History

The German Wehrmacht was composed of three main branches, the Heer, the Kriegsmarine, and the Luftwaffe. The Heer and Kriegsmarine uniforms were based upon the designs utilized by their predecessor organizations, the Deutsches Heer and the Kaiserliche Marine. Conversely, the Luftwaffe uniforms were based upon the uniforms worn in the sports and para-military organizations that were the forerunners of the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe uniforms were specifically designed to deviate from the designs of the other Wehrmacht service branches. It was also necessary that the uniforms differentiate between military and civilian pilots.

There were two main organizational precursors of the Luftwaffe, the German Air Sports Association (DLV or Deutscher Luftsportverband), and the National Air Raid Protection League (RLB or Reichs Luftschutzbund).

The DLV and the RLB were created in 1933. These civilian organizations were used to secretly train members for future roles in the Luftwaffe. The DLV became obsolete after Hitler’s official introduction of the Luftwaffe in 1935, and it was disbanded and replaced by the National Socialist Flyers Corps (NSFK or Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps).

The formal evening trousers were worn as part of the formal evening dress and service uniform by Luftwaffe Generals, Officers, and Officials with an equivalent General or Officer rank.

The formal evening trousers are composed of blue-grey cloth in a high waisted design with straight trouser legs, a buttoned front fly closure, tress stripes, and two hip level pockets, one along each exterior leg side seam.

These colours of the tress along the exterior leg side seams corresponds to the wearer's rank. The trousers for Generals have a thick stripe of gold-coloured flat braided tress on either leg, while the trousers for Officers have silver-coloured (aluminum) flat braided tress.