Original Item: Only One Available. This cap is a wonderful lightly used example of a named German WWII Wehrmacht Heer Army Recruitment Officer's Schirmmütze (visor cap), made by the legendary EREL company. The cap has a lovely "Crushed" or "saddle-form" shape that is highly desirable, accomplished by removing the crown support stiffener ring. It features the typical feldgrau (field gray) "doe skin" weave wool construction with a forest green "badge cloth" band and a traditional high forward crown. The also has matching Orange-gelb (Orange-yellow) piping along the top edge and flanking either side of the band, the Corps Color (Waffenfarbe) for recruiting and replacement (Wehrersatzwesen) and Military Police. It has the correct silver bullion chin strap, indicating that it is for an officer.

It is decorated with a well detailed aluminum eagle insignia on the peak and and an open cast aluminum oak leaf and acorn wreath surrounding an metal tri-color cockade on the band. The silver wash all the insignia is well-retained and the red felt insert inside the cockade is present and vibrant. The chin strap is attached with the standard pebbled buttons on either side of the cap. The vulcanfibre visor has a smooth black leather-look upper, exhibiting only light wear along the edge, and is beige on the underside. It also has a lovely pattern of light crazing and checking on the black enamel finished top. The beige finished sweatband looks to be leather, and unfortunately has cracked and become extremely stiff over the years, with much of the stitching around the edge degrading.

The inside of the cap is lined with cream sheer fabric, most likely rayon, which shows a lot of staining from use. The top celluloid sweat shield diamond is completely intact, though some of the stitching has popped. It has a name tag for KARL SIEBER in the slot, and there is also still the maker's logo under the shield:

Under this it still bears the complete EREL trademark logo, with the silver stamping almost completely retained:

EREL
BERLIN
Sonder Klasse
Standard

The cap also has an embossed stamp over the left ear on the sweatband: „Erel“ Stirnshutz / D.R.G.M. / D.R.P. angem., which refers to the "Forehead Protection" of the sweatband design. The additional abbreviations indicate that it is a trademarked and protected design. This means that the sweatband was never replaced, making this a "double marked" example. There is no size marking we can see, but it seems to be about a 57 cm / 7 1/8 US.

Aside from the sweatband, condition is very good, with just a few areas of light mothing, as well as a few holes and stains on the top of the crown. The colors do show fading and some wear, and the piping shows fading around the bottom, while the rear piping under the crown is still vibrant.

A great example of a classic hat worn by German Army Officers in WWII, double marked by the legendary EREL company. Very impressive and ready to display!

The German Schirmmütze Visor Cap:
The visor cap (Schirmmütze) was an important part of the headgear worn by German uniformed military, civil, paramilitary and political organizations during the Third Reich. This was the standard cloth headgear worn as a part of the service uniform. Visor caps were worn outdoors as well as indoors, and were often required to be worn by all personnel on duty. Visor caps were made in versions specific to each organization and were often further differentiated through the use of insignia, colored piping, or style of chin cord, to indicate rank, role or branch. The insignia used on these caps ranged from simple stamped metal emblems, to elaborate hand embroidery. Visor caps were issued to enlisted soldiers and NCOs in the military and in some other organizations. Officers had to purchase their own hats, and lower ranks could choose to purchase caps that were of a higher quality than the rather basic, issue examples. The private purchase caps were generally made in very high quality, with fine materials. A wide variety of fabrics were used, from Trikot and doeskin, to heavy wool, or even lightweight white fabric for summer wear. In the military, issue of these caps was generally suspended shortly after the outbreak of the war, but they continued to be worn by some troops until the end of the war.