The Himmler's SS by Robert Ferguson Page A

Oberabschnitt in turn comprised an average of three Abschnitte or Districts, again distinguished by Roman numerals. They were also referred to by the names of the areas which they covered or by the location of their headquarters. The Abschnitt commander or Führer des Abschnittes (F.Ab.) was generally an officer of the rank of SS-Oberführer or Standartenführer. The first seven Abschnitte covered the entire Reich, and the eighth was for Austria. The ninth and succeeding Abschnitte made their appearance in 1932, along with Standarten with numbers in the upper forties. The Districts then grew commensurate with the expansion of the SS, and by 1944 the following Abschnitte were listed:
Abschnitt No .
District
I
München/Landshut/Ingolstadt
II
Dresden/Chemnitz/Plauen
III
Berlin-Steglitz
IV
Hannover/Braunschweig/Celle/Göttingen
V
Duisberg/Düsseldorf/Essen/Köln
VI
Breslau/Frankenstein/Glogau
VII
Königsberg/Insterburg/Elbing
VIII
Linz
IX
Würzburg/Nürnberg/Ansbach/Schweinfurt
X
Stuttgart/Tübingen/Ulm
XI
Koblenz/Trier/Darmstadt/Wiesbaden/Bingen
XII
Frankfurt (Oder)/Senftenberg
XIII
Stettin/Köslin/Schneidemühl
XIV
Oldenburg/Cuxhaven/Bremen
XV
Hamburg-Altona/Hamburg-Harburg
XVI
Dessau/Magdeburg/Stassfurt
XVII
Münster/Detmold/Bielefeld/Buer
XVIII
Halle (Saale)/Leipzig/Wittenberg
XIX
Karlsruhe
XX
Kiel/Flensburg
XXI
Hirschberg/Mährisch-Schönberg/Jägerndorf/Troppau
XXII
Allenstein/Memel/Zichenau
XXIII
Berlin-Wilmersdorf/Neuruppin/
 
Eberswalde/Potsdam
XXIV
Oppeln/Beuthen/Kattowitz
XXV
Dortmund/Bochum/Hagen
XXVI
Danzig/Zoppot/Marienwerder/Marienburg/Neustadt/Elbing
XXVII
Weimar/Gotha/Gera/Meiningen/Erfurt
XXVIII
Bayreuth/Regensburg/Bamberg
XXIX
Konstanz
XXX
Frankfurt (Main)/Kassel/Giessen
XXXI
Wien/Krems/Znaim
XXXII
Augsburg/Lindau
XXXIII
Schwerin/Greifswald
XXXIV
Saarbrücken/Kaiserslautern/Heidelberg
XXXV
Graz/Klagenfurt/Leoben
XXXVI
Salzburg/Innsbruck
XXXVII
Reichenberg/Trautenau/Brüx/Aussig
XXXVIII
Karlsbad/Eger/Asch
XXXIX
Brünn/Iglau/Prag
XXXX
Bromberg/Tuchel
XXXXI
Thorn/Kulm
XXXXII
Gnesen/Posen
XXXXIII
Litzmannstadt/Kalisch/Leslau
XXXXIV
Gumbinnen/Memel/Zichenau
XXXXV
Strassburg/Colmar
    It will be noted that the expansion of SS membership in a few towns and cities resulted in their being split between two Abschnitte.
    The organisation of the Allgemeine-SS in respect of formation below the level of the Abschnitte was on a more flexible unit, rather than territorial, basis, although each unit itself related to, or was recruited from, a particular area. The typical Abschnitt controlled an average of three SS Fuss-Standarten, the equivalent of foot or infantry regiments. As the name suggests, the Standarte was the standard unit of the Allgemeine-SS and had been firmly established as such by 1930, long before the SS regional system fully evolved. The earliest SS Standarten were terribly under-strength, and even in 1931 might comprise only 100 men. Numbers rose steadily, however, with ten new SS Standarten being formed in 1933 and a further fifty in 1934. By 1939, the average Fuss-Standarte comprised around 2,000 men, but corresponding numbers fell to around 1,600 in 1941 and 400 in 1944 due to Allgemeine-SS members being drafted into the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. Each regiment was commanded by a Führer des Standartes (F.Sta.), who was assisted by a small staff and part-time headquarters unit. Depending on unit size, the regimental commander could be an SS-Standartenführer, Obersturmbannführer or Sturmbannführer. By 1943, it was common for two of the smaller adjacent Standarten to be placed together under a single acting commander.

    SS men at Hamburg railway station, c. 1934–5. Both styles of death’s head are being worn on the cap during this transitional period. The runic collar patch of the man at the left denotes his membership of the Leibstandarte, while the others are from the 48th Standarte.
    Standarten were numbered consecutively from 1 to 127. A select few