Robin Lumsden

The SS knew the importance of sartorial elegance.......

The SS didn't take the oddballs.......they left them to das Heer......

The SS also knew how to woo dem fraeuleins...........

He's a reservist - a member of the Stammabteilung.

These men also wear it. The Kokampf wore the helmet TK likewise, but on a black disc.

I agree. Why they didn't just paint the TK on the helmet the way some real freikorps units did, I will never know.

Dan Murphy

Dan.

Apart from the one well-known 'Freikorpskaempfer' picture, it's actually VERY difficult to find original photos of the TK being worn by Freikorps troops on the helmet.

Here's one, although you'd need a magnifying glass to see it. The guy on the left.......

Now, THIS is what I call a film prop.......

Well, I'm not so sure. The magazine is an 'official' history of the Silesian Freikorps campaigns, so why would they use a film prop?

Theatrical - most definitely.

Unofficial - who knows?

Hitler & Co. were well known for their theatrical gear, but it didn't make it unofficial.

Just another example of the TK in use.

It's the same picture.....with the face taken out.

.......until I found this period publication being advertised the other day.........

I used to think this shot was some sort of theatrical fantasy...........

Another of the convincing 19th century stage props currently on eBay. Came from Kassel, apparently.

There's a mirliton of the 5th (Total Death) Hussars, as worn c. 1750, on eBay!

Pity it's a 19th century stage prop.

Still a nice thing, though.

He's Back !!!!!

Well, it is only paper..........

Nothing on the back, unfortunately. The more I look at this, the more I think it is meant to be him. Didn't dawn on me until today, when I was moving some stuff around.

Here's the date 1916. I suppose at this stage in the war, he would have been keen to be portrayed as a 'field commander'.......like the Prussian Crown Prince, who also had a penchant for skulls.

Thoughts, anyone?

My knowledge of German royalty is pretty scant.

and as a younger man, commander of the Brunswick hussars.....

Here's the Duke in civvies.........

I have had this oil painting of a Brunswick hussar for several years. It shows a hussar in field uniform (although the painter has used some artistic licence) and is dated 1916.

I have always thought this was an untraceable man, but now I wonder.........could it be a painting of Ernst-August, Duke of Brunswick?

...und so weiter.....

Looks familiar.......

The very same type being used by a trooper of an SS-Reiterstandarte......

The skull has an odd expression.......