The Afrikamütze Database A guide to the identification, context and interpretation of the German army tropical peaked cap, 1940–43 Part 1

This volume, the third of four works describing and contextualizing the faking for profit of *Afrikakorps* material culture, is intended to assist students in distinguishing real from reproduction and fake material, and demonstrate in a practical and lasting way how our knowledge and understanding of these can be augmented by a contribution from academia, the analytical approach of which should be more systematic, more disciplined and more open than that of the average lay enthusiast. Its focus is the German army tropical peaked cap, or, for those who wore it in the North African theatre between 1941 and 1943, the *Afrikamütze*. The analysis is based on the assumption that different combinations of cap traits are diagnostic both of different cap manufacturers and cap dates, and can be used both to identify these and distinguish real caps from reproductions and fakes. Part 1 separates out and describes these traits, the object of this being to clarify their exact nature and interpretative role. It then re-sorts them by date and manufacturer, the object of this being to provide a catalogue of authentic caps against which individual caps—real and fake alike—can be compared. Highlighted are the different proportions of cap traits and their first appearance in the record and the implications of these for our understanding of cap manufacturer, issue, and use. Part 2 separates out and describes the traits diagnostic of reproduction and fake caps and compares and contrasts these with those of authentic caps. It then reassembles them by reproduction manufacturer and putative faker group, 12 of which, by perhaps six different legitimate manufacturers and faking operations are distinguished. It also considers the "perfect fake" and how we might identify it. Highlighted are the potential implications of unidentified fakes for our understanding and the value—in the broadest sense—of the real thing. The Appendices include additional sections on army General officers' tropical peaked caps, caps of uncertain authenticity, and sidecaps or Schiffchen, and a provisional identification chart for caps without surviving manufacturer stamps. Many of the traits and sets of traits of authentic and fake caps discussed here have been discussed before. But this is the first time a discussion of them has been presented as a single coherent whole. Others are discussed—or at least elaborated upon—for the first time. This makes the work a worthwhile contribution to our understanding of the cap. Fakers rely on the ignorance, inattentiveness, or blind enthusiasm of their customers to pass off their fakes; and the only way to check them is to educate the latter. This volume, is a first stage in that education. It also provides a possible template for other studies of this sort; and in so far as it reveals certain trends of manufacture and use, it represents a first—albeit tentative—stage in their study.