Original German WWII Army Heer Pioneer Officer Schirmmütze Visor Cap by EREL – Double Marked Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This cap is a very nice service used example of a German WWII Wehrmacht Heer Pioneer Officer Schirmmütze visor cap, made by the very desirable EREL company. It features the typical green wool gabardine construction with a forest green “badge cloth” band and a traditional high forward crown. The crown stiffener has been removed, giving it a lovely “saddle form” crushed shape. It also has matching Schwarz (Black) piping along the top edge and flanking either side of the band. This is the Waffenfarbe (Corps Color) for the Pioniere (Combat engineers), as well as Assault, Armored, Fortress, and Railway engineers. 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 an open silvered aluminum wreath surrounding a tri-color cockade on the band. The cockade still retains the bright red felt center inlay, and the silvering on the insignia is all in fantastic condition. The chin strap is attached with the standard silvered buttons on either side of the cap. The vulcanfibre visor has a smooth black leather-look upper, exhibiting light wear along the edge, as well as overall fine checking and crazing in the gloss black finish. The underside is light tan, and shows moderate staining from use. The brown leather sweatband is in good condition, with with some light tears and deterioration around the rim. Some of the stitching is pulling, and wear around the edge shows the wicker edge reinforcement. Size is approximately US 7 1/8 (57cm).

The cap is lined with lovely cream rayon faux silk, and still retains the full celluloid diamond sweat shield in the crown. Under this it still bears the complete EREL trademark logo, with the silver stamping almost completely retained:

OFFIZIER
KLEIDERKASSE
BERLIN
EREL
SonderKlasse
Extra

The cap also has an embossed stamp over the left ear on the sweatband: EREL PATENT / STIRNSCHUTZ, which refers to the “Forehead Protection” of the sweatband design. This means that the sweatband was never replaced, making this a “double marked” example.

Condition of the cap is very good, with the colors retained very well. There are two holes on the underside of the crown on the right side, which look to be from mothing. There is also some deformation of the band stiffener on the rear, and the left end of the visor has had the stitching pull out.

A very good service used example of the classic hat worn by German Pioneer Officers in WWII. 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.