Beginning in 1940, Himmler opened up Waffen-SS recruiting to ethnic Germans that were not German citizens.[338] In March 1941, the SS Main Office established the Germanische Leitstelle (Germanic Guidance Office) to establish Waffen-SS recruiting offices in Nazi-occupied Europe.[339] The majority of the resulting foreign Waffen-SS units wore a distinctive national collar patch and preceded their SS rank titles with the prefix Waffen instead of SS.