Colonial Officer's uniform

[Daniel Murphy]

Here is a German South West Africa colonial officers uniform I purchased many years ago. It is a private purchase uniform for an officer with the rank of Leutnant. The ribbon bar is not original to it and will be posted elsewhere. Unfortunately the dark blue piping is mothed and only a small amount remains in the seams, but I think this a rather scarce one. This type of uniform was authorized in 1896 and they were worn until 1915.

Dan

Edited November 1, 2006 by Daniel Murphy

[Daniel Murphy]

Close up

[Daniel Murphy]

Close up of the medal / ribbon bar loops.

[Daniel Murphy]

Close up of the cuffs.

[Daniel Murphy]

Pocket and ribbon bar.

[Daniel Murphy]

Low collar with two hooks.

[Daniel Murphy]

Boards. They are identical but are shown under different light and photo size.

Edited November 1, 2006 by Daniel Murphy

[Daniel Murphy]

All buttons are attached with rings so they can be removed for cleaning.

[Daniel Murphy]

Perhaps the only reason the uniform survived. It was used postwar by a German costumer.

[Chris Boonzaier]

Are you sure thats not WW2 Luftwaffe??

[Daniel Murphy]

Are you sure thats not WW2 Luftwaffe??

Yes, I am quite sure. This is not the fancy home duty uniform with litzen, it is the everyday wear (field) uniform in the colonies.

http://www.sacktrick.com/igu/germancolonialuniforms/

http://www.sacktrick.com/igu/germancolonia...chutztruppe.htm

Here is an enlisted issue version.

http://www.sacktrick.com/igu/germancolonia...truppetunic.htm

[Chris Dale]

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for quoting my website, glad it was of some use. Your tunic looks great. A couple of thing appear curious to me. The first is the lack of blue piping (although it does appear to be on the cuffs). I can't imagine how the piping on the collar and down the front would all have worn away while leaving the uniform mostly intact. There was a 1913 version of the uniform issued without piping although not many troops wore this version. The second curiosity are the buttons, the Schutztruppe usually wore buttons bearing an imperial crown. Maybe these buttons are a later addition?

Great tunic though and thanks for posting photos of it.

Cheers

Chris

[Guest Rick Research]

Don't know how I missed this.

Those are ?? either the "Hussar style" straps of all enlisted ranks (I've never seen any "live" so not sure) orrrr.... look exactly like WW2 Germany army Sonderf?hrer straps with the underlay removed.

Officers had silver bullion with modified Imperial Navy flecking which did not alternate the Vs the way naval officers' boards did, but kept the black side of the V and the red and white twist dside of the V always on the same side.

Here from a ST SWA Oberstleutnant:

and Schutztruppen buttons:

[Chip]

Rick,

Those are not imperial Hussar straps. I have a bunch of them and this doesn't match the prewar or any of the Feldgrau versions.

I also have an enlisted Schutztruppen board and though this is closer, it is also not a match. I think your Sonderfuehrer suggestion might be the right identification.

Chip

[Daniel Murphy]

Chris,

Yes the site is a big help for collectors on such a little known subject. Thanks. There is remains of the dark blue piping in all of the correct seams, but the moths got to the uniform before I did. They really did a job on the piping. I purchased it from Great War Militaria and they offered to repipe it for me by hand, if I desired. I decided not to mess with it. I cannot explain the use of plain buttons, but as far as I can tell they are original to it and were on it when purchased. The buttons are brass backed with brass loop and were made by a maker in Potsdam. The one brass button is an obvious replacement.

Rick and Chip,

The boards on this are identical to those shown (in the 3rd photo down on the left) on this web page. They are definitely officers boards with silver bullion, not enlisted white cord. Perhaps your boards are z.D or a.D boards.

http://www.sacktrick.com/igu/germancolonia...ialinsignia.htm

[Chip]

Daniel,

They sure do look the same. I could not tell from your photos that your boards were bullion. They looked gray to me. So I wonder what Rick's boards are. I had assumed that colonial officer's boards were pretty much the same except for the colored underlay for the various colonies. Obviously, more work needs to be done to clarify things in this area.

Chip

[Guest Rick Research]

More than 30 years ago in college I copied (black and white was new, nobody ever dreamed color copies would ever be possible) colored charts from a mult-volume set that I think was called the "Kolonial Lexikon" that had insignia charts.

My SWA Oberstleutnant pair is rather dingy (dating 1904-07 they're over 100 years old now) so not easier to see, but the half of the V with black is always on the same side while the other half of the V with twisted white and red also stays always on the same side:

cloth tongues missing, buttons fixed with long hooks:

[Guest Rick Research]

Equally hard to tell on this pair from GEA that Helmut Weitze had, and again per regulations the V patterns do not alternate, and are HALF to a side, not a whole tricolor for every V:

Those were 1200 Euros in February 2002 and I believe somebody bought 'em.

So the only way to tell that white underlay NAVY are not East African Schutztruppen is from the Vs pattern. Here's a close up, better to see, of how Imperial Navy officer boards ALTERNATE the sides of their state color Vs--

That's the half/half form the tricolor Vs should have for naval and colonial officers, which is why I wondered if the above might be for enlisted ranks. I've never seen any others.

[Chip]

Daniel,

I took a look at what "Das Deutsche Heer" has to say on the subject. It's very interesting. The officer's khaki tunic is shown with plain nickel silver buttons on the pockets and down the front (Knopf glatt, ohne krone). It looks like the imperial crown buttons were worn on the gray Tuchuniform, but not on the khaki.

The Leutnant shoulder board is shown as having a normal type officer's underlay in the blue color used for S?dwest Afrika and the darts are alternating red/black, that is, the black side of the dart switches each time from inside to outside. Here is the drawing that is in the book.

Chip

Edited March 26, 2007 by Chip

[Guest Rick Research]

Looks like the artist got it wrong. That's why real ones iz always better than drawings.

PS watch white underlay naval boards go up 1152% in price.

[Chip]

The story continues.... "F?hrer durch Heer und Fl?tte" 1914 edition says, that the buttons on the colonial officer's Kakidrell Feldrock should be "Versilberte Kaiserkronenkn?pfe (vorn 6 gro?e, auf den beiden Brusttaschen und den beiden Seitentaschen je ein kleiner)". The description of the boards is, unfortunately, not that detailed and only says that they were silver wire with red and black silk darts.

I was hoping that my photos of the Probe pieces in the collection of the Bavarian Army Museum would have some navy boards, but no such luck.

Rick,

The artist was Paul Pietsch, a stickler for detail, though he did make mistakes, as evidenced by the corrections in the back of the book.

Chip

Edited March 26, 2007 by Chip

[dwmosher]

Daniel

From what I can gather, you were almost correct in stating this was a colonial officer's tunic. I believe this is the tunic of an Effendi (Colored Officer) for Ostafrika. According to the literature, an Ostafrika Effendi wore the "uniform of the Askari, except: Feldrock of a German NCO, cornflower blue piping only on the cuffs, shoulderstraps also made of the tunic cloth with three rank pips. Smooth silver buttons." Your shoulder boards (which seem to be the bone of contention here) would not be correct for that tunic.

Dave

Edited March 26, 2007 by dwmosher