BACKGROUND: As early as 1938 Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and the Allgemeine-SS, (General-SS), began recruiting volunteer "Germanische", (Germanic), personnel who were considered to be suitably "Nordic", to serve in the SS-VT, SS-Verfügungstruppe, (SS-Special Purpose Troops). Originally these Germanic personnel were drawn from Dutch, Belgian, Danes and Norwegians but with only minor success. In March 1940 with the formation of the Waffen-SS recruitment of the Germanic personnel began to increase slightly and with the outbreak of WWII additional Germanic volunteers came forward to join the ranks of the Waffen-SS. The invasion of the Balkans in 1941 brought forward another pool of suitable Volksdeutsche, (Ethnic Germans), personnel available for voluntary enlistment in the Waffen-SS. The invasion of Russia on June 22^ND 1941 and the war against Bolshevism resulted in the Waffen-SS experiencing another surge in recruits willing to serve with the Germans. As the war continued and man-power shortages became severe the standard criteria for acceptance into the Waffen-SS was decreased dramatically and numerous personnel who would have been unacceptable in 1939 were readily conscripted into service with the Waffen-SS. By the end of the war more then half of all the personnel serving in the Waffen-SS were non-Germans. The Norwegian, NS, Nasjonal Samling, (National Unity), party, founded in May 1933 by Vidkun Quisling, was designed and structured on the same basis as the NSDAP. Although the NS party never enjoyed any electoral success prior to the invasion of Norway by the Germans, Quisling proclaimed himself Prime Minister after the invasion. This was originally rejected by the Germans, but in September 1940 Quisling’s NS party was declared the only legal political party in Norway and in February 1942 Hitler finally appointed Quisling as Minister President of Norway. Although the nominal head of state Quisling was just a puppet collaborator with the real power of Norway being secured by the German Reichskommissar Josef Terboven. The NS was divided into numerous sub-sections, designated, "Hird’s", which is an ancient Norwegian word translating roughly as, the king’s followers. The Rikshird, (National Followers), was founded in 1933 for all active party members between 18 and 45 years of age and would be roughly equivalent to the German SA, Sturmabteilung. On May 16^TH 1941 the Norwegian Police Chief Jonas Lie with Reichskommissar Josef Terboven assistance formed the Norges-SS, (Norwegian-SS), from Rikshird personnel without Quisling’s knowledge or approval. On May 21^ST Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler traveled to Oslo for the official announcement of the formation of the Norges-SS much to Quisling’s chagrin. On July 21^ST 1942 the Norges-SS was converted into the Germanische-SS Norge, (Germanic SS-Norway), and cut all ties with the Rikshird. The development of Germanische-SS Norge was an attempt by Himmler to consolidate all non-German SS formation of western Europe into one single organization with all of its personnel swearing their oath of allegiance to Hitler. The uniforms of the Germanische-SS Norge were based on the black German Allgemeine-SS uniforms with minor modifications and different insignia including a scripted cufftitle. Of Note: The RZM, Reichzeugmeisterei, (National Equipment Quartermaster), was official founded in June 1934 in Munich by the NSDAP as a Reich Hauptamt, (State Central Office), and was based on the earlier SA Quartermaster’s Department. The functions of the RZM were not only to procure and distribute items to Party formations, but also to approve chosen designs and to act as a quality control supervisor to ensure items manufactured for the Party met required specification and were standardized. Starting in late 1934 items manufactured for the SS came under the quality control of the RZM and were marked by a cloth RZM/SS approval tag. The dimensions and design of these cloth tags was altered in 1935 and this second pattern tag remained in use until early 1938, when it was replaced by a paper tag. In 1943 the Waffen-SS assumed full control over their uniform item production and no longer fell under the authority of the RZM.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Roughly, 1 1/8" tall, 11" long, RZM pattern, machine woven, black rayon construction cufftitle featuring machine embroidered, Latin script and SS runes, "Germanske SS Norge", in silvery/grey cotton threads. The cufftitle is bordered at both the top and bottom edges in seven strand, horizontally woven, bright, silver/aluminum wire threads. The shortened cufftitle is in overall good condition light to moderate fraying to the unfinished ends and minimal age and usage toning. Scarce Norwegian SS cufftitle.

GRADE ***                             PRICE $3,276.00