Eigemaechtigkeit
This inquiry always leads to a dead end. The issue of vanity here is not so much of pleasing vimmin, as it is one that the army was the most prestige laden institution in Prussia-Germany, regardless of Schickelgruber. There is much evidence of how certain members of the SS-at-arms sought to emulate the army, as others (i.e. Eicke &c.) sought to distance themselves from the caste-bound, dynastic antedelluvian elitism of same. The idea of the Zauber der Montur meant that surely some figures aped miltiary styles, even when it was against regulations. Colleague Rygaard's images are incontrovertible data to this effect. I refer you again to the list of violations of dress regulations in the Reichswehr, which, overtime, became tolerated conventions of dress in the German army all the same. Himmler did not like white shirts, for instance, since he considered the brown shirt to be the most powerful symbol of the movement, &c. However, the SS then wore white shirts for formal orders of dress; the examples of nutty ideological attempts to distance the SS from the army are legion, and the proscription of the colored piping was one of these. However, the Wilkins book makes clear that: a.) tailors did not know the regulations; b.) customers desired military style clothing of racy, elegant appearance and broke regulations. I.e. shortening of the Feldbluse or Rock to effect a more elegant, equestrian appearance, much favored and seen as the height of manliness. This is what I meant by vanity, actually.
SS caps are rare, and grey SS caps are more rare, and the handful of grey caps with colored Paspel are more rare still. Their appearance is like the big foot or the Loch Ness monster, but they do, indeed, exist as certain of my readers will attest. However, granted the peculiar dynamics of these kinds of examinations, one has given the owners of same little incentive to share them. This fact applies actually to many pieces and many collectors, in fact. I should note that a piece on offer on a German site was generally lambasted recently, only then to reappear on another site on another continent, and then to become the subject of great malicious animal magnetism.
Sapere aude. POSTSCRIPTUM Most SS stuff shown on most sites is.....fake...such a generalization hardly applies solely to the caps with the colored Paspel.
This inquiry always leads to a dead end. The issue of vanity here is not so much of pleasing vimmin, as it is one that the army was the most prestige laden institution in Prussia-Germany, regardless of Schickelgruber. There is much evidence of how certain members of the SS-at-arms sought to emulate the army, as others (i.e. Eicke &c.) sought to distance themselves from the caste-bound, dynastic antedelluvian elitism of same. The idea of the Zauber der Montur meant that surely some figures aped miltiary styles, even when it was against regulations. Colleague Rygaard's images are incontrovertible data to this effect. I refer you again to the list of violations of dress regulations in the Reichswehr, which, overtime, became tolerated conventions of dress in the German army all the same. Himmler did not like white shirts, for instance, since he considered the brown shirt to be the most powerful symbol of the movement, &c. However, the SS then wore white shirts for formal orders of dress; the examples of nutty ideological attempts to distance the SS from the army are legion, and the proscription of the colored piping was one of these. However, the Wilkins book makes clear that: a.) tailors did not know the regulations; b.) customers desired military style clothing of racy, elegant appearance and broke regulations. I.e. shortening of the Feldbluse or Rock to effect a more elegant, equestrian appearance, much favored and seen as the height of manliness. This is what I meant by vanity, actually.
SS caps are rare, and grey SS caps are more rare, and the handful of grey caps with colored Paspel are more rare still. Their appearance is like the big foot or the Loch Ness monster, but they do, indeed, exist as certain of my readers will attest. However, granted the peculiar dynamics of these kinds of examinations, one has given the owners of same little incentive to share them. This fact applies actually to many pieces and many collectors, in fact. I should note that a piece on offer on a German site was generally lambasted recently, only then to reappear on another site on another continent, and then to become the subject of great malicious animal magnetism.
Sapere aude. POSTSCRIPTUM Most SS stuff shown on most sites is.....fake...such a generalization hardly applies solely to the caps with the colored Paspel.
regards phil.
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