PREWAR TO 1940: THE "BLACK ARISTOCRACY"

At first, recruitment standards for Waffen-SS troops(Leibstandarte & SSVT, perhaps to a lesser extent the SSTK) were extremely tough.
Recruits were expected to be between the ages of 17 and 22 at least 168 CM tall. (5' 9" - Himmler's height) with no criminal record
since 1935, SS recruits were required to have a pure "Aryan" genealogy (aka no Jewish forebears) going back to 1800 for enlisted men and 1750 for officers
Terms of service: minimum 4 years for enlisted men, 12 years for NCO's and 25 years for officers.
The requirements were in fact so stringent that only 15 out of 100 applicants were accepted. RFSS Himmler boasted that not only did her personally look at the photographs of officer applicants for the SS, but that his organization did not accept a candidate with even "one filled tooth!" Such absurdist standards did not please the more practical SS leaders such as "Sepp" Dietrich.

1940-42: FREIWILLIGEN, VOLKSDEUTSCHE AND REICHDEUTSCHE

At the end of 1939, Himmler wanted to raise the strength of the Waffen-SS to the manpower equivalent of 4 divisions, but he was limited in the number of Germans he could recruit by the German Army. But where could he find the troops to fufill his dreams for the Waffen-SS?

SS personnel officer Gottlob Berger was able to satisfy Himmler wishes via several means for recruits who could be classified as "Reichdeutsche" (German citizens), "Volksdeutsche" (ethnic Germans living in foreign countries) and "Freiwilligen" (volunteers).

Freiwilligen

From 1940-43, especially after the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, the Waffen-SS was able to raise several Western European volunteer legions such as:
*Freikorps Danemark
*SS-Regiment Westland
*Freiwilligen Legion Norwegen

RFSS Himmler considered volunteers from countries such as Norway and Denmark as "Nordic" enough for the Waffen-SS. Recruiting of freiwilligen and volksdeutsche outside of Germany was carried out by a system of recruiting commands (ersatzkommandos), recruiting inspectorates (ersatzinspectionen) and recruitment centers (werbestellen). The basic recruiting book was named "Der ruft die SS" (The Call of the SS) and was translated into multiple languages. The Waffen-SS also make use of a huge portfolio attractive poster propaganda. The SS recruiting office attempted to stress the pan-european "ideal" of the Waffen-SS, but this was just so much cynical manipulation then and even now - as some revisionist historians even go so far as to say the Waffen-SS was the precursor to NATO. The Waffen-SS would play to whatever nationalist, ethnic, anticommunist, religious, or ideological angle they could to fill the ranks of Himmler's legions.

With regards to physical standards for freiwilligen (volunteers,) it is difficult to mention specifics. Doubtless the troops were not expected to be the Aryan warriors of the Liebstandarte, but were expected to be healthy and at least not look like an Untermensch. Many of the freiwilligen troops were soldiers of the armed forces of their occupied countries, and so possessing an adequate military bearing.

Volksdeutsche

Many Eastern European countries did have sizeable minority populations of Germans due to centuries of migration & colonization. The Nazis made a great of propaganda about the "oppressed" Volksdeutsche living in countries such as Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia, and they used this propaganda to justify their invasion and occupation. As Germany overran these countries, the Nazi administration made great attempts to identify the citizenry who could be classified as "ethnic" German, not only in the occupied nations but also the Axis satellite nations such as Rumania and Hungary. The Waffen-SS were particularly interested in these ethnic Germans because these volksdeutsche were not subject to the enlistment regulations of the Wehrmacht. By May 1940 the SS were using this legal loophole to recruit tens of thousands of Volksdeutsche, some of which were sprinkled throughout various Waffen-SS units and other which formed the basis for a specific unit such as 7th SS-Freiwilligen-Gebirgs Division Prinz Eugen.

Volksdeutsche volunteers or conscripts were generally found to be of less caliber than Reichdeutsche or even western European freiwilligen. Language became an issue, as many of these volksdeutsche communities did not speak German as a German would understand it. However, Himmler's pressing needs for volksdeutsche manpower for the Waffen-SS overruled any stringent adherence to standards.

Reichdeutsche

Strange as it may seem, the Waffen-SS had a difficult time recruiting Germans! This was due to several reasons. Hitler did not want the Waffen-SS to become a bloated organization like the SA and so deliberately tried to limit its size. (In fact, much of Himmler's efforts to grow the Waffen-SS were behind Hitler's back). The Wehrmacht was especially wary of the Waffen-SS and did all it could to limit its growth to a minimum. For example, it restricted the SS recruiting campaigns. So even though the SS had a established infrastructure of "SS-districts" (SS-Oberabschnitte), each with a recruiting center, it couldn't raise the enough troops.

Gottlob Berger turned to alternate methods to get the German youth into the Waffen-SS. One effective method was administrative sleigh of hand, as when he managed to get various Totenkopf Standarten transferred into the Waffen-SS, in addition to the most abled-bodied of the Allgemeine-SS. The SS also cozied up to the Nazi youth organization Hitlerjugend - figuring it could convince or coerce these impressionable teenagers to volunteer for the Waffen-SS before they became old enough to be subject for military service.

Recruiting standards for German SS volunteers was undoubtedly strict but certainly not carried to the extremes of the prewar years. Certainly a filled tooth was acceptable at this point, although the regulations against "Jewish blood" were probably still in place.

Despite all these efforts at easing recruiting standards and seeking alternate sources, the Waffen-SS still had trouble filling its quotas for troops. By April 1942 the Waffen-SS was feeling the strain of massive casualties and the strain caused by the decline in the "aryanness" of its troops. One battalion CO wrote to Himmler that the recent replacements of his unit as "hardly justifies the standards of the SS as 'racial selection'."

1943: RAISING "ETHNIC" DIVISIONS & TRANSFERRING UNITS

1943 saw a massive Waffen-SS recruiting drive among nationalities and ethnic groups that would have by no means been considered as fitting the SS racial standard. These recruits enlisted for 2 years or the duration
Were not considered members of the SS (the organization)
Did not take standard SS oath, although they usualty pledged some sort of allegiance to Hitler
Wore variations of SS insignia on uniform to indicate non-German status
Only had to meet the barest of military (not ideological) standards
The Waffen-SS made great efforts to play to the desires of this or that ethnic community in order to raise units - for example, the 14th Waffen-Grenadier Division der SS. Apparently many of these "volunteers" were actually coerced or tricked into attending a SS-sponsored "sports event." (One famous story, probably apocryphal, is of SS officers dragging Bosnian Muslim men out of mosques to press-gang them into the 13th Waffen-Gebirgs Division der SS (kroatische Nr 1) "Handschar"!) The forced or coerced recruitment of SS volunteers strained Germany's relationships with its satellites - for example Hungarians who volunteered for the SS prior to the 1944 German takeover were stripped of their Hungarian citizenship.

The Waffen-SS also grew massively in 1943-44 by accepting various collaboration and foreign auxiliary units such as
Indische Freiwilligen Legion
Ostürkische WaffenVerbände der SS
33rd Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS
These transfer troops did not meet any SS racial standard and often did not meet more common military standards.

1944-45: SCRAPING FOR MANPOWER
As the Hitler's Reich crumbled, the Waffen-SS gave up all adherence of standards for recruit selection. If they could walk and shoot a rifle, they were good enough for the SS. At this time all German military forces were scraping the bottom of the manpower barrel - for example in January 1945, Heer and Waffen-SS recruiting centers were combined. Waffen-SS troops were increasingly transfers from other military branches of the Wehrmacht, from paramilitary and labor formations such as the RAD. Despite the abandonment of previous standards, many Waffen-SS units maintained a high level of combat efficiency and espirit de corps that won the admiration of their comrades and their enemies alike.