Jurgen Fritz, German Koppeln in the XX Century varied enormously in quality and duration according to the type of leather available to manufacture it . when a raw hide is tanned the final product is at least of three categories acording if comes from the back of the animal ,the flanks or the limbs , that determines the thickness and endurance , apart, usually the tanned piece is cut in two portions the upper the best one the lower the second class . Germany suffered during WW1 shortages of good quality leather , and again in WW2 then, lower quality leather was employed . another consideration is the cost , the DDR NVA employed a mid quality leather for their Koppeln , inclusive thats of the officers .