BACKGROUND
The Allgemeine SS ("General SS") was a major branch of the Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany; it was managed by the SS Main Office (SS-Hauptamt). The Allgemeine SS was officially established in the autumn of 1934 to distinguish its members from the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS Dispositional Troops or SS-VT), which later became the Waffen-SS, and the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS Death's Head Units or SS-TV), which were in charge of the Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps. SS formations committed many war crimes against civilians and allied servicemen.
Starting in 1939, foreign units of the Allgemeine SS were raised in occupied countries. From 1940 they were consolidated into the Directorate of the Germanic-SS (Leitstelle der germanischen SS). When the war first began, the vast majority of SS members belonged to the Allgemeine SS, but this proportion changed during the later years of the war after the Waffen-SS opened up membership to ethnic Germans and non-Germans.
DESCRIPTION
Here is a professionally restored example of a Holy Grail Allegemeine-SS double decal black helmet that would have been seen on Hitler's elite guard troops in the early 1930's. As the SS was still considered to be a political organization at the time and not a military priority, new SS members often wore refurbished German WW1 helmets which were repainted in satin black with newly invented SS decals then applied over top.
In this particular example the original pea green WW1 German paint color on the inside was maintained while the outside painted in a satin black enamel finish. The inside liner is also a transitional inter war example often seen on re-issued WW1 helmet used for pre WW2 service and is ink stamped "57" near one of the liner tongues. This liner also maintains it's early roller buckle style chinstrap which was still being used during the inter war period of the late 1920's to early 1930's before a standardized version was adopted. The inside shell has it's WW1 factory stamping of ET64 (Eisenwerkes Factory, Thale) with a heat lot number on the inside center of the dome BD505 which is a nice thing to see as this is typical the first set of numbers to be eroded over time due to poor maintenance of the helmet. A good rule of thumb is that anytime you see an original German WW1 helmet to check out both the factory stampings and the heat dome numbers because if those still exist than that's a good indicator that the helmet never underwent any periods of rusting and so we kept high and dry since 1918.
The SS decal is white metallic in nature and mimics a CA Pocher which was the most common used off the shelf SS decal available at the time with a similar party shield. Both decals were muted down and given a nice tea tone golden champagne patina to suggest 80+ years of aging.
A real shelf Queen for a collector on a budget. This is the kind of helmet you can actually tell your wife how much you paid for it.
$400
Please call, text or email me if interested.
Tel/Text: 1-438-502-5052
Email Us: helmetsofwar@gmail.com
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