Waffen-SS EM Buckle, Steel by Overhoff & Cie
Price: $425
BUY / RESERVE THIS ITEMDescription: Steel enlisted Waffen-SS belt buckle an unmarked ‘Overhoff & Cie’’; buckle retains approx. 70% of its obverse & 65% of its reverse silver finish. A great field-worn WSS steel combat buckle that’s ‘been there’.
Background: As a subordinate unit to the SA, early SS personnel wore the standard SA style box belt buckle. It is believed that AH personally designed a new pattern box belt buckle specifically for wear by SS EM/NCO personnel with the manufacturing patent being originally granted to the Overhoff & Cie. firm in Lüdenscheid. This new style buckle was adopted for wear by EM/NCO personnel in late 1931 or early 1932. Generally the early buckles were produced in solid nickel/silver until sometime in1936 when aluminum alloys replaced the nickel/silver versions. In 1940 the EM/NCO’s belt buckles began to be manufactured in steel replacing the aluminum alloy buckles. The ‘RZM’,(Reichzeugmeisterei-National Equipment Quartermaster), was officially founded in June 1934 by the NSDAP, as a Reich Hauptamt, (State Central Office), and was based on the earlier SA Quartermaster’s Department. The functions of the RZM were not only to procure and distribute items to Party formations, but also to approve chosen designs and to act as a quality control supervisor to ensure items manufactured for the Party met required specification and were standardized. Starting in late 1934 items manufactured for the SS came under the quality control of the RZM and as a result were to be marked with the RZM/SS approval/acceptance mark. In 1943 the Waffen-SS assumed full control over their uniform item production and no longer fell under the authority of the RZM.
