BACKGROUND: Shortly after Adolf Hitler and the NSDAP, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, (National Socialist German Worker’s Party), ascended to the leadership of Germany, the police, as with almost all civic organizations, incorporated the new style national eagle and swastika on their insignia. The first pattern police insignia to utilize the new style national eagle and swastika was introduced on April 23^RD 1934. 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 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 of June 25^TH 1936 was the introduction of a slightly modified second pattern police eagle and swastika to replace the first pattern. The police pattern national eagle was worn on all types of headgear including the visor caps, overseas cap and the M43 field cap. The insignia utilized on the visor caps was of stamped metal construction while the insignia on the soft caps was machined or hand stitched. The Police were divided into eight assorted branches of service that included the Wasserschutzpolizei, (Water Protection Police), who were tasked with protecting all inland waterways, ports and harbor installations within Germany. The Wasserschutzpolizei differed from the other police branches of service in that they wore navy blue uniforms as opposed to the police green worn by the other branches of the police and utilized gilt/golden yellow insignia including the visor cap eagles.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: This example is somewhat unusually the it only consist of the first pattern eagle, with-out the standard wreath. First pattern, (circa April 1934-June 1936), single piece, die stamped alloy construction, police visor cap eagle with a gilt washed finish. The nicely detailed, left facing eagle features extended, tapered, pointed tip wings and is clutching a canted swastika in it’s talons. The eagle has a roughly, 1 3/4" wingspan from wing tip to wing tip. The detailing includes feathering to the wings and a pebbled field to the swastika. The eagle retains about 85% of its original, gilt washed finish with small spots of wear to the base alloy. The reverse of the eagle is a mirror image of the obverse and both soldered attachment prongs are intact. The eagle has no visible manufacturer’s markings. Of Note: Generally the first pattern police visor cap insignia consisted of the national eagle soldered to a separate laurel leaf wreath. However the placement of the attachment prongs on this example would seem to preclude it’s attachment to the wreath.

GRADE ***1/4                             PRICE $144.00