Ever Fancied A German secret police Overcoat ?

[Old Fogey UK]

Story's pic of the repro coat looks just like the original gray/green coat I got on German eBay for about $30. There are some nice-looking ones on there right now.
I'm a 40/42 chest and a German 50/52 fits me OK if that's any help to anyone.
(By the way, I want to make it absolutely clear I'm not a WW2 wannabe; these coats were popular with pre-war motorists and I wanted mine for winter driving in my 1934 model - OK ?)

 

[BellyTank]

That repro coat is actually a picture of a ''real coat, not one of his repros.

B
T

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

(By the way, I want to make it absolutely clear I'm not a WW2 wannabe; these coats were popular with pre-war motorists and I wanted mine for winter driving in my 1934 model - OK ?)

As I said above, I seriously have and had no doubt. It's just the association, the unfair association, if you will. I wouldn't sport a toothbrush moustache either, even in case I liked it "as such", or call my son Adolf, even though my (Jewish) wife's great-grandfather bore this name.

 

[Tomasso]

or call my son Adolf, even though my (Jewish) wife's great-grandfather bore this name.

fftopic: Has a forename ever been so utterly decimated as Adolf has been?

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Old Fogey:

Have you received the jackets yet? Probably not, since this thread only started yesterday. The one i found in an army surplus store here is green leather and bears DRP ZIPP zippers. There's a thread somewhere. I think we decided it was civilian during-war era, or just postwar french or german police, using old ZIPPs. Would be thrilled to hear about the ZIPPs on yours when they arrive.

It is truly unfortunate when a piece of clothing - or a look - attains connotations with which it is undesirable to associate.

I just look like Herr Flick when i wear it (or like von Smallhausen, according to some unkind FLounger who shall remain nameless ).

bk

 

[Old Fogey UK]

Dear Baron Kurtz,
The brown coat, which I think is older, doesn't have a zipper. The inside pocket has a plain opening. There's no maker's label in it.
The gray/green coat does have a brass zipper on the inside pocket but without any markings, it's just a plain teardrop shaped brass pull. There's no label in this coat but I suspect that as it came from the eastern part of Germany, it may be something issued by the DDR. The colour of the leather is more DDR "Stone Gray" than the blueish gray/green of the old West German Police coats.

 

[Old Fogey UK]

Dear Shaul Ike,
I take your point entirely. By the way, I wouldn't sport a toothbrush moustache either, but because they look so darned stupid - a bit like the guy who made them notorious in the first place, I suppose....

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

That's why I inserted the reputation disclaimer saying "if I liked it".

I find it interesting from a historical POV how deliberately unglamorous both the West and the East German police and army uniforms were after the war.

 

[Old Fogey UK]

I guess that was an attempt to get away from the supposed "glamour" of their previous uniforms, although it's interesting how the DDR kept more "tradition" features in their uniforms than the Federals did. I've always thought Volksarmee uniforms looked pretty close to those of the Reichsheer of the Weimar Republic.

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

Yea, here and there there were strange things in the GDR, like keeping the railroad company's name Deutsche Reichsbahn.

 

[nightandthecity]

these type coats aren't really "German", let alone "gestapo", they were popular throughout central and eastern Europe, into Russia and up to the low countries.

They were never as popular in western Europe, Britain or the US, though they were known - the US Navy issued a "transport" coat of this type, and if I get time I'll post some pics of a rare British example later on. But in France/Britain/North America people seem to have preferred either 3/4 length leather coats or waist length leather jackets. This is my impression anyway, based on photographic evidence and the items I've seen in many years as a dealer and collector.

The Gestapo association is cinema derived - like the association of trench coats with Private Eyes and fedoras with gangsters its based on reality, it's just that everybody wore these things in the time and place. But there's certainly no doubt that many Gestapo men favoured these coats. In fact I recently read a Czech novel set during the war - can't remember the title - and one of the characters comments that the two gestapo men he has to deal with always wear trench coats in the summer and leather overcoats in the winter.

Personally I'm with Shaul - despite my deep and lasting love affair with mid-20th century leather jackets I hate these coats and wouldn't be seen dead in one. Such is the power of the cinema.

 

[Old Fogey UK]

That's a shame because there's nothing better when riding in an open top vintage car on a winter's day.
Anyway, I think (hope ?) that in Britain, at least, the coats are more associated with Biggles and Sopwith Camels, etc., than anything unpleasant. Leastways, I shall think that way when wearing mine.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

I think when you tread colourwards away from black, the association is somewhat tenuous in people's minds. The brown ones i suspect would never be associated with gestapo, but a black one couldn't fail to be. I reckon people will look at the brown and think "that's a long brown leather coat" rather than "Nazi! Kill. Gestapo neo scum etc etc etc". Who (military) wore the brown 'uns, anyway?

Interesting side note: Trevor Howard (Major Calloway) in The Third Man wears a long black gestapo-esque trench coat. Definitely in the first cemetary scene and in the bar scene immediately after it. I thought this would have been something of a faux-pas in immediately post-WWII central europe. I think he goes over to a duffle-type for most of the rest of the movie.

bk

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

So maybe the iconisation wasn't there yet right after the war, at least outside of Europe.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

"at least outside of Europe"

Indeed. Clearly within Europe they knew to hate that look already.

bk

 

[The Mad Hatter]

That's a shame because there's nothing better when riding in an open top vintage car on a winter's day.
Anyway, I think (hope ?) that in Britain, at least, the coats are more associated with Biggles and Sopwith Camels, etc., than anything unpleasant. Leastways, I shall think that way when wearing mine.

The Aero Barnstormer fits your bill:

 

[Old Fogey UK]

Not really, I wanted the WW1 Royal Flying Corps look - and, anyway, an Aero Barnstormer's too expensive.
Whatever their associations, these German eBay coats have the advantage of costing next to nothing (except the hated black ones which seem to attract a premium) - leaving me plenty of cash to pay for an Aero A2 jacket I've been promising myself for ages !

 

[Marc Chevalier]

[Toothbrush moustaches] look so darned stupid - a bit like the guy who made them notorious in the first place, I suppose....

Don't you be knockin' Charlie Chaplin!

.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Trevor Howard (Major Calloway) in The Third Man wears a long black gestapo-esque trench coat.

Looks like a rubberized trench to me. Black, yes, and long too -- but not leather. Somehow, rubberized (or waxed) coats don't seem so "gestapo-esque".

.

 

[Alan Eardley]

Rubberised trench coat

Waterproof motorcycle jackets and rain coats made of rubberised canvas were much more popular in the UK than leather. The major's coat would have been spot-on for an off-duty British officer at the time the film was set. I used to work for Belstaff, which was one of the leading makers of such garments.