One thing that I gotta hand to the Nazis, they had the most awesome uniforms ever. Nothing looks more cool and intimidating than the black SS officer uniform with trench coat. I had recently heard that the reason for this is that the uniforms were all designed by the original Hugo Boss. Is this true?
I asked a question along these lines awhile back. Aside from the rumor that the Nazis stole the uniform design from the NJ State Police (!), no one had much info.
I think it’s time we asked Cecil 'bout this one.
The Boss company’s seat is about 20 km from where I live, and their involvement with Nazism was the subject of some reports in the regional press these last years. Here is what I recollect:
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the Hugo Boss company was just one of many small clothing companies here at the rim of the Swabian Alb at the beginning of the 1930s. They were not notable as original designers.
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Hugo Boss became a NSDAP (Nazi) party member in 1931; most managers at that time also were avoved Nazis
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After the Nazis came to power the company’s fortunes took an upward turn as first a party-recognized supplier of party, SA and Hitler Youth uniforms (which their wearers had to buy themselves) and then with state contracts for Wehrmacht and other uniforms. The party contacts obviously did not hurt business.
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during the war the company got allocated forced labourers from France and Poland, i.e. forcibly employed, lowly paid civilians and POWs (as uniform suppliers they were recognized as vital to the war effort), but no slave labourers (i.e. concentration camp prisoners).
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during the post-war Denazification Hugo Boss was classified as “Mitläufer” (opportunist follower), fined and lost the right to vote. He died in 1948.
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The company’s rise as an original fashion label began in the 1970s; the company later commissioned a study by a historian into its past but did not publish it. On the occasion of their joining the compensation fund they reluctantly came clean and only in 2002 invited their former forced labourers for a visit as honored guests (a common gesture that a lot of towns and companies made years earlier).
I think its more a snopes.com thing personally.
Although itd be interesting (but i wouldnt hold it against hugo personally)
I’m surprised I’ve never heard the calls to boycott Hugo Boss. Coors Brewing, among others, have always had their ties to the Nazi’s come back to haunt them.
google is your friend
http://www.adlusa.com/adl//hilknow1.htm
yes it is true, the story was broken by the washington post about 1996I think
The Washington Post story posted on the ADL site refers to the manufacture of uniforms. That’s well known and has been public knowledge for quite some time (see my post above). The 1997 article’s conjecture about slave labour was mistaken, though - they only employed French/Polish forced labourers. (*)
The OP, however, referred to designing the uniforms. I doubt that was the case because a) they were just a fabrication outfit at the time, b) they’d have caught much more flak by the local media if they had, c) 1931 was a bit late for Hugo Boss to net that job - the Nazi party used party uniforms almost from the beginning, and they doubtlessly already had their established designers when Hugo Boss began cosying up to them.
(*) as per the terminology established in the last few years in the compensation fund debate.
Forced labourers: civilians and released POWs from occupied countries forcibly employed, legal status: employees of the company they worked for, subject to restrictions of movement/travel and to nonfraternization regulations and employed at a lower wage than Germans. Western European forced labourers enrolled in social security system, Eastern Europeans not. Eventual fate if Germany had won the war: citizens of an occupied and exploited country.
Slave labourers: concentration camp inmates, legal status: prisoners, earned no wage (company paid SS daily rate); closely guarded and subject to concentration-camp style treatment. Eventual fate if Germany had won the war: dead.
oh, and my comment on the 1997 Washington Post article assumes that the article was correctly quoted on the web page the link points to. Looking at the home page, the site is published by a right-wing nutjob outfit.
Well, who, if any “one” did design the stylish Nazi uniforms? Was there a single person who gave us that look?
(P.J. O’Rourke pointed out no man gets excited by the though of being beaten by a woman dressed up like a Liberal.) But I digress.
There’s a difference between “fantasy” and “insanely improbable myth”. At least a Nazi Conservative is plausible.
None other than Hitler himself, according to this book review. Scroll down to the bottom of paragraph 7…