Honour nicknames for foreign divisions.

[Maxek]

Hello, I am quite confused if the foreign Waffen-SS divisions were allowed to carry nicknames unlike German ones such as 7. SS-Freiwilligen Gebirgs-Division "Prinz Eugen". Majority of the foreign divisions except Netherlands Waffen-SS and French Waffen-SS divisions did not carry one.

[Hans1906]

Maxek,

here a small info about the term "Ehrenname".

Honorific names are names for military institutions, organizations or associations that serve to motivate the troops and preserve the tradition of a unit. They usually commemorate historical events or persons.

Source: Ehrenname https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrenname

My personal knowledge about the Waffen-SS is limited, but for example every RAD-Abteilung used a so-called "honorary name" in the years before 1945, all of them, no idea ?

Honorary names were also common for the elite schools of the National Socialists at that time; the NPEA in Kärnten /Austria, used the honorary name "Spanheim". My mother's older brother was there as a young student, until the German surrender in 1945.


Hans

P.S. A "nickname" for a unit in the later german "Bundeswehr" was never an official honorific name.
"Eisenschwein" ("Iron Pig") for my former tank unit, the PzBtl 74 , was never official used, but the designation
is well known to Bundeswehr veterans.

[Jan-Hendrik]

'Prinz Eugen' consisted mostly of so called 'Volksdeutsche'...

As 22. and 37.SS-Frw.Kav.Div. did.

Jan-Hendrik

[FlyingStukas]

Hello, I am quite confused if the foreign Waffen-SS divisions were allowed to carry nicknames unlike German ones such as 7. SS-Freiwilligen Gebirgs-Division "Prinz Eugen". Majority of the foreign divisions except Netherlands Waffen-SS and French Waffen-SS divisions did not carry one.

Hello,

The Prinz Eugen Division was composed of Yugoslav Volksdeutsche, so not exactly a "foreign" formation.

[FransN]

Some non-German, non-Germanic divisions with a name:
13. W. Geb. Div. d. SS "Handschar" (kroat. Nr. 1)
21. W. Geb. Div. d. SS "Skanderbeg" (alban. Nr. 1)
23. W. Geb. Div. d. SS "Kama" (kroat. Nr. 2)
25. W. Gren. Div. d. SS "Hunyadi" (ung. Nr. 1)
26. W. Gren. Div. d. SS "Hungaria" (ung. Nr. 2)
33. W. Gren. Div. d. SS "Charlemagne" (franz. Nr. 1)

The 22. and 37. SS-Frw. Kav. Divisionen never officially received a name, but unofficially the names "Maria Theresia", resp. "Lützow" circulate in the literature.

Depending on how you define the term "foreign" (does this include Volksdeutschen and Germanic volunteers?), there were several more divisions with a name:
7. SS-Frw. Geb. Div. "Prinz Eugen"
11. SS-Frw. Pz. Gren. Div. "Nordland"
18. SS-Frw. Pz. Gren. Div. "Horst Wessel"
23. SS-Frw. Pz. Gren. Div. "Nederland"
27. SS-Frw. Gren. Div. "Langemarck"
28. SS-Frw. Gren. Div. "Wallonien"
34. SS-Frw. Gren. Div. "Landstorm Nederland"

Best regards,
Frans

[Hans1906]

Honorific names are names for military institutions, organizations or associations that serve to motivate the troops and preserve the tradition of a unit. They usually commemorate historical events or persons. Tradition names are names that are part of a nation's or organization's vocabulary of names used over a long period of time. Flying units that bear an honorific name in addition to their military designation are also called tradition squadrons.

Ehrenname https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrenname


Hans