Uniforms of the German Soldier

An Illustrated History from 1870 to the Present Day

Alejandro M. de Quesada

• Publisher: Frontline Books
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781848326934
• eBook ISBN: 9781783830824
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

This book traces the evolution of the German Army uniform from 1870 to the present day, using nearly 800 photographs to offer the reader an unparalleled analysis. Each image is accompanied by a detailed caption, explaining interesting aspects of the soldiers uniform, insignia and equipment.It begins with the German Empire at its height, with the iconic spiked Pickelhaube and the colonial troops in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and moves on to the field-grey uniforms of the First World War. After 1918, the uniforms of the Reichswehr and the Freikorps are detailed, and then those of the revived Wehrmacht up to the end of the Second World War. The post-war years saw the establishment of the Bundeswehr in the West and East Germanys Nationalen Volksarmee, facing each other across the border of a divided Germany, before reunification in 1991.No other countrys army has undergone such changes in the past century-and-a-half, and this book provides a unique visual record of those changes.

INTRODUCTION TO PART 1

The Kaiser’s Army, 1870–1919

Germany’s military history has captivated historians for generations. She went from being a strong military power to a vanquished nation only to rise again, like the phoenix, and become strong once more. The study of the uniforms of the German soldier during these periods of glory, defeat, and rebirth shows a gradual change, despite a steady trickle of influence from the past that permeates these decades.

While much has been written on the uniforms of the Kaiser’s Army during World War I and on Hitler’s Wehrmacht during World War II, virtually nothing has been done on German uniforms during the era of peace from 1871 to 1914, the Colonial and overseas troops, the Reichswehr, the Nationalen Volksarmee, and the Bundeswehr. Furthermore, in recent years no attempt has been made to show the continuation of uniform styles from the earliest days of the German Empire to the present, showing the steady changes of uniform and covering periods that are not familiar to the general public. The closest attempt was made over seventy years ago by Richard and Herbert Knötel and Herbert Sieg’s Handbuch der Uniformkunde, published in 1937. While this book has become the main primer for anyone wanting to study military uniforms, its coverage stops prior to World War II.

The aim of this book is not to challenge this classic reference work but to complement it. The general history of the German Army and its uniforms presented here uses contemporary photography rather than drawings, showing the uniforms and equipment as they really appeared. In addition, by including a general history and a description of the uniforms it is possible to understand the latter in their context and examine the reasons why particular styles were retained, replaced, or reworked during periods in the existence of the German Army. It was impossible to include every single type of uniform, insignia, headgear, and equipment used in the last 130 or so years; however, this work attempts to illustrate styles and traditions that have been handed down from the earliest days to today’s German Army. Hopefully this book will be a useful reference to the novice as well as the advanced military historian.

Prussia’s Emergence as a Military Power

In the decades following the decline of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia emerged as the dominant player in Central European politics. Prussia had first been settled and Germanized during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the Teutonic Knights, a military Order of German monks that overran the Slavs in the region. The Knights were eventually defeated by the Poles and Lithuanians at the battle of Tannenberg in 1410; however, in the course of the next century the Hohenzollern dynasty that ruled Brandenburg (with Berlin its seat of power) came to dominate Pomerania, Silesia, West Prussia, and eventually much of the Rhineland and Westphalia.

Germany’s military heritage was carefully created by a succession of Prussian rulers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The first of these was the great Elector, Frederick Wilhelm (1640–88), who recognized that a standing army with a professional officer corps was the key to the development of a powerful state in his remote part of the Empire. His grandson, Frederick Wilhelm I (1713–40), doubled the size of his professional army to ninety thousand and added a trained reserve of conscripted peasants, forming one of the most modern and efficient fighting armies in eighteenth-century Europe. The Army was supported through heavy taxation, which consumed 80 per cent of peacetime state revenues. Frederick II (1740–86), known to posterity as Friedrich der Große (Frederick the Great) or “Alte Fritz”, raised the strength of the Prussian Army to 150,000 and fought a series of wars between 1740 and 1763. By wresting control of the province of Silesia from Habsburg Austria, Prussia had become one of the most powerful continental states and a rival to the Habsburgs for domination over the myriad of German kingdoms and provinces.

The officer corps and its aristocratic character were established early in the eighteenth century as Prussian kings tried to gain the support of aristocrats, known as Junkers, by permitting them virtual control over the selection of officers. A cadet school was established in Berlin in 1733 to train sons of Junkers to be officers. Eventually the officer corps was on its way to becoming the most privileged social class in Prussia.

The militarism of Prussia inspired a multitude of feelings–respect, fear and hatred–among other European states and peoples. Under the strong leadership of a self-perpetuating and career-oriented general staff, the Prussian Army rarely had to endure any interference in its affairs by the civil government. However, the Army’s failure to reform and lack of preparedness after the death of Frederick II in 1786 led to its decisive defeat by Napoleon Bonaparte’s forces at Jena in October 1806.

General Gerhard von Scharnhorst oversaw the revitalization of the Army in the years following Jena. Reforms included ending dependence on mercenaries and introducing compulsory military service. The officer corps was expanded to include commoners, and officers were encouraged to take greater initiative in battle. The new Prussian Army distinguished itself at the battle of Leipzig in 1813 and again at Waterloo in 1815, whe...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS
• INTRODUCTION TO PART 1 - The Kaiser’s Army, 1870–1919
• INTRODUCTION TO PART 2 - Germany’s Armies, 1919 to the Present Day
• APPENDIX A - UNIFORM PLATES OF THE IMPERIAL GERMAN ARMY
• APPENDIX B - UNIFORM PLATES OF THE IMPERIAL GERMAN COLONIAL TROOPS
• APPENDIX C - UNIFORM PLATES OF THE IMPERIAL GERMAN ARMY DURING WORLD WAR I
• APPENDIX D - THE PRUSSIANIZATION OF THE AMERICAS: A BRIEF OVERVIEW
• APPENDIX E - UNIFORM PLATES OF THE PROVISIONAL REICHSWEHR (1919–1921)
• APPENDIX F - UNIFORMS OF THE GERMAN ARMY DURING THE THIRD REICH (1933–1945)
• APPENDIX G - UNIFORMS OF THE NATIONALEN VOLKSARMEE OF THE DDR
• APPENDIX H - UNIFORMS OF THE BUNDESHEER (1955–2005)
• APPENDIX I - USE OF THE ARMY-STYLE FIELD-GREY UNIFORMS BY THE GERMAN NAVY (1921–1945)
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• GLOSSARY