Description
Product Description: This is an outstanding example of a summer weight HJ Side Cap, as worn as part of the tan Hitlerjugend uniform. The exterior of this cap is made from a typical lightweight khaki twill fabric that shows only light wear and patina. The front of the cap has a machine woven Hitler Youth diamond insignia, which is neatly hand stitched to the cap with white thread. The edge of the turn-down flap is trimmed with attractive white piping, indicating Streifendienst (security detail). This piping has some light wear and patina. Inside, this fine cap has a gold rayon lining, as well as an intact leather sweatband with black ink “56” size stamp. The lining is stamped in black ink with “NPEA” indicating this cap was worn at one of the “Napola” boarding schools set up by the Nazi Party. There is a nice brown oilcloth RZM tag under the sweatband that identifies this cap as a “Sommermutze” (summer cap). There is a neatly hand sewn name tag of the original owner applied over the NPEA stamp. This is a nice and hard to find HJ Side Cap that displays very well. The condition rates as excellent.
Historical Description: The “side cap” was a part of the uniform worn by nearly all military, paramilitary, political and civil organizations in the Third Reich. It was a narrow hat that could be folded flat and tucked into a belt or haversack. This was, at the time, a very stylish type of uniform cap; in the German Army, it replaced the round “pork pie” style of field cap used in the Great War. The German name for this cap, in most organizations, was “Feldmütze”- field cap. Despite the name, it was often worn as a daily service cap by postal workers and other personnel who would never be deployed to the field. The men and women who wore the side cap gave it the nickname “Schiffchen,” meaning little boat, due to its shape. The side caps were made in the same type of fabric as the uniforms, in the uniform color particular to each organization. The side caps were adorned with branch-specific insignia, usually bearing some form of the German eagle and swastika national emblem. Many sidecaps also bore red, white and black national cockades. The insignia were usually embroidered or woven, but metal devices were used on some caps as well. Officer caps generally were distinguished by silver braid along the top edge and/or on the upper part of the flap at the front of the cap and were often custom tailored from fine fabrics. The German military, and many other organizations, had broadly replaced the side cap with a new, more practical cap featuring a brim, by 1943. But the side cap continued to be worn by some troops until the end of the war.
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