As has already been pointed out, Rosemeyer is not SS, he is Heer (army). In general it seems as though the majority of the Germans in the Schloss Adler were SS, while the ones in town were Heer, specifically Alpenkorps since the town was near a training center for that group.
The only bleedover either way besides Rosemeyer seemed to be that the SS in town were either off duty hitting the local nightlife or on specific business from the castle such Weissner and his men and all the SS hunting for Smith and Schaffer thereafter. Besides Rosemeyer and his pilot, no Heer are seen in the Schloss Adler itself; everyone there is SS, which makes the fact Smith and Schaffer are allowed to come and go so freely about the castle in their Alpenkorps uniforms a little weird.
The uniforms are mostly accurate*, except for von Hapen's. Even leaving aside the issue of Gestapo vs. SS, the SS phased out the all-black uniforms in 1938 and replaced them with gray ones, a year before the war started. Consequently, von Hapen and the handful of other Gestapo dudes he's seen boozing it up with in Zum Wilden Hirsch should be wearing gray like Kramer and the other SS officers.
Note that von Hapen's black uniform is only inaccurate due to the time period, not due to his being Gestapo. I think the Gestapo were required to be uniformed after a certain point because their plainclothes people kept getting accidentally killed by their own troops before they could identify themselves, so the Gestapo did wear uniforms. And since the Gestapo were part of the SS or at least connected to it in some manner, their uniforms, when they wore them, would therefore be similar to the SS'. Perhaps not exactly like von Hapen's but close enough that the black color is the only "real" inaccuracy.
The SS switched to gray before the war began as I've said. Aside from different insignia, their outfits were distinguishable from the Wehrmacht (particularly the Heer) by being a different shade of gray. If I'm right, the Heer wore a sort of greenish-gray/grayish-green whereas the SS had just plain gray. If you rewatch the movie, you may notice Kramer's uniform is a much lighter gray than Rosemeyer's during their scenes together.
*One thing my dad pointed out to me is that some of the SS personnel at the castle, including Kramer, have the adelweiss emblem of the Alpenkorps on their uniforms. Did the SS have mountain troops, and, if so, did they use the adelweiss the way the Alpenkorps did?
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Hotrodder
12 years ago
The black SS uniform was still is use at a later time though- Hitler's guards at the chancellery are pictured wearing the black uniforms well after the war started. I think it was still used as a parade uniform but such parades were rarely performed once the war started.
Yes, I agree the Gestapo could wear the SS style grey uniform but without the SS runes on the collar, a plain black patch being used instead.
The field grey had nothing to do with the branch of the army or whether it was SS or not. Field grey varied wildly from different manufacturers from a variety of greys, grey greens to almost being totally green at times- it got even worse as the war went on and quality control slipped. The main difference apart from slights differences in cut was that the Wehrmacht used a very dark green colour for the collars and shoulder boards while SS used black. However as senior officers Rosemeyer and Kramer would have had their uniforms privately tailored and they would choose the field grey themselves from swatches. Any photo of senior German officers shows a wide variety of shades and numbers of buttons, often flouting regulations in those matters.
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