All,
In my long thread "SS Buckles to collect: The ultimate list" I am posting for You, readers, some extremely rare SS buckles. Some others are widely known SS buckles but we do not know (yet) for sure which maker made them. I am providing the information I have as accurately I can. Some of those, even if they could be considered slim, are still the result of many years of screenings, talking, reading and writing. None is just guessing, all is based on some evidence I am keeping in my files.
BUT we have to rely upon what is still available today. People and companies who made them are either dead or do not want to talk anymore, many documents were lost or destroyed during the war, etc... During all those 20 years of active collecting many valuable information were revealed by regular people, sometimes people not collecting SS buckles but just reading some posts once in a while. The best example I could give to illustrate this is the early Assmann with RZM 155/36 SS marking. This was the only SS buckle ever owned by a teacher in American History. Received from a student as a gift ages ago since this was related to his teaching! He did not even know what it was but one day he crossed one of my early posts in my first created forum regarding SS buckles (on Yahoo) with pictures of similar buckles. So he decided to post pictures of his buckle and WOW! From that day we knew Assmann was behind this particular SS buckle variant usually only marked O&C ges.gesch. Months later this teacher traveled especially to Louisville, KY to offer me this buckle as a student did to him years ago. Old timers like Christian U. from Germany still remember this story that I will never forget myself.
Another story is what's behind maker 822 been Richard Sieper. The first assumption was 822=C.T.Dicke. This was based on a SS buckle marked 822/37 with RZM tag marked M4/22. How Marc Verstraete and I were quick to show this buckle in all Forums including the WAF to say we finally found who was maker 822!! Problem, we were dead wrong but that erroneous assumption lasted few years (I believe the thread is still there in the WAF). This was only after a lot of work performed by Christian U. from Germany and Ric (your moderator) to compare many injection molded buckles with injection molded SS buckles marked 822/42 that we had to admit Sieper was behind their manufacture and not at all Dicke, even if a couple of aluminum 822 buckles were bearing a RZM tag stamped Dicke. Later I was able to obtain another SS buckle from an US WAC vet, this time made by Overhoff but bearing a RZM tag from Assmann. This definitively buried the assumption 822 was Dicke but also raised another revocation: who was really placing RZM tags on the buckles? Their maker (previous assumption)? Their re-seller? Or even, maybe, the RZM store?
I finally updated 822=Sieper and was later on able to confirm Dicke did manufacture a handful of SS officers but under his proper 257 number but there is still some people erroneously reporting that 822=Dicke.
So, the above two stories are to illustrate how YOU, reader, could make a difference. If you have anything to add reading "SS Buckles to collect: The ultimate list", could be even fully disagreeing with anything I could post, please voice it in THIS exact thread (SS Buckles to collect: The ultimate list comments).
At that point, I would ask you to include the exact SS buckle you are referring / questioning (example: comment on "Scroll (Named by JP Redeuilh). Right Scroll is very next to exclamation point / Unmarked Scroll". To make this easier to follow, I will bring that thread always below the other. Here is an example with picture:
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Comment on "Fat Eagle (Probably made by Hermann Schwerter-Menden) / Unmarked Fat Eagle"
This is what I found. Buckle for sale / sold by Jojo in 20xx (or I have that one from family)
In my long thread "SS Buckles to collect: The ultimate list" I am posting for You, readers, some extremely rare SS buckles. Some others are widely known SS buckles but we do not know (yet) for sure which maker made them. I am providing the information I have as accurately I can. Some of those, even if they could be considered slim, are still the result of many years of screenings, talking, reading and writing. None is just guessing, all is based on some evidence I am keeping in my files.
BUT we have to rely upon what is still available today. People and companies who made them are either dead or do not want to talk anymore, many documents were lost or destroyed during the war, etc... During all those 20 years of active collecting many valuable information were revealed by regular people, sometimes people not collecting SS buckles but just reading some posts once in a while. The best example I could give to illustrate this is the early Assmann with RZM 155/36 SS marking. This was the only SS buckle ever owned by a teacher in American History. Received from a student as a gift ages ago since this was related to his teaching! He did not even know what it was but one day he crossed one of my early posts in my first created forum regarding SS buckles (on Yahoo) with pictures of similar buckles. So he decided to post pictures of his buckle and WOW! From that day we knew Assmann was behind this particular SS buckle variant usually only marked O&C ges.gesch. Months later this teacher traveled especially to Louisville, KY to offer me this buckle as a student did to him years ago. Old timers like Christian U. from Germany still remember this story that I will never forget myself.
Another story is what's behind maker 822 been Richard Sieper. The first assumption was 822=C.T.Dicke. This was based on a SS buckle marked 822/37 with RZM tag marked M4/22. How Marc Verstraete and I were quick to show this buckle in all Forums including the WAF to say we finally found who was maker 822!! Problem, we were dead wrong but that erroneous assumption lasted few years (I believe the thread is still there in the WAF). This was only after a lot of work performed by Christian U. from Germany and Ric (your moderator) to compare many injection molded buckles with injection molded SS buckles marked 822/42 that we had to admit Sieper was behind their manufacture and not at all Dicke, even if a couple of aluminum 822 buckles were bearing a RZM tag stamped Dicke. Later I was able to obtain another SS buckle from an US WAC vet, this time made by Overhoff but bearing a RZM tag from Assmann. This definitively buried the assumption 822 was Dicke but also raised another revocation: who was really placing RZM tags on the buckles? Their maker (previous assumption)? Their re-seller? Or even, maybe, the RZM store?
I finally updated 822=Sieper and was later on able to confirm Dicke did manufacture a handful of SS officers but under his proper 257 number but there is still some people erroneously reporting that 822=Dicke.
So, the above two stories are to illustrate how YOU, reader, could make a difference. If you have anything to add reading "SS Buckles to collect: The ultimate list", could be even fully disagreeing with anything I could post, please voice it in THIS exact thread (SS Buckles to collect: The ultimate list comments).
At that point, I would ask you to include the exact SS buckle you are referring / questioning (example: comment on "Scroll (Named by JP Redeuilh). Right Scroll is very next to exclamation point / Unmarked Scroll". To make this easier to follow, I will bring that thread always below the other. Here is an example with picture:
---------------------------------------------------
Comment on "Fat Eagle (Probably made by Hermann Schwerter-Menden) / Unmarked Fat Eagle"
This is what I found. Buckle for sale / sold by Jojo in 20xx (or I have that one from family)
Comment