The SS Runen Abzeichen, also known as the SS Runes Breast Badge or Sig-Runen Brustabzeichen, was a distinctive cloth insignia of the Schutzstaffel consisting of the double lightning-bolt Sig runes (the iconic “SS” symbol derived from the ancient Germanic Sowilo rune) embroidered in silver or aluminum thread on a black wool or felt backing, typically measuring a few centimetres in height and worn centred on the lower left breast pocket of the tunic; introduced by a formal order of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler dated 16 January 1937 and originally designated simply as “die Sig-Runen,” it was first authorised for members of the Ordnungspolizei (Order Police) who simultaneously held SS membership or who had left the Allgemeine-SS under honourable circumstances, thereby visually affirming their dual affiliation while they continued to wear standard police uniforms. In July 1943 the right to wear the badge was extended to full SS personnel serving in certain foreign-volunteer or ethnically mixed Waffen-SS formations—most notably the 4. SS-Polizei-Panzergrenadier-Division, 7. SS-Freiwilligen-Gebirgs-Division “Prinz Eugen,” 11. SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division “Nordland,” and 13. Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS “Handschar”—whose collar patches carried national or unit emblems rather than the SS runes themselves, allowing these men to display their membership in the broader SS order. Officer versions were usually finely hand-embroidered, while enlisted and NCO examples were machine-woven or embroidered; the badge appeared on black service tunics, black panzer jackets, white summer uniforms, and occasionally on tropical or field-grey garments, and its presence on a uniform remains one of the clearer visual indicators that the wearer belonged to the SS organisation even when other SS-specific collar insignia were absent.
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SS-Obergruppenführer Alfred Wünnenberg (1891-1963) was born on 20 July 1891 in Saarburg, Alsace-Lorraine, in the German Empire, and entered military service on 25 February 1913 as a Fahnenjunker in the Infanterie-Regiment „Vogel von Falckenstein“ (7. Westfälisches) Nr. 56 of the Prussian Army; during the First World War he served as a Kompaniechef, was wounded on both the Western and Eastern fronts, trained as a pilot from June 1916, and flew as an Aufklärungsflieger with Feld-Flieger-Abteilung 47 from August 1917, earning the Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse on 10 February 1915 and 1. Klasse on 9 September 1915 along with other decorations including the Königlich Preussisches Flugzeugbeobachter-Abzeichen and the Ritter des Königlicher Preussischer Hausordens von Hohenzollern mit Schwertern. After the war he briefly served with Grenzschutz Ost and a Freikorps in Oberschlesien before joining the Preußische Schutzpolizei as a Polizei-Oberleutnant in September 1920, rising through various police commands and training roles in Essen, Potsdam-Eiche, Krefeld, Köln, Charlottenburg, Hindenburg, Beuthen, Gleiwitz, Saarbrücken, Bremen, and Mannheim, joining the NSDAP on 1 May 1933 (Mitgliedsnummer 2.222.600) and the SS (SS-Nr. 405.898), and by December 1938 serving on the staff of the Inspekteur der Ordnungspolizei in Stuttgart. On 2 October 1939 he became Kommandeur of Polizei-Schützen-Regiment 3 of the Polizei-Division (later SS-Polizei-Division) with the rank of SS-Standartenführer and Oberst der Schutzpolizei, participating in the Western campaign of 1940 and the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941; for his leadership in the Luga sector—particularly his personal bravery on 11 August 1941 in capturing the hills at Stojanowschtschina (taking seventeen enemy tanks and numerous heavy bunkers), his advance on 23 August to seize Ssyrez, the hills west of it, and the heights at Turowo that enabled the capture of Luga, and his regiment’s breakthrough of the outer defensive lines of Leningrad on 13 September by securing bridges and key positions while advancing toward Pushkin via the Ishora position—he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 15 November 1941 as SS-Standartenführer and Oberst der Schupo. He assumed command of the SS-Polizei-Division on 15 December 1941, and for his successful leadership of the division at the Volkhov, where he closed the ring around the Volkhov pocket by attacking through extremely swampy terrain to achieve surprise against an enemy expecting an advance along the road, he received the Eichenlaub zum Ritterkreuz (91st award) on 23 April 1942 as SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor der Polizei. Promoted further to SS-Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant der Polizei in July 1942 and then to SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS und Polizei in July 1943, he briefly commanded the IV. SS-Panzer-Korps from 10 June 1943 until 31 August 1943, after which he succeeded Kurt Daluege as Chef des Hauptamtes der Ordnungspolizei, a post he held until the end of the war (and briefly as Chef der Deutschen Polizei in the final days); he fled via the Rattenlinie Nord to Flensburg, was interned as a POW in Dachau in 1946, released in 1947, and died on 30 December 1963 in Krefeld, West Germany.
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https://alifrafikkhan.blogspot.com/2014/01/ss-runen-abzeichen-ss-runes-breast.html
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