Original Item: Only One available. This is a very nice service worn early German WWII SA "Stormtrooper" Kepi (Dienstmütze), often called a "Coffee Can Hat." It is made of a khaki "whipcord" canvas fabric over reinforced fabric sides, with a Marineblau (Navy Blue) felt top and Silber (silver) "pip" button on the front. This indicates use by the SA Gruppe Hessen, a district in the west of Germany made from Hesse-Nassau and parts of Hesse, with the principal city being Frankfurt.

Before 1939, to help differentiate the different SA groups, the top of these caps, as well as the collar tabs, were issued in a variety of colors. Additionally, the "button" or "pip" on the front of the cap could be silver or gold, which matched the color of the uniform buttons, which allowed colors to be used more than once.

These caps were worn by SA personnel, especially the "Stormtrooper" groups. It is made from tan canvas twill, with an early pattern nickel plated SA Reichsadler (National Eagle) on the front top. Around the top of the cap is a red and white braid, which indicates that the wearer was a leader (officer) during the early period. There is a very good condition dark brown leather chinstrap, held in place by the correct chocolate brown buttons on both sides.

The interior has an orange oil cloth crown lining, which unfortunately has degraded over time, now showing multiple tears due to how delicate it has become. The sweatband on this example is actually leather, and is now literally falling apart due to age and wear, with much of it already missing. There is an Edel-Leder (Fine leather) stamp on the remains of the sweat band.

Condition of the cap is very good, with the main condition issues being the sweatband an crown liner. The rest of the cap shows overall light wear and staining, and the felt around the top is a bit worn, but still looks great, and hasn't been beset by moths, as we so often see.

A hard to find early SA Stormtrooper Leader's Kepi with a great "been there" look, ready to research and display!

Sturmabteilung, literally Storm Detachment, was the NSDAP Party's original paramilitary. It played a significant role in Adolf AH's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing protection for NSDAP rallies and assemblies, disrupting the meetings of opposing parties, fighting against the paramilitary units of the opposing parties, especially the Red Front Fighters League (Rotfrontkämpferbund) of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), and intimidating Romani, trade unionists, and, especially, Jews – for instance, during the NSDAP boycott of Jewish businesses.

The SA were also called the "Brownshirts" (Braunhemden) from the color of their uniform shirts, similar to Benito Mussolini's blackshirts. The SA developed pseudo-military titles for its members, with ranks that were later adopted by several other NSDAP Party groups, chief amongst them the Schutzstaffel (SS), which originated as a branch of the SA before being separated. Brown-colored shirts were chosen as the SA uniform because a large number of them were cheaply available after World War I, having originally been ordered during the war for colonial troops posted to Germany's former African colonies.

The SA became disempowered after Adolf AH ordered the "blood purge" of 1934. This event became known as the Night of the Long Knives (die Nacht der langen Messer). The SA continued to exist, but was effectively superseded by the SS, although it was not formally dissolved until after NSDAP Germany's final capitulation to the Allies in 1945.