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Germany - Nazi Party Flags 4 (SS)

SchutzStaffel (SS) was founded as Adolf Hitler's bodyguard and was a part of the SturmAbteilung (SA). When Heinrich Himmler was made Reichsführer-SS in 1929 the SS began to grow in numbers and in power. The SS remained loyal and played an important part when Ernst Röhm and many of the other leaders on the SA was murded during Nacht der langen Messer (Night of the long knives) in 1936. As a reward for it's loyalty the SS was made an independent organization and in 1936 the SS was made responsible for all police activity in the Third Reich.
Allgemeine SS: The non-armed part of the SS. This included for example Geheimes StaatsPolizei (GESTAPO), SicherheitsDienst (SD), Ordnungspolizei (OrPo), Kriminalpolizei (KriPo) and the guards of the concentration camps.
Waffen-SS: The armed forces of the SS. They were founded as SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT) in 1934 and were renamed Waffen-SS in 1940 when Hitler decided that it, during the war, should be under the command of OberKommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), ie the the supreme command of the regular armed forces. In 1944 the number of soldiers in the Waffen-SS exceeded 900.000 men.
In some of the occupied territories local SS-organizations were founded, so called Germanische SS, these organizations were theoretically independent but was in reality controlled by the SS. One example of this was the Nederlandse SS in the Netherlands (renamed Germaanse SS in Nederland is 1942).
Marcus Wendel

For more information on this organisation, see the Third Reich Factbook
Marcus Wendel

46) The Standard of the SS (SchutzStaffel-Standarte)

by Jaume Ollé

Like 51) except the rectangle above the standard is black.
Norman Martin

47) The Standard of Hitler's Bodyguard of the SS (Standarte der Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler)

by Jaume Ollé

A vexillum type flag with design like the Führer's Standard except that all 4 corner eagles are of the party type. It also has a gold fringe.
Norman Martin

Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler was founded in 1933 as "Standarte Adolf Hitler" when sonderkommando Berlin and sonderkommando Zossen merged. There had been earlier bodyguards but they had been disbanded. Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler was expanded during the war and fought as a panzerdivision (of the Waffen-SS) when the war ended.
Marcus Wendel, 13 June 1999

48) Command Flag of the National Leader of the SS (Kommandostander der Reichsfuehrer SS)

by Jaume Ollé

A square flag with the field diagonally divided into four fields, top and bottom black, left and right white. Superimposed at the center a silver party eagle (with wreath and swastika). The flag has a narrow white (or red) border.
Norman Martin

48a) Hauptamtschef

by Jaume Ollé

48b) Amtschef

by Jaume Ollé

48c) Oberabschnitt

by Jaume Ollé

48e) SS Standarte

by Jaume Ollé

48f) Abschnitt

by Jaume Ollé

48g) Sturmbann

by Jaume Ollé

48h) Kraftwagen und fahrradwimpel

by Jaume Ollé

48i) Kraftwagen und Fahrradwimpel für fördernde Mitglieder der Schutzstaffel

by Jaume Ollé

Fördernde Mitglieder (SS-FM) was an organisation for non-SS who supported the SS financially.
Marcus Wendel

49) Hausfahne SS

by Jaume Ollé

50) Sturmbannfahne (Sturmbann III der I SchutzStaffel Standarte, Julius Schreck)

by Jaume Ollé

Almost all the details of this set of flags are from the 1943 Organisationsbuch der NSDAP, published by the Reichsorganisationsleiter der NSDAP, and "not to be sold in the book trade". I suspect not many copies are around (I picked mine up at the Nazi party headquarters in Munich early in May 1945). Ballantine's Books reprinted the color illustrations in "Nazi Regalia" in 1971 and Imperial Publications reprinted all of the illustrations in black and white in "The NSDAP" in 1990. Also helpful is Brian Davis, Badges of the Third Reich 1933-1945, Blandford Press 1985.