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Bundesarchiv Bild 192-043, KZ Mauthausen, SS-Obersturmführer

An SS-Obersturmführer serving in KZ Mauthausen.

Obersturmführer was a Nazi party paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organizations, such as the SA, SS, NSKK and the NSFK. Translated as “senior assault (or storm) leader”,[1] the rank of Obersturmführer was first created in 1932 as the result of an expansion of the Sturmabteilung (SA) and the need for an additional rank in the officer corps. Obersturmführer also became an SS rank at that same time.[2]

An SA-Obersturmführer was typically a junior company commander in charge of between fifty to 100 soldiers. Within the SS, the rank of Obersturmführer carried a wider range of occupations from staff aide, Gestapo officer, concentration camp supervisor, and Waffen-SS platoon commander to name but a few. Within both the SS and SA, the rank of Obersturmführer was considered the equivalent of an Oberleutnant in the German Wehrmacht.[3]

The insignia for Obersturmführer was three silver pips and a silver stripe centered on a uniform collar patch. The rank was senior to an Untersturmführer (or Sturmführer in the SA[1]) and junior to the rank of Hauptsturmführer.[3]

David Niven's British sapper character wore a captured SS uniform with this insignia in the 1961 movie The Guns of Navarone.

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 McNab (II) 2009, p. 15.
  2. McNab 2009, pp. 29, 30.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Flaherty 2004, p. 148.

Bibliography[]

  • Flaherty, T. H. (2004) [1988]. The Third Reich: The SS. Time-Life Books, Inc. ISBN 1 84447 073 3. 
  • McNab, Chris (2009). The SS: 1923–1945. Amber Books Ltd. ISBN 1906626499. 
  • McNab (II), Chris (2009). The Third Reich. Amber Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-906626-51-8. 
Junior Rank
Untersturmführer
SS rank
Obersturmführer
Senior Rank
Hauptsturmführer
Junior Rank
Sturmführer
SA rank
Obersturmführer
Senior Rank
Sturmhauptführer
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