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 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 an identifying sleeve insignia. The police were divided into eight assorted branches of service and during the restructuring the different police agencies were assigned specific identifying "truppenfarbe" (Troop {Branch of Service} Colors), with carmine truppenfarbe being allocated to the Feuerschutzpolizei, (Fire Protection Police). NCO ranks of Unterwachtmeister to Hauptwachtmeister, (equivalent to the army ranks of Unteroffizier & Oberfeldwebel, respectively), wore the sleeve insignia in the appropriate branch of service color while Officer’s ranks from Polizei Meister to Oberst wore the insignia in bright silver while the ranks of Generalmajor to Generaloberst wore gilt insignia. Originally the police sleeve eagles worn by NCO’s included the name of the location where they were stationed but regulations of November 10^TH 1941 abolished the name for all but the Freiwillingen Feuerwehren, (Volunteer Fire Brigades), and the Pflichtfeuerwehren, (Compulsory Fire Brigades), personnel. 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. Also Of Note: The Feuerschutzpolizei and Wasserschutzpolizei, (Water Police), personnel wore navy blue uniforms as opposed to the police green worn by the other branches of the police and Wasserschutzpolizei officer’s utilized gilt threads as opposed to the standard silver of other field and company grade officers.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Nice quality, hand embroidered, police Officers eagle encompassed by a vertically oval, oak-leaf wreath in bright, silver/aluminum bullion and wire threads with tan accent threads mounted on a roughly, 4" tall, 3 1/2" wide, vertically oval, cut-out, deep navy blue wool base. The embroidery is still quite clean and bright. The eagles wings extending beyond the edges of the oval oak-leaf wreath with a roughly, 3 1/8" wingspan. The reverse has the majority of its original protective grey/green paper backing intact. The insignia is in overall very good condition with minimal age and usage toning, light nap wear to the wool base and minor fraying and stitch holes to the outer edges of the base where it was removed from a tunic.

GRADE ***3/4                             PRICE $585.00