Original Item: Only One Available. On June 17TH 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 including the Feuerschutzpolizei, (Fire Protection Police). 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 on June 25th 1936 to bring about uniformity in dress for all police through-out the country.

The Police were divided into eight assorted branches of service with each branch being assigned a specific identifying, Truppenfarbe, (branch of service color), with the Feuerschutzpolizei being allocated Karminrot (carmine red) truppenfarbe, which is close in color to magenta. The Feuerschutzpolizei were further distinguished from the other police branches of service with blue uniforms and headgear instead of the typical police green uniforms.

This is a very good condition example of a German WWII Feuerschutzpolizei (Fire Protection police) EM-NCO M38 overseas cap (Schiffchen). The overseas cap, nicknamed in German military slang as Schiffchen, or literally "little ship" as it resembled an up-turned row-boat, was standard issue for for all military and many of the civic organizations of the NSDAP as well.

This example is constructed of a very nice Navy Blue "doeskin" style wool exterior, with a light blue gray cotton interior. It features a fine BeVo machine embroidered police style eagle on the front of the cap, with a nice BeVo embroidered tri-color cockade below. Of note is that the "white" is actually silver bullion. The flap around the cap has the correct Karminrot (carmine red) color piping, the troop color for the fire protection police.

The interior of the cap still has the complete maker information, stamped in purple on the left side liner:

59
Peter Küpper
Wuppertal
42

Peter Küpper is a known maker of items for the German police forces during WWII.

Condition of this cap is very good, showing just a bit of light wear and fading to the exterior, most likely from decades of storage. The interior of the cap shows that it was worn very little, if at all.

A great example, ready to display!