English: Colour plate from The German Police, a publication on the Police forces of Nazi Germany, issued by the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF) and printed in London in April 1945. The book covers the regular, uniformed Order Police (Ordnungspolizei, OrPo), the Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei, SiPo) and the Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst, SD) which were all included in the general term "Police" 1936–1945. It also contains nine plates on OrPo uniforms with illustrations copied from German Police uniform panels 1939.

• Plate III – Senior NCOs of the Orpo and officials of equivalent rank
  • Shoulder straps
    • Inspektor (obsolete) – Obermeister (obsolete) – Meister – Hauptwachtmeister and Oberjunker – Revier-Oberwachtmeister – Oberwachtmelster – Wachtmeister (with more than 4 years' service) – Wachtmeister (with less than 4 years' service) – Hauptwachtmeister of the Schupo der Gemeinden – Bezirks-Oberwachtmeister of the Gedarmerie – Wachtmeister of the Wasserschutzpolizei (with more than 4 years' service) – Oberwachtmeister of the Verkehrsdienst – Meister of the Feuerschupo – Pol.-Assistent (with rank of Hauptwachtmeister)
  • Collar patches
    • Junior N.C.O.s
      • Schutzpolizei des Reiches – Schutzpolizei der Gemeinden – Gendarmerie – Feuerschutzpolizei
    • Senior N.C.O.s
      • Schutzpolizei des Reiches – Schutzpolizei der Gemeinden – Gendarmerie – Feuerschutzpolizei – Pol.-Assistent
  • Service insignia
    • Blitz for officials of the Fernmeldedienst
    • Steering wheel for officials of the Kraftfahrdienst
    • Horseshoe for qualified farriery officials
    • Asculaepean staff for medical officials of the Schupo der Gemeinden
    • Asculaepean staff for medical officials of the Wasserschutzpolizei
    • Crossed lances for mounted officials of the Schupo and the Gendarmerie
    • Southern Cross (See Text, para. 56)
      • In 1936 the Police of three German cities were given the honour of maintaining the traditions of the former Colonial Police: Bremen (SW Africa), Kiel (Cameroon), and Hamburg (Kiautschau). A special cloth tradition badge was worn on the lower left sleeve.
    • Sigrunen (Backing is black when worn on white uniform)
      • Members of the Police who were also members of the SS were authorized to display a set of embroidered SS-runes low on the left breast, in silver-grey or silver on a uniform-coloured backing.

Police in Nazi Germany

In 1936 the separate German state police forces were restructured into a single national police force divided in two main departments: the Ordnungspolizei (Order Police or Uniformed Police, OrPo) and Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police, SiPo).

OrPo consisted of Schutzpolizei (protection police, SchuPo), Gemeindepolizei (municipal protection police) and Gendarmerie, the state rural police and military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The Schutzpolizei included Einzeldienst (Patrol branch ), Kasernierte Polizei (Barracked police), Verkehrspolizei (Traffic police), Wasserschutzpolizei (Water police), Polizei-Reiterstaffeln (mounted troops), Polizei-Nachrichtenstaffeln (police signal squads), etc. SiPo included Gestapo, Nazi Political Police, and Kriminalpolizei, Kripo.

Feldgendarmerie was military field police units of the Wehrmacht.

Ordnungspolizei uniforms

The Ordnungspolizei (OrPo) was also called Grüne Polizei ("green police"); The standard Waffenrock (service tunic) was grey-green with contrasting dark brown collar and cuff facings and had two pleated patch breast pockets and two unpleated skirt pockets.

In addition to the bewildering collar and shoulder rank insignia, all OrPo wore the Polizeiadler ("police eagle"), i.e. a wreathed national eagle with swastika (Reichsadler mit Hakenkreuz), as a cap badge and an arm badge on the upper left sleeve.

The collar patches and shoulderboards on OrPo tunics were backed, and the sleeve eagle (below the rank of Leutnant) was embroidered (except for a black swastika), in the Truppenfarbe, a colour code indicating the branch. Tunics and caps also had piping (Paspelierung) in these branch colours:

• Schutzpolizei (protection police) – bright ‘police-green’
• Schutzpolizei der Gemeinden (municipal protection police) – wine-red
• Gendarmerie (rural) – orange
• Feuerschutzpolizei (fire brigades) – carmine-red
• Wasserschutzpolizei (Waterways protection police) – bright yellow (gold)
• Verwaltungspolizei (administrative police) – light grey
• Medical and veterinary personnel wore cornflower-blue and black respectively.

From August 1942, dual Police and SS ranks were adopted by Police generals, for example SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Polizei. The Police shoulder boards were retained but SS pattern collar patches were to be worn now, albeit in Police branch colours. The SS oak leafes and pips were in gold instead of silver. From January 1943, the same was with Police colonels who held personally the rank of SS-Oberführer of the Allgemeine SS, the two oak leafes of his rank insignia in silver. Those Police colonels were now designated as Oberst der Polizei. Police colonels who held the rank of SS-Standartenführer (or who simply were no SS-members) continued to be designated Oberst der Schutzpolizei (resp. der Gendarmerie etc.). They would retain the traditional Police collar patches with Kapellenlitze. Generally from 1942/43, individual policemen who held a personal SS rank could obtain SS collar patches. But this happened only in a relatively few cases (see: Deuster, Dieter, Deutsche Polizei-Uniformen 1936–1945, Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-613-03105-0, p. 149, p. 150-153).

SiPo personnel within Germany wore usually civilian clothing and sometimes the black uniforms of the Allgemeine SS. During WW II, SiPo personnel in german occupied foreign territories wore the field grey uniforms of the Waffen-SS, but with the SD lozenge on the left lower sleeves. Furthermore, all Sipo ranks down from SS-Obersturmbannführer and equivalents wore their right collar patchs empty, i. e. without any insignia (Deuster (2009), p. 368).

Brigthened and cropped version of image from scanned book.

No known copyright.