Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice German WWII Gendarmerie Meister (Rural Police Master) NCO Service Uniform Tunic, showing light service wear and in nice untouched condition. There does not appear to be any maker or name information inside the tunic, so it is most likely bespoke. It is made from the correct "Police Green" blue/green fabric used throughout NSDAP era Germany. The tunic features four pockets with scalloped flaps and pebbled aluminum buttons, and is adorned with the usual rank and branch insignia used on German Police tunics.

The left sleeve has a very nice Post-1941 pattern machine embroidered police eagle with outstretched wings. It is correctly clutching a "mobile" swaz in its talons, and is surrounded by an oval oak leaf wreath. The eagle is embroidered with the correct rayon Orange-gelb (Orange-yellow) thread, the Truppenfarbe (Troop Color) for the Gendarmerie (Rural Police). The base material is the correct "police green" color.

The collar is wrapped in the correct brown wool for Gendarmerie rural police, and is piped around the edge with the correct orange-yellow piping. It has the correct NCO litzen collar patches on each side, machine woven with an orange-yellow base with silver/aluminum flat-wire threads. The stripes are made with what looks to be colored bullion, and the patches are trimmed in fine, bright, twisted, silver/aluminum cording. The collar is in good shape, tough there definitely is some wear around the edges, which is usually one of the first places to show damage from use.

The “sew-in” style NCO Schulterstücken (shoulder boards) of this tunic feature a row of fine silver flatware "Russia Braid" double piping around the outside, which have chocolate brown chevrons woven into the design. Inside this is a more of the same type of "Russia Braid" interwoven with brown double piping. The base and sides of the shoulder boards are the more of the same Orange-Yellow color. There are no rank "pips" installed, indicating the Rural Police rank of Meister (master). The Civic Police did not have the same type of rank structure and names as the military police, so there is not really a direct equivalent in the armed forces.

Overall condition is very good, though there is some wear and staining consistent with service. There are a few holes as well, which look to be either from wear or possibly moth damage. A very nice German WWII Rural Police Service Tunic, ready to out fit with medals and display!

Approximate Measurements:
Collar to shoulder: 9”
Shoulder to sleeve: 27”
Shoulder to shoulder: 17”
Chest width: 22”
Waist width: 20”
Hip width: 23”
Front length: 33"

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. 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 Orange-gelb (Orange-yellow) truppenfarbe being allocated to the Gendarmerie, (Rural 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 and 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 10TH 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.