History

In 1929, the SS introduced collar tabs that denoted the rank and formation of the wearer. The SS rank system used a combination of oak leaves, pips, and stripes to indicate the status of the wearer. In 1938, the SS adopted army-pattern shoulder boards which denoted the rank, service branch and unit of the wearer, and as such, the SS collar tabs became redundant.

As of May of 1940, members of the Waffen-SS were required to wear SS runes on their right collar tab and an Allgemeine-SS rank collar tab on the left side of the collar. The rank tabs remained unchanged until April of 1942 when the rank of SS-Oberstgruppenführer was introduced. As a result, the collar tabs for the ranks of SS-Standartenführer to SS-Obergruppenführer were altered.

Waffen-SS collar tabs were manufactured by covering a parallelogram shaped piece of buckram with black fabric. Black cloth or felt was used to cover the collar tabs for the ranks of SS-Mann up to and including SS-Obersturmbannführer. The collar tabs for the ranks of SS-Standartenführer to SS-Oberstgruppenführer were covered with black velvet.

Until August of 1940, the collar tabs of Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) and Enlisted Men (EMs) were piped with twisted black and aluminium cord. Afterwards, the piping was discontinued in order to save on material and labour. Officer and General grade collar tabs were piped with twisted aluminium cord, although collar tabs with piping were rarely worn with field uniforms.

The SS-Rottenführer collar tab features two stripes.