Deleted member 108228
Thanks! I was trying to capture Oceania in that they don't follow conventions of old
Rank Insignia and Uniforms Thread
- Thread starter general_tiu
- Start date
Thanks! I was trying to capture Oceania in that they don't follow conventions of old
In December 1944 the World War II was over. Despite little fighting lasted well into 1945, and despite the lack of a formal Peace Treaty until November 1948, serious clashes ended as late as late November 1944. Last British troops were evacuated in February 1945, while U.S. forces were withdrawn from Norway in March 1945.
On 12 May 1945, Adolf Hitler suffered a stroke, and in the following relative power vacuum, Reichsfuhrer-SS quickly stepped in, managing to definitively emancipate the SS and the security apparatus from the tutelage of external Nazi actors.
On 20 July 1946, all police bodies (both Ordnungspolizei and RSHA) were merged, togheter with all Schutzstaffeln, into the new State Protection Corps of the Nationalsocialist Reich (Staatsschutzkorps des Nationalsozialistischen Reiches, SSK) under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler as Reichsführer-SSK and Minister of Interior.
On 20 April 1947 Adolf Hitler enacted the Law about the Autonomy of SS Order States and of SS Cities (Gesetz über die Autonomie der SS-Ordenstaaten und der SS-Städte) which granted a significant degree of autonomy from the Greater German Reich to some territories and cities.
While SS-Order States were limited to Burgundy under the firm rule of SSK-Volksmarschall Léon Degrelle, Heinrich Himmler personally chose 28 places, where to build SSK Cities (SSK-Städte) in the conquered or firmly subjugated lands of the General Government, West Ukraine, Romania and Hungary.
Each of the SSK City (SSK-Stadt) was ruled by a SSK City Lord (SSK-Stadtherr), populated by peasant-soldiers of the Allegemeine-SS and their families, permanently garrisoned by standing units of the State Protection Corps of the Nationalsocialist Reich, i.e. former SS and Polizei standing units.
The SSK City Lord was directly subordinated to the Reichsführer-SSK, and no other authority was permitted to interfere. Under him were a senior officer in charge of standing combat and security units, ranking SSK-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor und Oberkriminaldirektor, and a senior officer ranking SSK-Brigadeführer with the title of City Chancelor (Stadtkanzler) in charge of daily administration.
On 12 May 1945, Adolf Hitler suffered a stroke, and in the following relative power vacuum, Reichsfuhrer-SS quickly stepped in, managing to definitively emancipate the SS and the security apparatus from the tutelage of external Nazi actors.
On 20 July 1946, all police bodies (both Ordnungspolizei and RSHA) were merged, togheter with all Schutzstaffeln, into the new State Protection Corps of the Nationalsocialist Reich (Staatsschutzkorps des Nationalsozialistischen Reiches, SSK) under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler as Reichsführer-SSK and Minister of Interior.
On 20 April 1947 Adolf Hitler enacted the Law about the Autonomy of SS Order States and of SS Cities (Gesetz über die Autonomie der SS-Ordenstaaten und der SS-Städte) which granted a significant degree of autonomy from the Greater German Reich to some territories and cities.
While SS-Order States were limited to Burgundy under the firm rule of SSK-Volksmarschall Léon Degrelle, Heinrich Himmler personally chose 28 places, where to build SSK Cities (SSK-Städte) in the conquered or firmly subjugated lands of the General Government, West Ukraine, Romania and Hungary.
Each of the SSK City (SSK-Stadt) was ruled by a SSK City Lord (SSK-Stadtherr), populated by peasant-soldiers of the Allegemeine-SS and their families, permanently garrisoned by standing units of the State Protection Corps of the Nationalsocialist Reich, i.e. former SS and Polizei standing units.
The SSK City Lord was directly subordinated to the Reichsführer-SSK, and no other authority was permitted to interfere. Under him were a senior officer in charge of standing combat and security units, ranking SSK-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor und Oberkriminaldirektor, and a senior officer ranking SSK-Brigadeführer with the title of City Chancelor (Stadtkanzler) in charge of daily administration.
It is fully under construction.
I am planning to draw uniforms and insignia of the Staatsschutzkorps, as well as of modern-day Wehrmacht. A major obstacle will be drawing maps. Deleted member 108228
It is fully under construction.
I'll look forward to that
The rank of SS-Volksmarschall (i.e. SS People's Marshal) was a rank of the Waffen-SS first and then of the Staatsschutzkorps: it was the highest possible rank for a SS-Mann other than the Reichsfuhrer-SS.
Being formally crated in November 1944, the rank was first bestowed in the grandiose ceremony on 30 January 1945 on Joseph "Sepp" Dietrich. While the Volksmarschall baton was markedly different from the Wehrmacht baton models, the shoulder board featured the same insignia of the Wehrmacht Generalfeldmarschall/Großadmiral rank insignia.
With the establishment of the State Protection Corps of the Nationalsocialist Reich (Staatsschutzkorps des Nationalsozialistischen Reiches, SSK) in July 1946, other two SSK-Oberstgruppenführers were promoted to the august rank, thus becoming the elite within the existing twelve SSK-Oberstgruppenführers. According to the Personal Decree of the Führer on the Defenders of the Reich, up to a quarter of the SSK-Oberstgruppenführers on active duty may be promoted to the rank of SSK-Volksmarschall. Because SSK-Oberstgruppenführers numbered up to twelve, a maximum of three SSK-Volksmarschall could exist.The first batch of officers ranking SSK-Volksmarschall (but still popularly known as "SS-Volksmarschall") consisted of:
Being formally crated in November 1944, the rank was first bestowed in the grandiose ceremony on 30 January 1945 on Joseph "Sepp" Dietrich. While the Volksmarschall baton was markedly different from the Wehrmacht baton models, the shoulder board featured the same insignia of the Wehrmacht Generalfeldmarschall/Großadmiral rank insignia.
With the establishment of the State Protection Corps of the Nationalsocialist Reich (Staatsschutzkorps des Nationalsozialistischen Reiches, SSK) in July 1946, other two SSK-Oberstgruppenführers were promoted to the august rank, thus becoming the elite within the existing twelve SSK-Oberstgruppenführers. According to the Personal Decree of the Führer on the Defenders of the Reich, up to a quarter of the SSK-Oberstgruppenführers on active duty may be promoted to the rank of SSK-Volksmarschall. Because SSK-Oberstgruppenführers numbered up to twelve, a maximum of three SSK-Volksmarschall could exist.The first batch of officers ranking SSK-Volksmarschall (but still popularly known as "SS-Volksmarschall") consisted of:
- Joseph Dietrich (with seniority from 30 January 1945);
- Kurt Dauleuge (with seniority from 20 July 1946);
- Léon Degrelle (with seniority from 20 July 1946).
great mind thinks alike as they say:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...nd-uniforms-thread.36852/page-66#post-7991657
Oh it was you. I downloaded the image yeas ago searching on the internet and I used it as plain model, using Commons files as starting point. Your models are pretty impressive, and it is only fair to recognize the inspiration, although I did not remember that post in particular.
The use of gold is a bit unusual considering Himmler was a bit mental about always sticking to silver threads. The custom-made insignias Sepp Dietriech wore were apparently a source of annoyance to Himmler. That being said, I guess the "traditional" insignias might have been kept for division of the SSK that are considered elite or directly linked with the old guard.
Another thing is the use of a crown as part of the insignia. The Nazi used meritocratic language as part of their rhetoric so such a blatantly monarchist symbol would seem to go against it even if not represent a genuine title of nobility. It seems like instead they might use symbol drawing inspiration from NSDAP-specific insignias for region ruler like the gauleiters and such.
The crown I used is the Volkskrone, adopted in 1918 in order to replace dynastic/monarchic crowns in coats of arms of Lander (e.g. the Free State of Bavaria), cities (e.g. Berlin) or other territorial communities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkskrone. It is republican enough to not indulge in any reminescence of monarchic past.
I have more troubles in the cross-shaped gross-guard, also because the openly anti-Christian stanced assumed by Himmler.
For the general pattern, the adoption of a leaf branch of the Reichsfuhrer-SS insignia on one side and the twin bolts of the SS on the other represents a sort of compromise. Gauleiter insignia were too reminescent of NSDAP, something I decided to avoid in order to emphasize the absolute autonomy, within the Reich, of these cities and towns; on the other hand, I also decided to avoid to use a mere Gruppenfuhrer-type insignia to distance these Himmler's vicars from the regular chain of command.
The gold colour does not have a specific or coherent explaination, after all.
Oh it was you. I downloaded the image yeas ago searching on the internet and I used it as plain model, using Commons files as starting point. Your models are pretty impressive, and it is only fair to recognize the inspiration, although I did not remember that post in particular.
no worries.
To me there is a symbolic difference between using the crown to represent a place and using it to represent a person. Crowns are in widespread use OTL on national COA, for example the polish one, despite being republics so the perception is more that of "historical sovereignty" rather than straight up monarchy.
Use to represent a person though, it becomes a bit more problematic to me as you have someone using a crown as his literal symbol of office which, while it might make sense in context, is bound to be perceive by most as a re-adoption of monarchist institutions especially considering the Stadtherr is an autocratic position. So it feels like an offshot of the SS would choose a civic symbol that was either the previously worn 8-pointed star of administrative officers or a Rune/Runes combination.
That being said, and switching gear completely here, adopting pseudo-monarchist symbols could make sense if the plan in the long run for the SS territories was to create something similar to the State of Burgundy often talked about. Assuming it was based on a highly idealised version of pre-christian germany, this new nobility would be presented as one which depends on merit to be entered in. Pagan Germany's concept of confirming the right of a hereditary king to rule by his subjects would be reinterpreted as someone being given autocratic power but only with the approval of an organisation opened (in theory) to all free inhabitants of the land.
The problem is that the shoulder board represents an office of city governor; on the other hand, in the famous Himmler's speech to the Berlin Herrenklub, he stated that the SS were the embryo of the future nobility and aristorcracy; but I see the point. I have not devised yet the insignia for the "Lord of Burgundy" and honestly I thought more to a sort of Mayor of the Palace than a pseudo-monarchy.
I'll elaborate a new version of the SS-Stadherr.
So I do.
I am drawing a map, but I'm not good at drawing maps. 
Thank you for the map.
28 SS-Stadte:
- Wewelsburg
- Bad Tölz
- Braunschweig
- Wannsee
- Sachsenhausen
- Wawel
- Jaroslau
- Himmlerstadt
- Stanislau
- Reichshof
- Busko
- Reichenberg
- Wenden
- Danzig
- Marienburg
- Wolfsburg Castle
- Tannenberg
- Hohenstaufen Castle
- Schytomyr
- Reval
- Arensburg
- Dünaburg
- Wolmar
- Baranowitsche
- SS Quarter of Riga
- Barisau
- Petschur
- Lida
Revised version, according to marcpasquin's suggestions. Material taken from Commons.
Changes: gold to silver; from closed collar insignia to open collar ones; embroidry effect on collar insignia and chromatic effect on shoulder boards.