BACKGROUND: The 8.SS-Kavallerie-Division "Florian Geyer", (8^TH SS-Cavalry Division Florian Geyer), evolved from the 1.SS-Totenkopf-Reiterstandarte, (1^ST SS-Death’s Head Mounted Regiment), that was originally formed in September 1939. From its original beginning the unit expanded into the SS-Kavallerie Brigade in August 1941, the SS-Kavallerie-Division in June 1942, the 8.SS-Kavallerie-Division in October 1943, and finally the 8.SS-Kavallerie-Division "Florian Geyer" on March 12^TH 1944. It was on this last date that the divisional personnel were bestowed the honor cufftitle Florian Geyer, after the legendary Franconian Knight, (1490-1525), who led a peasant army in the Peasant War of 1522-1525. Geyer, a devout follower of the reformationist Martin Luther led the peasant army in an attempt to free themselves from oppression from the higher nobility castes and the Catholic clergy. Although originally successful Geyer and his peasant army were over run in the battle at Giebelstadt and roughly ten thousand peasants along with Geyer were slaughtered. Geyer’s ideology of empowerment for the peasants and his distrust of the Catholic church coincided with the NSDAP’s Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, (National Socialist German Worker’s Party), ideals of "blood & soil". Of Note: The RZM, Reichzeugmeisterei, (National Equipment Quartermaster), was officially founded in June 1934 in Munich by the NSDAP as a Reich Hauptamt, (State Central Office), and was based on the earlier SA, Sturmabteilung, (Storm/Assault Detachment), 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 3/16" tall, 18 7/8" long, full length, machine woven, black rayon, construction cufftitle with BeVo, machine woven, Latin script, "Florian Geyer", in silvery/grey rayon threads. The cufftitle is bordered at both the top and bottom edges with interwoven, vertically stitched, silvery/grey rayon threads. The full length cufftitle has folded over, machine stitched ends and the typical "salt & pepper" pattern reverse. One of the folded over ends has the machine woven, manufacturer’s trade name, "Bevo-Wuppertal", also in silvery/grey rayon threads indicating manufacture by Bandfabrik Ewald Vorsteher in Wuppertal. The cufftitle is in overall fair, unissued condition with some faint moisture staining and five assorted sized tears to the bottom edge.

GRADE ***                             PRICE $1,965.00