SS Ehredegen

What many collectors don’t realize, is that just because you were an officer within the SS, it didn’t by any means qualify you automatically to be able to own, and wear the honor degen. There were very specific requirements laid forth by the Reichsfuhrer H. Himmler, that had to be met, in order for an individual to be entitled to wear the SS Ehredegen.

Among those strict requirements were the following:

1.  Initially these swords were awarded to battalion commanders and higher ranks, within the SS Verfugungstruppen (SS-VT)

2. Additionally, those SS officers who held the rank of Standartenfuhrer and above within the Allgemenine, prior to April 1936, also qualified an individual as well. This is the date that the “official model 1936 SS degen” was first introduced.

3. The award was further extended to those that were department heads within the SS-Hauptamter or SS Main Office, directly under the Reichsfuhrer.

4. And finally, the newly graduates of the SS Officer Candidates Schools from Bad Tolz & Braunschweig, were also recipients of the SS Ehredegen.

The SS Honor Sword was in of itself a true award. It was presented with a personalized certificate, and was noted next to the recipients name in the SS Dienstaltersliste.