History

During the Third Reich, an effort was made to unite all of Germany’s disparate provincial police forces and agencies into a single cohesive national unit. To attain this goal, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler was named Chief of the German Police in the Ministry of the Interior in June 1936. That same month, Himmler implemented new standardized uniforms, headgear, and insignia. The uniforms worn prior to Himmler’s appointment were often navy blue, particularly in what had been Prussia. The new uniforms were green, in a shade that was then dubbed “Police green”.

The German Police were divided into two main units, the Ordnungspolizei (Orps or Regular Police) and the Sicherheitspolizei (Secret Police); the Ordnungspolizei were unofficially called the green police (Grüne Polizei) as a result of their uniform colour. The Sicherheitspolizei were made up of two main organizations, the Gestapo and the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Investigation Police). At the beginning of the Second World War, the Sicherheitspolizei were brought under the auspices of the Reich Main Security Office.

The Ordnungspolizei was also divided into smaller branches of service, and each branch was associated with a branch of service/troop colour (Truppenfarbe). The troop colours include:

Schutzpolizei des Reichs (National Protection Police): Green
Schutzpolizei der Gemeinden (Municipal Police) pre-1942: Red
Schutzpolizei der Gemeinden (Municipal Police) post-1942: Green
Gendarmerie (Gendarmes/Rural Police): Orange
Verwaltungspolizei (Administrative Personnel) pre-1942: Red over grey
Verwaltungspolizei (Administrative Personnel) post-1942: Light grey
Feuerschutzpolizei (Fire Protection Police): Carmine
Wasserschutzpolizei (Water Protection Police): Yellow

The uniform garments worn by members of the Wasserschutzpolizei (Water Protection Police) and the Feuerschutzpolizei (Fire Protection Police) remained blue after the 1936 uniform redesign.

The Visored Field Cap is also known as the Combat Police Cap.

The design mirrors that of the M43 field caps worn in the German Army and the SS. The attributes unique to the police cap include the blue-tinted grey cloth colour and the police eagle insignia.

The skirt arms tend to be wide and closed by two buttons, but there are late examples with thin skirts arms and a single button closure.

The insignia present include the police eagle insignia and a surmounting tricolour national cockade. These two insignia are machine-woven onto a single piece of light-blue backing and attached to the front of the cap. The caps of Officers, Non-Commissioned Officer ranks (NCOs) and Enlisted Men (EMs) utilize the same silver-coloured police eagle insignia, while the caps for Generals have gold-coloured police eagle insignia.

The caps worn by Officers feature silver-coloured (aluminum) cord piping along the cap crown, while those worn by Generals feature gold-coloured cord piping.

The interior lining of these field caps varies according to the rank of the wearer. For Officers, the lining tends to be made from green tinted blue or green rayon. For NCOs and EMs, the lining is generally composed of cotton. This lining may have marks stamped in ink denoting the year of production, the cap size, and the manufacturer.