Hugo Boss: Hitler's Tailor?

**Neo** · 28-09-2011, 05:42 PM

German Fashion House Tries To Quiet Wartime Rumors

The top German fashion house that bears the name of famed designer Hugo Boss has commissioned a study to try to clarify his role during the Nazi regime. The study says Boss was not Hitler's personal tailor, though his company did produce SS uniforms with forced labor.

The rumors that Hugo Ferdinand Boss designed uniforms for the Nazis, and was even Hitler’s tailor, have circulated for years in the press inside and outside of Germany. And that was an image problem for the company he founded, now an international brand of men’s and women’s clothing with an annual turnover of nearly 2 billion euros.

So the Boss Group commissioned a report on the company’s past from the University of Münster – a study that was not published because, a company spokesperson said, it lacked “historical context.”
The firm then commissioned a second study that has just been published.

The German-language book, Hugo Boss, 1924-1945, sums up the company’s role in Nazi Germany as follows: founded in 1924, the company made uniforms for the Wehrmacht (armed forces), SS (security forces) and Hitler Youth.

According to Roman Köster, the Munich historian of economics who wrote the book, the firm “derived demonstrable economic benefit” from National Socialism. Some 40 French prisoners of war and 140 forced laborers fabricated Nazi uniforms in Metzingen.

Many of them were intimidated but, Koster says, Hugo Boss was not personally involved. There is however indication that Boss, who died in 1948, took action so that the laborers were given more food.

The book goes on to say that the Swabian entrepreneur was not Hitler’s tailor, did not design the uniforms, and was one of several manufacturers of Nazi uniforms, and not the leading producer. Much of what Köster writes already appeared in the unpublished first study, Hugo Ferdinand Boss (1885-1948) und die Firma Hugo Boss that was posted on the Internet by its author, ethnologist Elisabeth Timm. She mentions a slightly higher number of forced laborers working at the factory.

Roman Köster stresses that while the Boss company financed the book, it did not try to influence him. "My impression is that they are genuinely interested in working the issue through,” he says.

The company, a majority share of which is owned by the British Permira group of financial investors, also apologizes for the past on its website. “Out of respect to everyone involved, the Group has published this new study with the aim of adding clarity and objectivity to the discussion.

It also wishes to express its profound regret to those who suffered harm or hardship at the factory run by Hugo Ferdinand Boss under National Socialist rule.”

Was Hugo Boss Hitler's Tailor? German Fashion House Tries To Quiet Wartime Rumors - Worldcrunch - All News is Global

**Cujo** · 28-09-2011, 06:49 PM

You got to admit though, some of those uniforms were pretty spiffy.

**amazon777** · 28-09-2011, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by Koojo

You got to admit though, some of those uniforms were pretty spiffy.

^Certainly.
And better than imagining The Führer in a LaCoste shirt and ripped Calvin Klein jeans - even thought he was sporting the "CK-Cocaine-Model-Look" towards the end.

**DrB0b** · 28-09-2011, 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by amazon777

And better than imagining The Führer in a LaCoste shirt and ripped Calvin Klein jeans - even thought he was sporting the "CK-Cocaine-Model-Look" towards the end

**English Noodles** · 28-09-2011, 07:52 PM

Hitler wasn't that bad, after all he did kill Hitler.

**billy the kid** · 28-09-2011, 09:13 PM

Originally Posted by DrB0b

Originally Posted by amazon777

And better than imagining The Führer in a LaCoste shirt and ripped Calvin Klein jeans - even thought he was sporting the "CK-Cocaine-Model-Look" towards the end

ansom lookin man.

**Neo** · 28-09-2011, 10:32 PM

Brett Anderson...

..boy from Brazil..?

**xnazi** · 28-09-2011, 10:49 PM

nothing wrong wid dem yermons

**hooter** · 28-09-2011, 11:39 PM

Just ditched me Hugo afterswarve down the dunny.

How horrendous!

They can go poo poo on someone else's coffee table now with my hard earned cash.

Hummpphh..

**Lostandfound** · 28-09-2011, 11:41 PM

I had understood that the German company Falke held the licence to manufacture Hugo Boss clothing. Falke did make uniforms for the German army.

A Paris based designer, originally Malaysian, who designed the collections for Falke strickmoden in the 80s once joked with me that on meeting him, the matriach of the family in Schmallenberg, had mistaken him for Japanese and confided "We lost the war together".

**Mr Gribbs** · 29-09-2011, 01:28 AM

Who really gives a fuck who designed them? It happened 70 years ago, the Brits need to know the rest of the world doesn't share their Hitler/Nazi obsession.

**khmen** · 29-09-2011, 03:05 AM

^Do we, do we really need to know that? OK, cheers for informing me.

Still, who does really give a fuck? Even mass murderers need clothes and food etc and someone has to make them. So a dictator buys something from a company, how does that reflect badly? Thats business, no? If someone has cash you cant really refuse them on moral grounds, especially if they'll top you for refusing.

**English Noodles** · 29-09-2011, 03:38 AM

Originally Posted by khmen

Still, who does really give a fuck?

A load of whinging Brits and Septics. Fuck them. Get over it, it was nearly seventy years ago.

**tuktukdriver** · 29-09-2011, 03:46 AM

The uniforms are partly to blame for their defeat. The History Channel does a show that compares the German uniforms to the Russian uniforms. The Germans sure looked better but the show pointed out , and tested with replicas, how they were not suited for the harsh climate they fought in.

**English Noodles** · 29-09-2011, 03:55 AM

^You ever hear the saying 'a bad workman always blames his tools'?

Their defeat had nothing to do with the design of their uniform, it was more about the design of their enemy.

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