Another Allge SS visor

[Donald Abenheim]

Lubstein Did Make Black Visor Caps As I Saw One In The Early 70's. A Friend Of Mine Found One In A Garage In Chicago. It Was A General Rank Black Hat With The Erel Logo And A Rzm Tag. It Was In Poor Condition As Paint Had Been Spilled On The Rear. However, It Was Real. We Must Remember That The Ss-vt Was A Military Formation And Likely Lubstein Made Black Hats For That Branch If Gary's Theory Is Correct.
As To The Second Hat, It Is A Horrible Fake. Even From The Picture, One Can Tell That The Sweat Shield Is Manufactured From Improper Material.
Bob

I agree with the above intervention, and I wish I could have seen the cap with the paint on it. Sounds awful.

[derek]

"However, Derek Chapman, could perhaps put this question to rest: I understand he has an RZM maker list with cap manufacturers and RZM number - as used on RZM tags in Allgemeine visors. I have asked him about this list prevoiusly, but unfortunately with no response. Perhaps he can tell us, whether any of the maker code numbers on that list is assigned to the Robert Lubstein firm - or not?"

Gary,
I'm sorry if I did not reply to your question but I had no idea you had asked it. Was it on the forum? I am afraid I don't always follow the threads as closely as perhaps I should. To the point, Robert Lubstein had an A/1 number and it was 81.
Regards,
Derek

[Gary Wilkins]

Lubstein A1 / Code

Hi Derek,

I understand, I only have time to pop in myself once in a while. and throw in an observation now and again. Just don't have much time to do otherwise. I appreciate your hearing the question and coming back with the info, which is not available anywhere else - even Lubstein's sole grandson has no idea of whether the company was on the RZM list. Interesting to know, since by all accounts thus far uncovered, he was not a party player (never registered for the NSDAP) and tried to keep his nose out of power politics as much as possible (within his industry, as well) - but I guess was not averse to registering as certified supplier for Allgemeine articles, though not sure to what degree he pursued this. Anyone out there have an Allgemeine-SS cap with an A1/81 code on the tag? I wonder....

Thanks again, Derek; will note this code in the Update Addendum to my original book, and note therein that you supplied the number.

Regards,

Gary Wilkins
Member, U.S. Armor Association

[Donald Abenheim]

Hi Derek,

I understand, I only have time to pop in myself once in a while. and throw in an observation now and again. Just don't have much time to do otherwise. I appreciate your hearing the question and coming back with the info, which is not available anywhere else - even Lubstein's sole grandson has no idea of whether the company was on the RZM list. Interesting to know, since by all accounts thus far uncovered, he was not a party player (never registered for the NSDAP) and tried to keep his nose out of power politics as much as possible (within his industry, as well) - but I guess was not averse to registering as certified supplier for Allgemeine articles, though not sure to what degree he pursued this. Anyone out there have an Allgemeine-SS cap with an A1/81 code on the tag? I wonder....

Thanks again, Derek; will note this code in the Update Addendum to my original book, and note therein that you supplied the number.

Regards,

Gary Wilkins
Member, U.S. Armor Association

As to the above, there are numerous examples of black enlisted caps with this A1/81 number and every one I have ever encountered I have downloaded. There are also NSDAP caps with this A1 # as well. If you send me your coordinates via pm or via your colleague Messr Shea, I shall happily provide you with numerous images of this evidence that I have downloaded from the hat-o-sphere.

In this connection of what Germans assert happened between 1933-1945 and what really happened, there is a wide divergence which requires as much reflection as you have wisely applied to the features of the cap industry and which work we salute. And one should keep in mind that in order for the firm to have secured an RZM license, the company in question would have, at least formally, have freed itself from Jews and contacts with same in the textile industry. These Jewish firms were very considerable in Berlin at the time prior to 1933/5 when the Nazis then ethnically cleansed various sectors of the economy with simple means of official theft and disenfranchisement. In this connection, a work of great merit which describes this process in a general sense is: Wolfram Selig, Arisierung in Muenchen: die Vernichtung juedischer Existenz, 1937-1939 (Berlin, 2004). The foregoing does not assert anything about Lubstein, for it treats Munich, but it does display how Nazis in the textile sector wiped out the competition in the Bavarian capital with racist means that often ended up, finally, in the death camps. There is a similar book for Vienna.

The above constitutes no statement of guilt for any individual. Surely the heirs of Lubstein are charming, earnest and worthy people. Rather, in my thirty-five years of dealing with Germans and having written a book about the impact of National Socialism, the Wehrmacht &c. on civil-military relations in West Germany of the 1950s through 1980s, one has to peer more closely at various assertions made in various circumstances. Anyone who also spent time in central and eastern Europe since 1989 will also have encountered this phenomenon of "coming to grips with the past" in a similar way in somewhat different circumstances, however conflicted.

Once more, I make no statement about Lubstein here, other than, in fact, he was plainly a contractor for party regalia based on physical evidence of various kinds. Do look into the flap that swept up Hugo Boss in this connection in the last few years, as well, which is well treated on German sites and journalists in the Internet. To its credit, the Volkswagenwerk commissioned a full-out history of the complete story of the firm in the III. Reich in which no detail was left untouched, even the most wretched.

Postscriptum: The black cap illustrated in colleague Lumsden's excellent Black Corps has just such a tag with the A1/81 stamp, which, in turn, has been faked already. Sapere aude.