Conservative Business Dress - Page 20

Ich habe gedacht, dass solche Kleider verboten seien.

The seller states it is to comply with eBay rules about selling items with certain symbols.

Heute ja, aber damals nicht...

I guess it was a cherished family heirloom....

I doubt it - it looks fake to me.

That's what I mean: I thought it was illegal to sell those in modern Germany, so how is he/she getting away with it?

The only things that are illegal are nazi symbols. Old uniforms and what you may call militaria are legal. Typically, Hermann Historica, a Munich auction house which specialises in arms, armour, medals and orders, have password-restricted catalogues for the periods that feature swastikas, SS runes etc.: http://www.hermann-historica.com/

Germany has extremely strict laws prohibiting such things and I imagine you are quite correct and even the selling of such artifacts is likely to be illegal. Perhaps the removal of the SS sign, Hackenkreuz etc are calculated to by pass any such legislature?

Yes, that's the point. You can't sell nazi symbols at public sales in Germany. This is how you circumvent it:

Probably true. Doesn't look like it was worn daily in a PoW camp between 1945 and 1947.

I wonder if speaking of Nazi uniforms on a thread about conservative business dress is gentlemanly. Perhaps Kasper knows.

You may ask away.

Those uniform designs were used in Germany before Hitler took power, they have become the image of the nazi regime after all those films and documentaries we have seen with german soldiers wearing them, but originally this uniform was not "nazi"

Very true. The high "Prussian" military collar of the uniform, for example, goes back a long way before the Third Empire. Prussian collars like that were even found in civilian fashions throughout Europe, such as on frock coats. On a more serious note, Manton (who has invited much frivolous and delightfully ungentlemanly discussion by means of his own example) has given us a most entertaining sermon about how keeping it simple and conservative is something absolutely fundamental to good dressing. Beau Brummell himself held steadfast to the principle that one must do nothing to attract attention to oneself - absolutely nothing whatsoever. Understatement and perfection of fit were the ideals of the gentleman of the New Age, who had cast away his gaudy, fine embroidered silk habit. After the passing of the Beau, there was a time when extravagantly embroidered silk waistcoats came back into fashion - the temptation to relapse into the old gaudiness was too great. In this picture from 1797, a couple in the old style run into a couple dress in the new style (English country style in the manner of Beau Brummell, emphasising simplicity and fit). We too need occasional reminders of the old lessons taught to us by the Beau, especially when we start considering them to be too passé to take seriously.