BACKGROUND: On June 17^TH 1936, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler was appointed to the newly created position of Chef der Deutschen Polizei im Reichsministerium des Innern, (Chief of the German Police in the National Ministry of the Interior), effectively giving him full control of all police agencies, including the Feuerschutzpolizei, (Fire Protection Police), within Germany. As a result of this appointment and the restructuring of all the separate German state police into a single national police force new regulations were instituted to bring about uniformity in dress for all police through-out the country. One of the new uniform regulations was the introduction of specific Truppenfarbe, (Branch of Service Colors), to identify the assorted branches of Police service with green being allotted to personnel serving with the Schutzpolizei des Reiches, (National Protection Police). Police personnel wore collar tabs in matching pairs with the base being in the appropriate branch of service color. The collar tabs signified rank groups with the specific rank being indicated by the shoulder boards/straps. Of Note: The German Police had no enlisted ranks with the lowest rank being an Unterwachtmeister which was equivalent to the German army rank of Unteroffizier.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: The machine woven collar tabs feature a police green, rayon base with interwoven litzen in bright, silver/aluminum flat-wire threads. The base police green rayon shows through the litzen as the branch of service and the center stripes. The collar tabs are mounted on police green wool bases with tan buckram backings and twisted, bright, silver/aluminum cord piping. The collar tabs are in overall fairly good condition with light to moderate age and usage toning, some minor nap wear to the wool bases and some oxidization spotting to the silver/aluminum flat-wire threads.

GRADE ***                             PRICE $48.00