, were always changing.
The role of sports clothing stores in the origins of this regalia is also quite noteworthy.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The Hauptarchiv der NSDAP files are microfilmed, and they likely also have material of merit. There are also secondary historical works on the SA and the SS that
have bearing on your search, as they make reference to archival, manuscript sources that may be more authoritative than the ripping yarns of the origins of the SA
as written by alte Kaempfer which must be regarded with a healthy dose of skepticism.


Link auf diese Seite
PDF Ansicht

Hauptarchiv der NSDAP (Bestand)
Bestandssignatur:
BArch, NS 26
Kontext:
Bundesarchiv (Archivtektonik) >> Norddeutscher Bund und Deutsches Reich (1867/1871-1945) >> Einrichtungen der NSDAP >> Reichsleitung
Bestandslaufzeit:
1919-1944
Bestandsbeschreibung:
Geschichte des Bestandsbildners:
1934 in München eingerichtet zur Dokumentation der Geschichte der NSDAP und der angeschlossenen Gliederungen sowie deren Vorläufer in der Völkischen Bewegung unter Übernahme der Materialsammlung der Reichspropagandaleitung und des ebenfalls dort eingegliederten Pressearchivs der NSDAP. Als Auskunftsstelle für alle Partei- und staatlichen Dienststellen wurden neben Bibliotheksbeständen, Zeitschriften- und Bildsammlungen Akten von Parteiorganen und Behörden verwahrt, sowie Erlebnisberichte, private Sammlungen, Schrift- und Druckgut aufgelöster und verbotener Parteien und Organisationen.
1929 war von der NSDAP die Sammlung Rehse als Archiv für Zeitgeschichte und Publizistik erworben worden. Diese war als Parteidienststelle dem Reichsschatzmeister unterstellt und bestand unabhängig vom Hauptarchiv als parteioffiziöses Archiv.


Bestandsbeschreibung:
1934 in München eingerichtet zur Dokumentation der Geschichte der NSDAP und der angeschlossenen Gliederungen sowie deren Vorläufer in der "Völkischen Bewegung" unter Übernahme der Materialsammlung der Reichspropagandaleitung und des ebenfalls dort eingegliederten Pressearchivs der NSDAP. Als Auskunftsstelle für alle Partei- und staatlichen Dienststellen wurden neben Bibliotheksbeständen, Zeitschriften- und Bildsammlungen Akten von Parteiorganen und Behörden verwahrt, sowie Erlebnisberichte, private Sammlungen, Schrift- und Druckgut aufgelöster und verbotener Parteien und Organisationen.
1929 war von der NSDAP die "Sammlung Rehse" als Archiv für Zeitgeschichte und Publizistik erworben worden. Diese war als Parteidienststelle dem Reichsschatzmeister unterstellt und bestand unabhängig vom Hauptarchiv als "parteioffiziöses Archiv".


Inhaltliche Charakterisierung:
Aufgaben des Hauptarchivs 1919-1943 (95), Sammlung zu Personen der Zeitgeschichte 1891-1945 (248), Adolf Hitler persönlich 1914-1941 (121), Religions- und Rassefragen 1785-1943 (27), Geschichte und Politik 1676-1944 (21), Weltkrieg 1914-1940 (31), Besetzung der Westgebiete, von Danzig und Oberschlesien nach 1918 1918-1943 (9), Rätezeit 1918-1941 (16), Hitler-Putsch in München 1919-1939 (19), Ausland und Deutschtum 1921-1944 (69), Wahlen und Abstimmungen 1919-1936 (53), Behörden und Einrichtungen des Reiches und der NSDAP 1918-1941 (60), Reichswehr und Wehrmacht 1920-1943 (5), Staatliche Überwachung der NSDAP 1920-1938 (51), Prozesse gegen die NSDAP und ihre Mitglieder 1921-1937 (26), Reichstage und Aufmärsche der NSDAP 1923-1939 (109), Gliederungen der NSDAP 1922-1944 (121), Territorialstruktur der NSDAP 1919-1943 (273), Presse, Rundfunk und Film 1922-1944 (251), Politische Parteien, Gewerkschaften und Verbände 1894-1944 (123), Freikorps, Bünde sowie Einwohnerwehren 1875-1943 (100), Flugschriften1891-1945 (95).


Erschließungszustand:
Findbuch (2002)
Online-Findbuch (2005)
NSDAP Hauptarchiv. Guide to the Hoover Institution Microfilm Collection, compiled by Grete Heinz und Agnes F. Peterson, Hoover Institution Bibliographical Series XVII, Stanford 1964


Zitierweise:
BArch, NS 26/...
Provenienz:
Hauptarchiv der NSDAP, 1934-1945
Umfang:
2036 Aufbewahrungseinheiten
Archivalientyp:
Schriftgut
Sprache der Unterlagen:
deutsch
Verwandte Bestände und Literatur:
Amtliche Druckschriften:
Partei-Archiv, 1936 ff.

Literatur:
Inventar archivalischer Quellen des NS-Staates, hrsg. von Heinz Boberach, München 1991/1995, Teil 1, S. 473-475.
Online-Beständeübersicht im Angebot des Archivs:
https://invenio.bundesarchiv.de/basy...-0e8c925771d5/
Rechteinformation:
Rechteinformation beim Datenlieferanten zu klären.
Objekt beim Datengeber anzeigen
Letzte Aktualisierung: 23.07.2015, 05:33 Uhr

[Wilhelm Saris]

In ultimate 1926 the SA-shirt already was noted to be "das Braunhemd"
in orders, known as SA-Befehl (SABE 10 and 12: November 12 and 14, 1926).
A color shade was not mentioned.

With the introduction of the collar-patches the buttons at the collar (or shoulder)
were to be removed and over this one had to position the patch. If you look well
with the photos shown with the first posts you can also see the buttons at the
shoulder-section. The cut of the collar was not in the right angle and so collar-patches
had to be sewn on in the best way.

The sewing on had to be done by a person who was able to do so. It was noted
this were largely women and a Frauengruppe had to take care for that!
Speciality insignia was asked it should be done by a specialist, so a tailor. Shirts
were even allowed to be sewn by women where larger SA-groups existed. The
allowance had to be asked for at the Oberste SA-Führung. At that moment
there were NO ranks, but just functions (Dienststellenabzeichen).
All SA-men had in fact the same rank.

When washing a shirt on had to see it to be handled as wool, not boiling or
using soda!

Not even in "Die Geschichte der SA, von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart",
published by Hans Volz in 1934 the shade for the brown was mentioned.
This book with over 170 pages gives the development for the SA and notes
also here and there the development of uniforms, granting of DE-banners
etc. Handwritten notes are included with the copy for this book I have, done by
von Pfeffer.
In this book is mentioned "Die Geschichte der SA-Uniform" with 32 uniform-
plates. I have never seen such a book actually.
There also seems to exist for the SS, "Die Geschichte der SS". Neither I have seen
this ever!

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Bravo, Wim! We are always grateful for your wonderful posts.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The uniforms of the Schutztruppen are well interpreted in this work from my favorite military publisher.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Militaria Verlag, Inh. Rest, Wien, Oesterreich!


https://www.militaria.at/Default.aspx

[dimitrov2012]

The uniform of the imperial Schutztruppe to which you refer was more classical khaki as worn in most armies of the epoch.
The Nuremberg Reichsparteitage were very staged, i.e. the order of dress was closely regulated, whereby your point
as concerns the more or less singularity of these images is very sound. The question you always have to ask is, whether these Nazi sources of the Kampfzeit
are accurate, which they are often not, in the cold light of day. The Ulrich of England person has purported to own uniforms of the epoch of the pre 1923 and
post 9 November 1923 era, and I do not know about Stephen Wolfe. He is in Southern California and he also has a kind of website.

viz:

Wolfe-Hardin - Finest Quality Antiques




As I wrote, these uniforms, as Wim demonstrates, were always changing.
The role of sports clothing stores in the origins of this regalia is also quite noteworthy.

yes I agree, the photo research I've done of the time period verifies that the uniforms were truly in a state of flux, during 1927, and many years away from standardization. Yours and Wlm's observations, rare documentations are very. very helpful and informative.

I'm curious as to your skepticism of kampfzeit writers. Do you think that ego might be a discrediting factor retelling their memories of the period? Have the errors been glaring? Thanks also for the link to Mr. Wolfe

as for the sports clothing connection, I think that arose from a dispute between Hitler and Rossbach on the functions of the Schiller youth, and possibly as well a struggle over who should receive the shirts. either Hitlers Frontbann, or the youth group. This was going on while Hitler was still in prison many months away from the rebirth of the SA, and later that year ..what would become the SS ... but as you said, these accounts might not be reliable

[dimitrov2012]

[QUOTE=Friedrich-Berthold;1712682]The Hauptarchiv der NSDAP files are microfilmed, and they likely also have material of merit. There are also secondary historical works on the SA and the SS that
have bearing on your search, as they make reference to archival, manuscript sources that may be more authoritative than the ripping yarns of the origins of the SA
as written by alte Kaempfer which must be regarded with a healthy dose of skepticism.


yes, I agree, the more sources the better. the Hauptarchive looks very promising. thank god for google translate