Original Item: Only One available. This is a very good condition WWII Era Deutsches Rotes Kreuz (German Red Cross) Officer Schirmmütze (Visor Cap), which has a paper tag in the name slot with Karl Xylander on it. This is a high quality German made cap, fabricated from charcoal grey worsted wool cloth, with a solid gray cap band, plus three rows of light gray color piping around the circumference. This is the standard color piping for DRK caps, and it can look blue or purple at times. As this is the cap for an officer, it has a bullion chinstrap attached with pebbled buttons.

Cap is decorated with the correct insignia, including the DRK eagle insignia pin on the crown. On the cap band is a very nice silvered zinc alloy open-topped oak leaf wreath, with the classic plated metal Tri-color cockade inside, featuring a red felt insert. Both are in good shape, and the eagle still has a fully intact attachment clip, so it is attached firmly. The insignia do show some tarnish oxidation due to age, and the red felt insert is a bit faded. The visor on this cap is black finished leather, not the usual vulcanfibre that we see, though it does look to have seen some stitched repairs.

The cap has a very nice condition orange "service cloth" lining on the sides, while the lining is orange oil cloth, which shows some light wear but no major deterioration. The celluloid sweat shield diamond is partially complete with intact stitching, and we were not able to see any type of maker marking. The sweatband is made from natural finished leather, which has matured to a nice brown color, and is still supple, with just a bit of tearing in areas. There is no size marked, but it looks to be about a 55cm. Overall condition is very good.

A very nice German WWII Red Cross Officer visor cap, ready to add to your collection!

History of the German Red Cross (DRK)
The DRK, "Deutsches Rotes Kreuz" (German Red Cross), a voluntary civil assistance organization originally instituted in 1864, was officially acknowledged by the Geneva Convention in 1929. In December 1937 it gained status as a legally recognized organization by the NSDAP. As with other essential services in Third Reich Germany, it came under control of the NSDAP in late 1938 under the auspices of the Ministry of the Interior's Social Welfare Organization.

History of the "Red Cross" Symbol
It was important to clearly identify Medical personnel in the field. One of the early documents, such as the Amelioration of the Conditions of the Wounded in Armies in the Field signed August 22, 1864, by a number of Governments, already instructed that Flag and Arm Badges worn by Medical personnel would bear a Red Cross on a White Field. Both symbols when used on Hospitals, Ambulances, Evacuation and Aid Centers, were to be proof of their neutral status! These signs provided for neutrality of military and civilian protected personnel (it gave them non-belligerent status) exclusively engaged in removal, transportation, and treatment of wounded and sick, or the administration of sanitary formations and establishments, and entitled them to respect and protection from their enemies. The 1929 Geneva Convention which superseded the former agreement, was signed on July 27, 1929 by forty-seven countries (including the Axis countries, Germany, Italy, and Japan) and comprised numerous articles, among which Articles 9 and 21, recognizing that bearers of special identification cards and civilian protected personnel identified by armbands, and vehicles, and installations wearing Geneva Convention markings and markers, were all exclusively engaged in medical care activities, and consequently protected and respected by the Geneva Convention.