File:Organisationsbuc00nati orig 0087 ORGANISATIONSBUCH DER NSDAP 1936 Parteigenosse Politische Leiter Symbole Uniformen Tafel 9 Dienstrangabzeichen Ortsgruppen- bwz. Stützpunktleitung Kragen- u Mützenpaspel trimming No known copyright.jpg

• Nazi collar insignia for political leaders (Politischen Leiter) at different organizational levels
  • Embroidered bars/double braids (Doppellitze) etc. on collar patches/tabs (Kragenspiegel) reflecting a second pattern design (1934-1939)
• Also coloured piping (trimming); Tunic collars, collar tabs and visor caps were lined with coloured piping (German: Kragen- und Mützenpassepoil, Paspel, Paspelierung, Passepoil) to denote membership in the particular Nazi Party level:
  • Reichsleitung (national level, German nation) – golden yellow
    
  • Gauleitung (regional level, German states and their provinces) – dark red
  • Kreisleitung (district level – German counties) – black (later white)
  • Ortsgruppen (local level, German towns and cities) – light blue
    

Cropped page from Organisationsbuch der NSDAP issued by the Nazi Party's national organizational leader (Reichsorganisationsleiter) Robert Ley for the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei, Reichsorganisationsamt; published in 1936 by Zentralverlag der NSDAP, Franz Eher Nachf., München; circa 550 pages, 71 pages of plates; German language; letters in Fraktur style typefaces.

The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945, that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. In its simplest form, the Nazi Party command structure was divided into four basic levels: the general membership known as the Parteimitglieder, the political leadership corps known as the Politische Leiter, the upper command levels of the Party encompassed by the Gauleiter and Reichsleiter, and finally the position of Führer held solely by Adolf Hitler as supreme leader of the Party.
Ranks of the Nazi Party were paramilitary titles held within the political leadership corps of the party. After 1933 Nazi Party ranks became a political chain of command operating side by side with the German government. All political leaders wore official uniforms, with piping and collar-tab background colors indicating the level of the Party (Local, County, Regional, or National) that a Political Leader served. Regular party members often wore no uniforms except for a standard Nazi Party Badge.