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 new style shoulder insignia and the introduction of specific Truppenfarbe, (Branch of Service Colors), to identify the assorted branches of Police service with orange being allotted to personnel serving with the Gendarmerie, (Rural Police). Police personnel wore the shoulder boards in matching pairs to indicate the specific rank with the base being in the appropriate branch of service color. Of Note: The July 1936 pattern Police shoulder boards for certain ranks underwent minor modifications in December 1939, July 1940 and April 1941 which also resulted in minor rank designation alterations. These modifications also resulted in a somewhat confusing, overlapping wear of insignia. This example indicates the 1936-1941 rank of Oberwachtmeister or the 1941-1945 rank of Wachtmeister. 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 sew on shoulder boards feature dual, outer edge, bright, silver/aluminum Russian braid with evenly spaced, interwoven green "V"s, encompassing dual, inner, green rayon braids, mounted on orange wool truppenfarbe bases. The shoulder boards are in overall very good condition with minor age and usage toning and some light fraying to the sew on ends.

GRADE ***3/4                             PRICE $48.00