File:German Police (Nazi Germany WW2) Supreme Headq. Allied Expedit. Force SHAEF April 1945 Pl. 4 Uniforms Ordnungspolizei Cap badges Shako Peaked Forage Polizeiadler Reichsadler Eagle insignia National cockade No known copyright.jpg

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 IV Cap Badges
  • Badge for Shako, etc. (gold for generals and equivalent officials)
    • The basic design of the Hoheitsabzeichen (National emblem) of Nazi Germany was a spread imperial eagle (Reichsadler) over a swastika (Hakenkreuz). The police version was a swastika eagle enclosed in a wreath of oak leaves. This wreathed Polizeiadler ("police eagle") was worn as a cap badge and on the left sleeve by all uniformed police.
    • Tschakoadler/Tschako-Adler ("shako eagle"), cap badge for Polizei-Tschako ("police shako"); Most German police forces adopted a version of the Jäger shako, after World War I, which replaced the spiked leather helmet (Pickelhaube) identified with the previous Imperial regime. This new "bump hat" was worn by the civilian police forces of the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, East Germany, and West Germany into the 1970s. See Shako, M1936: O/RS, Schutzpolizei (SchuPo, the regular police) in the collections of The Imperial War Museum, UK.
  • Tschakonationale (National cockade; material varies according to rank)
    • The cockade (Kokarde), in black, white and red, representing the traditional national colours of Germany, was worn on every German Police cap. When worn on the shako as a Tschako-Nationale, it was oblong (oval) in shape and framed with a silver cord. On the peaked cap (Schirmmütze) and on the side cap (Hausmütze) it was round and without a corded edge.
  • Badge for forage caps (yellow for Wasserschutzpolizei)
    • "Police eagle" cloth badge for forage cap/field cap/side cap (Hausmütze, Feldmütze, Schiffchen)
    • Wasserschutzpolizei, "river and water protection police"
  • Badge for peaked cap (for generals also for Wasserschutzpolizei and Verkehrsdienst; quality of metal varies)
    • Schirmmütze, peaked cap/visor cap
    • Verkehrsdienst, traffic police
  • Badge for peaked cap (for all uniforms other than the preceding)

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 1942, dual Police and SS ranks were adopted by Police generals, who from then on would wear SS pattern rank insignia, albeit in Police colours.

SiPo personell within Germany wore civilian clothing.

Image from scanned book.

No known copyright.