UBB.threads Forums Uniform & Accessories SS & SA Uniform Forum Edelweiss Collar Patch

I had always been under the impression that the Edelweiss collar patch was only issued to the 87. SS-Standarte (Innsbruck). This early SS order from December 1932 states that 37. SS-Standarte in Linz was also issued with the collar patch. (Incidentally, this was the outfit that Kaltenbrunner was in charge of). Now, it is possible I suppose that 37 might have been mistakenly transposed to 87 in early references. Does anybody have any source material confirming 87? Obviously the ban on the SS in Austria makes the matter somewhat redundant from 1934 to 1938, but I thought I would offer it for those who want to amend their references.
Derek

Thanks for this extra piece of scholarship. Doubtless Mr. Abenheim et al will take note....
Good hunting & '06 Best.

quote:

Originally posted by derek chapman:
I had always been under the impression that the Edelweiss collar patch was only issued to the 87. SS-Standarte (Innsbruck). This early SS order from December 1932 states that 37. SS-Standarte in Linz was also issued with the collar patch. (Incidentally, this was the outfit that Kaltenbrunner was in charge of). Now, it is possible I suppose that 37 might have been mistakenly transposed to 87 in early references. Does anybody have any source material confirming 87? Obviously the ban on the SS in Austria makes the matter somewhat redundant from 1934 to 1938, but I thought I would offer it for those who want to amend their references.
Derek

I do not think this order is mistake, as you suggest, because Linz is most certainly in Oberoesterreich (Upper Austria), while Innsrbrueck is in Tirol, that is the bit that abuts Switzerland. It is the difference between California and Colorado, if you will---forgive me, or the difference between Brandenburg and Thueringen kinda. I spend a lot of time in Austria, and I commute regularly via Linz to Berlin, so I am acquainted with the provincial boundaries. That's a remarkable bit of information, to be sure. It is very hard to find images of Austrian Nazis, actually, especially from the before the Parteiverbot ca. 1933. As a point of information, the party was banned in 1933, not 1934. That is, the SA and SS formations that murdered Dollfuss and wielded the Elementar Erreignis Putsch in the summer of 1934 were already an underground terrorist organization. Two volumes that I got last week in Vienna of note: M Scheuch, Der Weg zum Heldenplatz: eine Geschichte d. Oest. Diktaturs, '33-'38 (Wien, 2005); Robt Kriechbaumer ed. Oesterreich! und Front Hiel! (Vienna/Weimar, 2005).