Original German WWII Luftwaffe Officer Schirmmütze Visor Crush Cap by Erel with Bullion Insignia Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a lovely Luftwaffe Officer’s Schirmmütze Visor Cap, with great early pattern bullion embroidered insignia. It shows signs of moderate use in service, but no abuse, giving it a fantastic aged look. A wonderful honest example with a fantastic “Crushed” or “saddle-form” shape that is highly desirable, accomplished by removing the crown support stiffener ring. This example was manufactured by Robert Lubstein under their legendary EREL brand, one of the most desirable makers of caps from the WWII Era. The cap is roughly size 7¼.

This Officer’s Schirmmütze Visor Cap is a very high quality manufactured example. Fabricated in Luftwaffe blue gray Fliegerblau (Flier’s Blue) “whipcord” weave wool gabardine, with a wide black ribbed wool cap band and three rows of fine silver bullion piping around the circumference. It is fronted by a heavy bullion embroidered Luftwaffe insignia pair that includes a silver bullion Luftwaffe eagle on charcoal gray wool backing above a high relief silver bullion oak leaf wreath with stylized wings and a woven tri color cockade. The insignia are in very good condition, with the bullion well retained, and showing very little in the way of oxidation. There is some wear to the bullion securing threads on the “wings”, and there also is a tear through the peak eagle just above the swas where the eagle’s talons grab it.

The visor on this cap is the standard “vulcanfibre” with a lovely gloss top, which shows just a bit of crazing and checking due to age. It also still has the black patent faux leather trim around the edge retained almost completely, though the stitching has popped on the bottom around much of the visor. The bottom of the visor is textured green, as we often see on Luftwaffe visor caps. Above the visor is the correct bullion officer’s chin strap, retained by pebbled buttons, which is in fantastic condition.

The interior is lined with fine very light blue colored rayon faux silk, as usually seen on the Erel “Privat” label caps. This does show staining, and the original diamond shaped celluloid sweat shield is fully intact, with complete stitching. There is no size marked, however the maker marking is still fully intact, and reads:-

Verkaufs-Abteilung
Der
Luftwaffe
Berlin SW 68
Puttkamerstr. 16/18
Erel
Berlin
Sonderklasse
Privat.

The inside of the cap has a nice gray pressed paper faux leather sweatband which has mostly deteriorated away, with around 40% remaining.

Overall condition is very good, showing signs of moderate use and subsequent long storage. The bullion piping is still in great shape, showing just some light wear towards the bottom of the cap, which is one of the first places to show damage during service. the crown is lovely, showing just a bit of moth damage.

A truly quality Luftwaffe officer in lovely condition with silver bullion embroidered insignia. 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.