Well, the husband of our Queen had an SS membership:)
Everybody and his brother had one.
The Allgemeine SS (the guys in the black uniforms) was the preferred Nazi organisation for opportunistic academics. It had an elite image, you didn't have to spend too much time with them (or do Nazi Party work) and the uniforms looked better. The guys in the brown uniforms - the SA - were blue collar and loud, marching in the streets with torches etc.
Interestingly, the Waffen-SS (no black uniforms except in ceremonial use, either standard Wehrmacht grey-greenish
Feldgrau, like the guys in the satirical tv spot or - later on - camouflage battle fatigues, both with black tell-tale collars) used a different angle to recruit: The Waffen-SS paid better und promoted quicker (minimum draft age was lower too, hence all those kids in late war pics wearing SS camouflage). Also, while in the German Wehrmacht you could rarely rise beyond NCO without a higher education, the Waffen-SS knew no such prohibitions. So the Waffen-SS attracted a lot of people looking for a shortcut in their military career.
