Description:

GERMAN AMBASSADOR DR. KURT RIETH'S DIPLOMATIC VISOR CAP
A very rare style of Third Reich headgear, a Diplomatic Officer's visor cap identified to Dr. KURT RIETH (1881-1969), German ambassador to Austria and envoy to Morocco. The cap is finely constructed of very dark navy-blue wool, and displays a large, droop-winged national eagle embroidered in non-metallic yellow thread on a black felt ground at the peak. Below this appears an embroidered national tricolor cockade of red wool and black and silver metallic braid, surrounded by an oak wreath in the same nonmetallic thread as the eagle above, all on a black felt ground. The crown and sides are trimmed with braided metallic gold piping, and a nonmetallic gold-colored double cord chinstrap with adjustment knots is secured over the visor with a nonmagnetic gold-finished pebble button on each side. The visor is black-finished vulkanfiber with a checked brown underside. The interior is lined with pale blue-green rayon, printed with the maker's label ‘NHE Deutsche Wertarbeit' beneath a celluloid diamond sweat shield. The shield also contains a typed owner's label, reading: ‘Gesandter [Ambassador]. Dr, Kurt Rieth'. A brown faux-leather sweatband with ventilation perforations at the forehead is also fitted, and is unmarked. The lining shows some sweat stains, with minor but appropriate wear to the sweatband and some crazing to the exterior of the visor, otherwise in very good to fine condition overall. The cap is accompanied by three documents related to Rieth's service, including: a partly-printed ‘Befrister Ausweis' [temporary identification], 5.25 x 3.5 in., issued by ‘Der Kommandant von Gross-Paris' [Commander for Greater Paris], made out to Rieth using his title ‘Gesandter' and signed by a captain, and good from Feb. 11 to Feb. 19, 1943; a partly-printed appointment card from Baldur von Schirach as ‘Reichstatthalter' [Reich Governor] of Vienna, 6.5 x 4.5 in., summoning Rieth for a meeting at the Hotel Imperial in that city on March 10, 1944; and a Winterhilfswerk donation receipt for Rieth for the winter of 1943-44. Four pieces. Kurt Rieth began his diplomatic career in the political department of the Impe4rial German General Government of occupied Belgium during World War I, and postwar became a counselor to the German embassy in Rome, and then Paris until 1931. He served as Ambassador to Austria from 1931 to 1934, when he was succeeded by Franz von Papen, In 1941, he traveled to the United States and met with Standard Oil board chairman Walter C. Teagle to discuss the company's supply of oil and other industrial chemicals to German through its affiliation with IG Farben. He was arrested on a tip from British spies, and was interned at Ellis Island until he was exchanged for American journalists held by Germany. He then served as German Envoy to Morocco in Tangiers, until the German consulate there was shuttered in 1944.

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March 26, 2026 10:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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