Heer Wehrmachtbeamte-Heer

[Glenn J]

2 hours ago, Meyszner said:

And they didn't wear the alt-Preußische style of the Generalstaboffiziere? Who did then?

 

If I understand you correctly, you mean this: (From Laurence):

 

 

According to the regulations of 22 December 1920, officials of the Reichswehr Ministry with the equivalent ranks of Hauptmann to Oberst wore the above pattern. As we know, in 1930 the single Kolbenstickerei was introduced for all officials of the higher career including those of the Reichswehr Ministry and replaced by a double barred version in 1935. I very much get the impression that the above pattern was phased out in the early thirties and replaced by the golden Doppellitzen we see worn by Ministerialregistrator Bahlk above for those permanent officials of the elevated and medium career in the Ministry (Later OKW/OKH).

 

Described in the Heeresverwaltungstaschenbuch as glatte hellgoldene (smooth light gold colour). The following illustration is taken from Adolf Schlicht and Jürgen Kraus' DIe Uniformierung und Ausrüstung des deutschen Reichsheeres 1919-1932 from a sales catalogue from the early thirties. Described as "Officials of the Reichswehrministerium, light gold".

 

 

Regards

Glenn

[Glenn J]

This is an interesting shot of another Wehrmacht archivist; the later Oberheeresarchivrat Friedrich Hof on the establishment of the army archives in Vienna. He wears the rank insignia of a Major and the collar patches of an official of the elevated career.

 

 

Some background: When the Heeresarchiv Wien was incorporated into the German army following the Anschluß, it employees became Wehrmachbeamten – Heer. Unfortunately for them, many were incorporated at a lower level than their former Austrian civil service rank and in some cases two down.

 

Herr Hof was a case in point, the former Austro-Hungarian Major (commissioned 1 November 1902 into the 76. Ungarisches Infanterieregiment) and Austrian Regierungsrat was appointed a Regierungs-Oberinspektor (elevated career with captains’ rank).

 

The situation with the former Austrian officials was rectified and those affected were restored to the higher career effective 1 October 1939 and he became a Heeresarchivrat. The retention of the elevated collar patches is unexplained as the rank of Heeresarchivrat was in the higher career group. He was still wearing them at least until June 1940 when assigned as the chief of the Army archives outpost in Brussels (which he led until 1944). He was promoted to Heeresoberarchivrat on 1 February 1942.

 

Regards

Glenn

 

[Glenn J]

The Order of 10 April 1940 introduced a new pattern of collar patch Litzen for officials with officers' rank in the medium career as follows:

 

"The officials in the medium career in officers' rank wear instead of the former collar patch, one in the width of about 3.3.cm (including piping) with hand embroidered double Litzen, each 1.1.cm wide of a special pattern."

 

Although photographs do show the pattern in wear, I get the impression that even though officially ordered, in reality there was not much take up of actually wearing it. In practice, it seems likely that officials of the medium career, for the most part continued to wear the previous pattern as their colleagues in the elevated career.

 

This portrait appeared in the classic 1971 edition of Brian L Davis' "German Army Uniforms and Insignia 1933-1945". The caption describes him as an Oberinspektor. I think Brian erred in the rank description of this official. The collar patches appear to be the narrow version introduced per the 10 April 1940 order. 

 

As the Oberinspektor ranks classed as officials of the elevated career with captain's rank and that title was not utilized by officials of the medium career, given the white Nebenfarbe, I would suggest he is an Obersekretär or Inspektor of the medium non technical administrative service career.
 

 

Regards

Glenn

[Glenn J]

 

Sonderführer, although not Wehrmachtbeamte (they were actually soldiers within the framework of German military law) are it seems, often confused with wartime officials because of a similarity in insignia at different time periods of the war.

 

Above is a clear portrait of a Sonderführer (K) wearing the late 1942 ordered insignia when the narrower shoulder cords were re-introduced to replace the commissioned officer pattern worn since 1940. Introduced per order of 7 December 1942, it was stipulated that the new insignia should be in use no later than 31 March 1943. Sonderführer (K) Arro wears the two gold slides of his rank on the aluminium shoulder cords.

 

Regards

Glenn

[Meyszner]

On 15/06/2024 at 17:53, Glenn J said:

 

If I understand you correctly, you mean this: (From Laurence):

Precisely those ones, yes. That's surprising. I thought the lack of surviving examples was simply because of their rare nature, not outright a discontinuing of the pattern.

On 17/06/2024 at 17:05, Glenn J said:

This is an interesting shot of another Wehrmacht archivist; the later Oberheeresarchivrat Friedrich Hof on the establishment of the army archives in Vienna.

 

The retention of the elevated collar patches is unexplained as the rank of Heeresarchivrat was in the higher career group.

 

Seems like the retention of lower insignia, or a mix, is not actually not that uncommon. I can also think of the wear of earlier golden HV cyphers instead of the later silver ones, against regulation, by certain officials.

On 18/06/2024 at 17:19, Glenn J said:

The Order of 10 April 1940 introduced a new pattern of collar patch Litzen for officials with officers' rank in the medium career as follows:

A-ha! I was waiting for a photo of these in wear. Most excellent.

On 20/06/2024 at 07:08, Glenn J said:

Sonderführer, although not Wehrmachtbeamte (they were actually soldiers within the framework of German military law)

I was also waiting for one of these to show up. Beautiful example of the rare Schulterschnüre cords. I continue to be astonished by your collection.

[Glenn J]

21 hours ago, Meyszner said:

A-ha! I was waiting for a photo of these in wear. Most excellent.

 

This chap appeared on page 2 of this thread and it appears to me, that he is also wearing the 10 April 1940 medium career collar patches. This also appears to be a mismatch of insignia for a wartime official. He is wearing the narrow aluminium shoulder cord of officials in the rank of a Kriegsverwaltungssekretär (medium career) introduced in the mobilization plan of 12 March 1937. The mismatch is the fact that the new insignia with the "Old Prussian" Litzen and officer style shoulder boards were introduced per order of 21 March 1940. Of course, all the changes would not have happened immediately and one supposes there was a lag and some cross-over before all the correct newly introduced insignia was in use.
 

Regards

Glenn

 

[Glenn J]

The contrast in size with the collar patch of an official of the elevated career is clearly discernible when compared to this image of another white piped collar patch. Seen here as worn in a pre-war shot of Stabszahlmeister Heinrich Hermann of Nachtrichten-Abteilung Nr. 57 (image from Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg). Herr Hermann rose to the rank of an Oberstabsintendant in the Truppensonderdienst.

 

Regards

Glenn

 

[Glenn J]

Below is a portrait of a Technischer Verwaltungsamtmann at Okerkommando des Heeres. The rank equates to a major and belongs to the elevated career in the pay group A3b. One would normally expect a technical official to have black Nebenfarbe but this particular individual was serving as a Vermessungs (survey specialist) and as such wore crimson as his secondary colour. 

 

The photograph was taken after the 16 November 1942 order stipulating the replacement of the previously worn gold coloured Litzen for officials at OKW/OKH with that of aluminium. As a Vermessungs official, he retained the crimson Nebenfarbe of his career field. Had he been a technical official of one the branches that outside of OKW/OKH would normally wear black, he would of course have had to revert to that colour.

 

Regards

Glenn

 

[Glenn J]

This is an anomaly I can't honestly remember where I encountered this portrait, possibly this very site. I have him named as Oberstabszahlmeister Ignaz Paula, clearly a Bavarian WW1 veteran from his decorations. Born in 1873, he served as a Zahlmeister (1.4.16)  in the 15th Bavarian Infantry Regiment during WW1. His tailor has incorrectly applied the white Nebenfarbe to all four outer edges of his collar patches. He does not appear in the 1939 Wehrmachtbeamten list so presumably he had retired or possibly died by then.

 

Regards

Glenn 

 

[Glenn J]

Whilst revisiting these old Wehrmachtbeamten pages, I read with interest the extract from the Allgemeine Heeresmitteilung posted by Gordon. It is an order dated 28 February 1938, effective 1 June 1938 which introduced new insignia for Wehrmachtbeamten (Army) to better differentiate the status between soldiers and officials.

 

At the first reading of Paragraph II. 4, I thought it in some way explained the wearing of "officer" style Litzen on the uniforms of officials with the equivalence of NCO rank. This details hand embroidered aluminium Litzen for officials of the medium career in pay groups A4d through A8a (i.e. Oberleutnant down to Oberfeldwebel).

 

However, a closer inspection of the entire order raised a couple of rather odd issues. For example:

Para I. Introduces Gold coloured eagles for the headdress and a dark green piping on the front and lower edges of the collar of the greatcoat and cloak.

 

This clearly did not happen as a cursory glance in the Heeresverwaltungs-Taschenbuch and Eberhard Hettler's "Uniformen der Deutschen Wehrmacht" amended to 1940 makes no mention of this new insignia.

 

After a bit of further digging, the answer is found in a further order dated just a couple of months after the original dated 30 April 1938 which "postpones" the introduction date with "further instructions to follow".

 

As we know, a half-hearted attempt to differentiate between officials of the elevated and medium careers in officers' rank was introduced per order of 10 April 1940. 

 

Regards
Glenn

[Glenn J]

This chap presents an interesting conundrum; a 1932 portrait of a Reichsheer official with field officer rank insignia. The official in question is one Emil Bock, who ran the minister's office in the Reichswehr ministry.

 

 

Herr Bock was a former junior Prussian intendance official and later war ministry official with the rank of a Geheimer expedierender Sekretär and courtesy title of a Rechnungsrat. These ranks do not translate well into English, so suffice to say, a mid ranking ministerial official with the rough equivalence of a senior captain.

 

Fast forward to 1932 and we find him as a Ministerialbürodirektor in the Reichswehrministerium.

John R. Angolia in his "Uniforms and Traditions" attributes this rank of official as belonging to the higher (höhere) career and Eberhard Hettler in his "Uniformen der Deutschen Wehrmacht" first published in 1939 attributes the golden "Kolbenstickerei" of the higher career to this rank.

 

Given, that the Kolbenstickerei was introduced in 1930, why then is Herr Bock wearing Doppellitzen? The answer is two-fold:

Though not explicitly stated, the Ministerialbürodirektor was NOT an official of the higher career although paid as such (Besoldungsgruppe A2b). He was at the pinnacle of the elevated career. There were only a handful of guys who ever held this rank in the Heer, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe and all were former Imperial "Subalternbeamte" and Weimar era Ministerialamtmänner. 

 

In the army, the rank was granted the Kolbenstickerei of the higher career per order of 16 February 1939. Note the wording: They "are to wear the embroidery LIKE the officials of the higher career.

 

 

In the case of the Luftwaffe, differing insignia was not an issue before December 1939 as the collar insignia of the officials of both the higher and elevated careers was the same; piped in aluminium twisted cord. The introductory order changing the piping to gold coloured cord of 5 December 1939 states that "the officials of the higher career AND the Ministerialbürodirektor receive the gold coloured cord"

 

 

I have yet to confirm the situation with the Kriegsmarine Ministerialbürodirektor. If the situation was replicated as above, presumably this rank initially wore the two "loops" of the elevated career of the administrative branch and was increased to the three loops of the higher career in 1939?

 

Regards

Glenn

[Glenn J]

A fine example of the wear of the April 1940 pattern collar Litzen for an official of the medium career with officers' rank. The narrower Litzen is clearly discernible. As referenced earlier in this thread, it appears that the use of this pattern was not particularly widespread.

 

 

An interesting order published in the Heeres-Verordnungsblatt dated 19 January 1942 strongly reminded those officials of the medium career (and the chain of command) that they were to be taken into wear and that a sufficient quantity was available both in gold (for the Ministerialregistratoren) and in aluminium for the remainder at the army clothing counter.

 

Our subject is one Obersekretär Gustav Marx (Bundesarchiv Pers 6/302464) of the medium non-technical administrative service. He is at the upper ceiling of his career group with the rank insignia of an Oberleutnant. This level of official was not converted to the status of officers in the special troop service in May 1944.

 

On a side note, the illustrations of the insignia in Henner and Böhler's "Die Deutsche Wehrmacht - Dienstgrade und Waffenfarben des Heeres 1939-1945" are erroneously throughout shown as that of the officials in non commissioned officers' rank. The plates are generally superb - see below.

 

Regards

Glenn

 

[Glenn J]

It is generally known that officials of the Zahlmeister career wore white Nebenfarbe and as such are easily identifiable as such. However there were two further variations of Nebenfarbe which were authorized for officials of the Zahlmeister career: Hochrot (bright red) and Karmesinrot (carmine). See this illustration from a period uniform print showing the shoulder boards of both a Stabszahlmeister (J) and a Stabszahlmeister.

 

 

The (J) is the abbreviation for Intendantur and was utilized by those officials in this rank to denote their employment on the staff of a Wehrkreisverwaltung (military district administration). As such they wore the bright red Nebenfarbe of the Intendantur career. Below is one Stabszahlmeister (J) Viktor Kaemper who for much of the war served on the staff of Wehrkreisverwaltung VII (München).

 

 

Irrespective of career, army officials filling established posts on the staff of OKW/OKH wore Karmesinrot Nebenfarbe. Until 16 November 1942 this was worn in conjunction with matt golden Litzen on the Feldbluse as seen here by Oberfeldzahlmeister Otto Klein on the staff of the army personnel office at OKH. Following the 16 November 1942 alteration to aluminium Litzen, the officials at OKW/OKH also reverted to wearing their basic branch Nebenfarbe which in the case of the Zahlmeister career was of course white.

 

 

Regards

Glenn

Edited September 1 by Glenn J

[Glenn J]

One often encounters statements on military forums and websites that the Wehrmachtbeamten were "civilians". In my opinion this is a gross over-simplification. The Wehrmacht officials had a dual status as both members of the armed forces and as Reich civil servants. They were combatants. A great many carried out functions that in most Western armies were the remit of commissioned officers; Quartermaster, logistics, finance, military law, fortress engineering, vehicle and equipment maintainance, military survey etc., etc. Indeed, during the course of the war, many had their status converted to that of commissioned officers; the most well known being those officials transferred into the special Troop Service from May 1944 onwards.

 

In fact, even as early as 1939, about 370 engineering officials were commissioned as active officers in the rank range Oberst to Hauptmann in the newly formed engineer officers' career. From the mid war period onwards, hundreds of technical officials were converted to active or reserve officers as Offiziere (W) or ordnance officers and into the Kraftfahrparktruppe (motor maintenance troops). Even as early as 1941, artillery survey officials were commissioned as artillery officers. In late 1944, numerous administrative branch officers of the TSD (former Zahlmeister officials) were transferred for the most part into the infantry!

 

Here is an example of an individual who went full circle; The then Technischer-Inspektor (Fz) Richard Hubert (1901-1979). In this pre-war shot, the black Nebenfarbe on his collar patches is just discernible. Herr Hubert was a former Reichswehr Zwölfender who finished his active military service as an Oberfeuerwerker (Oberfeldwebel). After a couple of years in civilian employment, he re-joined the Wehrmacht in 1935 as Technischer-Inspektor. Promoted to Technischer-Oberinspektor (Fz) on 1 August 1938, his status was converted to that of an active Hauptmann (W) effective 1 August 1943.

 

Regards

Glenn

 

[Meyszner]

Most splendid research on your part, Glenn. You continue to stump me with your posts!

 

I do apologize for my absence, I have been extremely busy and between the many forums I frequent, the GMIC slipped my mind.

 

I hope these photos make up for it. Credit to their respective owners.