Why Were The Nazis So Stylish? // Secret History Revealed

the power of a uniform lies in its silence so i made a video a few months back ranking the world's best looking uniforms now of course my beloved marine corps ended up on top but i couldn't help but notice in the comments a number of people brought up what about the ss uniforms what about nazi uniforms now as a bit of a world war ii history buff and a guy here on youtube that talks about men's style i thought who better to answer the question why were the nazis so stylish seriously the ss uniforms haven't been worn for coming in on 80 years yet people still talk about them as the most stylish uniforms ever made so why are the ss uniforms so iconic find out gents in today's video so to understand why the german uniforms specifically the ss uniforms of world war ii are so iconic we need to go back and look at the unification of germany in 1871. otto von bismarck basically unified the german states to defeat the french in 1871 unified all of these different states that spoke a similar language but had very different looking militaries very different customs into one country germany now for the next 40 years german uniforms were all over the place in terms of makeup color the way that they were put together uh pretty much the only common thing we saw in a lot of these uniforms was the famous pickle helmet you know with the spike on top that right there was pretty much the standard until 1910 what happened all of a sudden we saw a standard go across the german empire basically you needed to conform to gray now this was a practical move all the colors before really symbolized particular units allowed commanders to be able to see what's going on in the battlefield but as war changed all of a sudden we started heading into world war one really it was going to be something with trench warfare it was something where maneuver and having the generals right there on the field maneuvering just wasn't going to happen so we saw things going towards practicality going towards a less expensive material something that could be mass produced and worn by an entire nation by 1915 we're a year into world war one and all of a sudden all those flamboyant uniforms all those colors all that's gone out the window for practicality in fact you really couldn't see much difference between enlisted men and officers uniforms had become very simple very clean am i clean i don't mean free of dirt i mean simply there was nothing to grab onto all of a sudden it was like if it was excess material if it was something that could get snagged down in the trenches you got rid of it in fact that pickle helmet all of a sudden was gone in 1916 and we saw the introduction of the famous helmet which would go on to serve the german military for a long time known as the stahl hill now in 1918 germany surrendered the great war was over you had millions of soldiers returning all of a sudden the military went down to a force of about a hundred thousand and uniforms during the next 10 years they really didn't go anywhere in fact it was just things left over from the great war they really didn't have the money hyperinflation was picking up and this was just a tough time for the military and its uniforms in general that being said things started to change in the late 1920s early 1930s as we saw the german re-armed program come up so this is all of a sudden the rise of the nazi party all of a sudden it is a priority to make germany strong to make germany proud and all of a sudden we see the military uniforms start to get a makeover get money put into them this was just something they're getting better materials all of a sudden they're getting things to fit now i've got to be honest there's nothing to me extraordinary about the regular german military uniform in the 1930s and throughout world war ii this is something that it looks good but i think there are a lot of other uniforms out there that would give it a run for its money but the ss uniform that is something different now at this point some of you guys may be asking wait a minute isn't the ses part of the german military technically no the ss was a paramilitary organization and initially started off very small the hull guards basically these were the bodyguards for hitler hitler at when he rose to power he didn't have to trust of the military he was always suspect of it so he wanted to have his own group this group right around him that trusted him was loyal directly to hitler and protected him but the ss was the organization in which we think about those black uniforms the symbolism such as you know the death's head the ss symbol right there that is what i'm talking about mostly in today's video now heinrich himmler was the head of the ss and it was divided into three parts you had the general ss and their job was to make sure that all of the nazi policies were enforced throughout germany then you had the armed ss and this is where a lot of military confusion comes in because these guys were fighting right next to military units but they didn't usually have like tanks or any artillery or anything like that they were more of foot soldiers but they could also go in and they they would go through and sometimes clean up afterwards hence all the atrocities that are attributed with them these were the hardcore nazis in fact that third group the deaths head units these were the guys in charge of the concentration camps now the ss was evil that's beyond debate when we look at the millions and millions and millions of slavs jews just polls people killed throughout the world by the ss i mean it's horrible yet a hundred years later we are still ranking their look their uniform as one of the most stylish that many people have ever seen why is that the answer is quite simple one the uniform was a good product it was well designed it was adorned with recognizable symbols and it was modeled by fit individuals now that reason alone could have propelled this uniform to stardom but there were two other reasons of why this uniform became iconic next up we've got exposure this is the reason these uniforms became iconic even in their own time period basically you had germany in the 1930s and even throughout the war using propaganda they had propaganda ministers they had filmmakers come in and they put these uniforms in the best light possible and finally let's talk about reinforcement and repetition so the reason these uniforms are iconic today is because they keep popping up on the screen hollywood keeps reaching back and pulling these things out they love the symbolism they love the look again it's a good product so when they put it out there it's very easy for us to be able to spot the bad guy it's very easy for us to see some the villain because he's dressed in black so let's go deeper on the design of the sas uniform and start this off by dispelling one of the biggest myths out there and that is hugo boss did not design the ss uniform they manufactured these uniforms they made them but they did not design them now the designer was actually a relatively unknown nazi designer by the name of carl diebich now debit was an early nazi sympathizer joining the party in 1920s if you know your history in the 1920s the nazi party had some ups and downs a number of members killed in the 1930s though he came back and rejoined the ss and put his unique skills to work designing uniforms with another gentleman named walter heck now as good as these nazi designers possibly were what made them really smart is that they stole timeless designs these guys didn't reinvent the wheel they didn't start from scratch they actually reached into history and pulled out symbols and colors that had worked now why the color black was chosen there's a few theories out there some people say secretive societies and just the color black had that mystery had that look they were searching for other people say they were inspired by the jesuits if you know anything about that catholic organization a little bit of you know the higher educated basically the higher class my belief is that they stole from their own history check out this guy august von mockinson he was a living military legend in the 1930s a field marshal during world war one noticed the skull and crossbones right there in the hat you can't miss it what does this symbolize for many people it symbolizes death but for others it's a symbol of a rejection of death of spitting in death's face that you take no prisoners and that you will not be taken alive now at the height of the power of the ss it can be argued that its leader heinrich himmler was the second most powerful man in germany right next to adolf hitler if you think about it here's a guy that had no prior military experience was relatively young for the position he had and had a big feeling of inadequacy in fact there's a lot of stories that talk about just goebbels and all these generals just kind of you know laughing because he was if you look at his uniform and the details on his uniform he was trying to put anything he could on there he didn't have medals from the war and he started going down that slippery slope of trying to look like he was decorated yet he truly wasn't a combat veteran part of the whole symbolism that went into making sure those uniforms were immaculate and the best ones out there was because of the inadequacies that himmler felt now this next symbol is probably the most recognizable nazi symbol in the world and that is the swastika but what's interesting here and just like all the other symbols i'm talking about the nazis didn't come up with this they stole this and in fact the word swastika in sanskrit means conductive to well-being this was a good luck charm you look throughout asia you through parts of the world for a long for hundreds and hundreds of years this symbol has been out there and it's been something that you see on temples you see being used and it always meant something good until in the 1930s the nazis took this over and yeah it all went downhill now why this symbol just looks so striking on this uniform is the use of color and contrast we've got a black uniform a very stark color all of a sudden you bring in a power red with the white this combination right here that red white black on a black uniform is striking grabs attention very easy to spot and now let's talk about the symbol of the shootstoffel aka the ss by the way gents that was not easy for me to pronounce i don't even know if i got close but i appreciate you giving a like today's video if you like these deeper history videos i've got a whole list of them i want to create but i want to hear from you guys if you like videos like this now the ss was based off an ancient rune and that rune symbolized the sun what they did is they turned it and they actually changed a bit of history and said no no this thing actually represents victory so you saw the ss which represented the name of the unit but it also represented victory victory and the guy behind this remember that graphic designer walter heck we talked about earlier yeah he had a hand in this and on an interesting side note this symbol became so powerful in germany that they actually adjusted their typewriters to have the symbol on it so at this point we have the uniforms designed we have these amazing symbols now let's go into hugo boss so he did manufacture the uniforms and the way it works is a lot of manufacturers they don't do the designs they actually take the design and then they execute on it and this was also a time period when a lot of clothing was made specifically for the individuals i know when i was in the marine corps it was something i could go to the marine shop and i would pay extra and i would have the uniform tailored and cut to me this was a big thing especially in the 1930s and if you were also going to be filmed if you were going to be at an event that hitler was going to be at you made sure everything was adjusted tailoring was big and that is a big part why when we see these pictures that the uniforms just look amazing not only were they well designed but they were on fit young men who had this this clothing tailored to fit them and on a side note hugo boss actually died in 1948 his son took over the company and him and his business partners turned it into the giant you know brand that it ended up becoming in the 1970s 80s and 90s but what's interesting is you go back and you look at in 1945 during the denotifying process which they would make you take all these classes basically figure out how what level of a nazi you were he was actually considered to be one of the lower level and went through and paid a fine and didn't pay a fine because he had worked with the nazis he paid a fine because he used 150 slave laborers in fact it can be argued the greatest thing the hugo boss company ever did was rebrand itself but damn those germans do make some good fragrances so we can see that they had a great product now let's talk about exposure and what was happening in the late 1920s 1930s we saw the explosion of media all of a sudden you could film something and you could show it on the other side of the world and people could actually see what was there this was something totally new germany was taking full advantage of this they not only had people that worked in propaganda they had a huge propaganda budget as an artist or a former artist you know hitler knew the power of image the power of this new thing called video and he wanted to make sure the world saw germany as he wanted it to be seen propaganda becomes ineffective the moment we become aware of it joseph goebbels now if you've studied world war ii in nazi germany you've heard of joseph goebbels but not as many people know that he was the minister of propaganda i mean what is that what country i mean you look through most countries they don't have a minister of propaganda this was unheard of at a time when all of a sudden media was exploding the power that globals had here was amazing now goebbels was a politician and politicians were as bad then as they are now they're not good at making anything except making themselves look good at our expense no he had a secret weapon actually it wasn't his it was hitler's does the name lenny rifenstahl ring a bell most likely not she's one of those nazis that isn't really talked about yet she had a huge impact in the way that the world saw nazi germany in the 1930s to me what makes lenny so interesting is that she was a true believer in 1932 she saw hitler speak and she just hook line and sinker bought into what the guy was saying she talked about it was like a religious experience she talked about having a vision this was a very talented woman this was what someone that it was at the forefront of making movies somebody that had real skill she got introduced to hitler hitler absolutely loved what she talked about he had a deep connection in fact himmler would become very jealous of the relationship because she could go directly to hitler and all of a sudden he started painting his ideas of how he wanted this idea for a film to be she was given a budget and all of a sudden she started making propaganda films that did not for most people didn't even seem like propaganda the film's victory of the faith the film triumph of the will these would go on to be watched by millions around the world and inspire many people of german descent to return to germany and serve in the military she was also commissioned to film the 1936 summer olympics in berlin where for the first time ever she was using tracking shots on athletes and a film came out of that called olympia which was very well received and she even caught the famous footage of jesse owens winning his gold medals now once germany invaded poland a lot of her work slowed down she actually did accompany german troops into poland and filmed some of that but ended up returning a lot of the propaganda all of a sudden started coming directly into germany making sure that the people you know weren't aware of what's going on outside the world keeping them very focused in on their mission point being is we had fanatics we had people that truly believed they were right with talent with skill creating films that they felt were authentic and when people watched this stuff they believed it was authentic and that was is that's what's so scary about this again you had a great product you had you know people that were pushing this with a very with a huge budget around the world up to the start of the war and now let's talk about repetition let's talk about what hollywood feeds us so when hollywood needs a bad guy who do they pull on they pull on the nazis they pull on the ss because first up i mean all bad guys wear black right so it fits in with the stereotype and they just bring in great looking uniforms oftentimes we have very charismatic actors we like to have a good villain it makes for a good movie and again and again it's reinforced that these guys dress well that they are very you know and that's what makes them seem so evil in a lot of these movies is that they are smart they are intelligent and at the slightest without any hesitation they will kill you and this is something that hollywood again and again repeats and puts out there so it's always top of mind it's always something that we're seeing it's something that again and again is imprinted on us and if marketing will tell you anything repetition repetition repetition it creates sales and it keeps them top of mind so whenever we're thinking about a uniform we just go back to this one we just saw the movie a few months back yeah that nazi ss uniform as for my personal opinion not that this video didn't have a lot of that i do think they are very strong striking uniforms when i look at these i'm like wow this is power this is dark this is definitely the uniform of somebody that you know wants to send that signal of intimidation black is a color that does that power aggression do i think they're one of the top uniforms of all time probably not i do definitely think they are a bit overrated for what it is but guys i want to hear from you what's your opinion did i miss something let me know down in the comments what do you think of the ss uniforms which uniforms do you think are better which uniforms maybe should i cover next in another video and speaking of other videos what video to watch next how about iconic american style pieces that transform the world what am i talking about what pieces are these guys find out in this video right here and get ready yeah to go america

Channel: Real Men Real Style

Views: 4,467,795

Keywords: why were the nazis so stylish, nazi uniforms, nazi uniforms stylish, ww2 uniforms, german uniforms ww2, german uniforms ww2 designer, hugo boss german uniforms, german uniforms world war 2, ss uniform hugo boss, ss uniform, men's fashion history, men's clothing history, hugo boss ww2, hugo boss, why german uniforms were so stylish, rmrs, real men real style, antonio centeno

Id: 60FM9WjkXtA

Length: 18min 17sec (1097 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 17 2021