Dienstlatersliste der Schutzstaffel der NSDAP
(Service List of the Protection Staff of the NSDAP)

Many Third Reich collectors are familiar with the existence of the Dienstalterslistes (SS Officer Service Lists) or "Dienstlistes" as they are sometimes called. But not many know what they are and what information they do and do not contain. I will endeavour to shed some light on this sometimes mysterious subject. I would just like to say that I am not an expert on the SS as I have but scratched the surface of this most complex organisation. And there are no doubt many readers who could add a wealth of information about the SS and the Dienstalterslistes to this article.

What are the Dienstalterslistes?
Simply put, the Dienstalterslistes contain the names of officers who were full time members of the SS to include the Allgemeine-SS (General SS), Sicherheitsdienst or SD (SS Security Service), SS-Verfügunstruppe (Special Purpose Troops), SS-Totenkopfstandarte (Death's Head Regiments), SS-Totenkopfverbände (Concentration Camp Staff) and, after the war started, the Waffen-SS (Armed SS). Although the German Police came under the control of the SS in 1936, a Police officer would not be listed unless he was also a full time member of the SS.

The first list was produced in October 1934 and contained the names of all 3,238 officers in the SS at that time from SS-Sturmführer (2nd Lieutenant - later renamed to SS-Untersturmführer) up to and including Reichsführer-SS. The last one (to my knowledge) was produced in November 1944 and contained the names of officers from the ranks of SS-Standartenführer (Colonel) up to and including Reichsführer-SS.

To my knowledge, no lists were produced in 1939, 1940 and 1945; these are the Dienstalterslistes that I am aware of:

What information do they contain?
The information contained on each officer varies in each list but includes the following:
The lists are in rank order starting with the highest down to the lowest. Within rank, the officers are listed in the order they joined the SS. The lowest rank contained in each list depends on when the list was produced. For example, all pre-war lists from 1934 to 1938 contain officers of all ranks at the time the list was produced. This makes the December 1938 list the most complete list of pre-war SS officers with a total of 14,038 officers listed. Each list (except for October 1934) contains an alphabetical index of the officers contained in it. This index points to the numerical position that the officer holds within the list.

War-time lists, however, only contain the ranks of either SS-Sturmbannführer (Major) to SS-Obersturmbannführer(Lt. Colonel) or SS-Standartenführer (Colonel) to Reichsführer-SS. The sole exception to this is the Dienstaltersliste der Waffen-SS of July 1944 which contains the ranks of SS-Hauptsturmführer (Captain) up to Reichsführer-SS. Although this list holds more officer names (4,672) than any other war time list, it contains the least amount of information with only name, rank, date of birth, last promotion date and occasionally unit or command included.

To my knowledge, the Dienstalterslistes are limited to German officers and do not contain the names of "Foreign Volunteers". I seem to recall in correspondence with Hugh Page Taylor (author of Uniforms, History and Organization of the Waffen-SS) he mentioned the existence of a separate Dienstaltersliste of Italian officers but I'm not positive.

The pre-war lists contain all promotion dates up to the time the list was produced whereas war time lists only contain the promotion date to the current rank. I can only assume that the needs of the war superceeded detailed lists on an ever increasing number of SS officers. New recruits, transfers between units and officers killed, wounded or captured would also increase the amount of changes and hence work required to keep the lists up to date.

What awards do they show?
Political awards: Military awards: WW1 Combat: WW2 Combat: Note: An all-encompassing category of "Im Felde erworbene Landesorden" (field awards) denotes the different war badges that were awarded in WW1 and WW2.

WW2 War Effort:

Political and Para-military appointments: Among other things, the Dienstalterslistes do not contain the following information: If a member of the Allgemeine-SS had a commission in the Waffen-SS or other branch of the Wehrmacht, the branch of service and rank held in that commission are shown. Financial contributors to Lebensborn are also acknowledged.

What can we infer from this? Well, the inclusion of WW1 awards tells us that WW1 service was highly regarded by the Nazi leadership and that the Coburg Badge was held in equal esteem to the Golden Party Badge and Blood Order. It also appears that awards for contributions to the war effort such as the War Merit Cross were attributed more importance than combat awards such as the Close Combat Clasp, tank destruction strip and Anti-partisan War Badge which were much more difficult/dangerous to acquire; these were lumped in with the "field awards" category. It also tells us that financial contributors to Lebensborn were more appreciated than were "Old Fighters" who have no recognition whatsoever (except perhaps the award of the Golden Party Badge). And, strangely, although the SA and Reichs Sports Badges are included, neither the NSDAP nor SS long service awards are shown. As a side note, about 10% of the almost 20,000 officers in my data base were Golden Party Badge holders. (Note that any conclusions made here are my own.)

How can the Dienstalterslistes be used?
With the name of an officer from a helmet, tunic, hat, etc., the Dienstalterslistes can be an excellent source of information to produce a short history of that officer's career in the SS. Obviously, the more times he is listed and the higher his rank, the more information can be obtained. In addition to the Dienstalterslistes, other sources such as the internet and reference books can be used to add to the level of detail, again, based on details such as his rank, awards, command(s) and how famous (or infamous) he was.

One of the hardest named artifacts to trace is the SS Honour Ring because original rings only contain the recipient's last name. Many times people have sent me a last name with a first name or initial from inside a ring and I have had to tell them that their rings were not original. If the name inside the ring is an unusual one and not frequently seen, one can be reasonably certain of the original owner if the name is found in a Dienstaltersliste and the award date on the inside of the ring coincides with the date that the award is shown on the list. Note that the Dienstalterslistes do not show the exact date of award but will reflect awards of the ring made prior to the publication date of the list.

For example, let's take a hypothetical situation of a ring with a recipient's name of "Schicklegruber" and an award date of "30.4.38". We find Adolf Schicklegruber in the December 1937 Dienstaltersliste and he is not shown as having the ring at that time. However the December 1938 list shows him as having the ring and he is the only Schicklegruber listed. We can reasonably assume that this is the owner of the ring. But we can never be 100% certain unless other provenance exists.

If, on the other hand, the name is a common one such as "Schmidt" or "Meyer", forget it. I once found 13 officers with the same last name, 7 of whom had been awarded the ring.

But the Dienstalterslistes are not nearly as "friendly" to edged weapons collectors who often only have an SS number from a Röhm honour dagger or other early SS dagger or sword. Although the Dienstalterslistes have an alphabetical index, they do not have a numerical index. What to do?

Well it just so happens that I have compiled almost 20,000 SS officer numbers from 10 different Dienstalterslistes into an easy to use index called The Key. Simply look up the SS number in The Key and, if the original owner of the artifact was an officer, it will tell you on what page of what Dienstaltersliste(s) the officer can be found. But in spite of the thousands of officer numbers listed in The Key, it is by no means a complete list. As mentioned above, all but one of the war time lists only include high ranking officers from Major and above which leaves thousands of officers from the ranks of Captain and lower (not contained in the 1938 list) unlisted and therefore off the index. In addition, although rare, it's possible that some officers were not included in the Dienstalterslistes due to oversights. The SS was not perfect. There is also no known lists of NCOs and enlisted men.

If, like most people, you do not have copies of the Dienstalterslistes I would be glad to help you out for a modest fee that goes to support my "addiction" to this most interesting and challenging hobby.

Old Fighters:
One question that puzzled me for a long time was why so many early members of the SS (indicated by a low SS number - usually 4 digits), do not appear in any lists after 1938 which only contain the ranks of Major and above. I thought about this for a long time and concluded that most of these early members were probably ex-WW1 veterans and Freikorps members who may have had a hard time adjusting to civilian life. They were literally the "Old Fighters" of the early days that did battle with the communists on the streets of Weimar Germany and provided Hitler with the physical protection he needed in those turbulent times. Many had become hardened after years in the trenches and were perfect for the role of "protection squads" which ultimately gave birth to the SS. Unlike the Army, the SS was "classless" and although many of these men became low ranking officers, most did not progress beyond the rank of Lieutenant, hence they would not appear on any war time lists. Another reason is that many of these men were born in the 1890s. This would make them over 40 by the time the war started and relegated to Reserve Units only being thrown into the fray at the end of the war. Again, these are my own conclusions.

Caveat Emptor!
At this point, it's worth mentioning that the presence or absence of an SS officer's name or number in the Dienstalterslistes does not prove or disprove the originality of an item that contains it. Some unscrupulous individuals have used names and/or numbers from the Dienstalterslistes to embellish and hence increase the value of both reproduction and original artifacts. Conversely, the name and/or number of an officer might not be found in the Dienstalterslistes even though the item is completely original. And some forgers use completely fictitious names and numbers. I am therefore always on the lookout for scam artists. Here are a few examples of bogus items that I have uncovered: And finally, like Don Boyle's Honour Ring certificates, my research letters have been used to try to authenticate bogus or embellished artifacts. A friend once confronted an unscrupulous dealer claiming his SS Totenkopf Honour Ring was original because it was accompanied by my research letter. Andy told him in no uncertain terms that his ring was bogus and that I would not knowingly research a ring that I knew or suspected was not original. So just because an artifact is accompanied by one of my research letters (or any research letter for that matter), it does not guarantee its originality.

Having said this, I have researched items that actually did belong to high ranking officers to include a few Generals, Knight's Cross winners, German Cross in Gold winners and even an infamous Concentration Camp commandant.

Sample Pages from the Dienstalterslistes
I- This is a sample page from the October 1944 SS-Dienstaltersliste.

>From left to right, the columns show:

  1. Numerical order in the Dienstaltersliste
  2. Name (followed by WW1 and WW2 awards)
  3. SS TotenkopfHonour Ring/SS Sword Holder
  4. Unit
  5. NSDAP Party Number
  6. SS Number
  7. Date of Birth
  8. Rank
  9. Promotion Date to current rank.
On this particular page, of special interest are the following: II- This is the October 1944 SS-Dienstaltersliste Award Symbols page outlining awards and their symbols as used in the Dienstaltersliste.

III- This is the October 1944 SS-Dienstaltersliste Abbreviations page outlining the abbreviations used in the Dienstaltersliste and their meaning.