Schutzpolizei des Reiches (National Protection Police)
Schutzpolizei der Gemeinden (Municipal Protection Police)
Gendarmerie (Rural Police)
Verwaltungspolizei (Administrative Police)
Kolonialpolizei (Colonial Police)
Wasserschutzpolizei (Water Protection Police)
Feuerschutzpolizei (Fire Protection Police)
Feuerwehren (fire brigades, auxiliary Fire Protection Police)
Luftschutzpolizei (Air Protection Police)
Technische Nothilfe (Technical Emergency Service)
Polizei Fliegerstaffeln (Police Flying Units – liaison and transport)
Sonderpolizei (Special Police units not directly under control of Hauptamt Orpo, including:)
Bahnschutzpolizei (Railway Protection Police)
Reichsbahnfahndungsdienst (Railway Criminal Investigation Dept)
Postschutz (Postal Protection)
Funkschutz (Broadcast Protection)
Bergpolizei (Mines Police)
Deichpolizei (Dyke & Dams Police)
Hilfspolizei (Auxiliary Police)
The national command office for the Ordnungspolizei was in Berlin. The position of Chef der Ordnungspolizei was originally held by SS-Oberstgruppenführer und Generaloberst der Polizei Kurt Daluege, replaced in 1943 by SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei Alfred Wunnenberg. Although Daluege remained the senior officer, to all intents and purposes operational control of the Orpo after this date passed to Wünnenberg. The Order Police Main Office was divided into numerous senior and subordinate departments or Ämter:
Amt I – Kommandoamt. Headed by SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Polizei Anton Diermann until late 1944, when Diermann was replaced by SS-Brigaf u. Genmaj der Polizei Hans Flade. This Command department was further subdivided into three subordinate Amtsgruppen:
Amtsgruppe I comprised sub-offices covering aspects such as finance, clothing, training, ordnance, equipment, etc.
Amtsgruppe II was responsible for personnel matters as well as ideological training.
Amtsgruppe III was the Police medical department.
Amt II – Verwaltung und Recht. Headed by SS-Gruppenführer und General der Polizei Ministerialdirektor Dr Werner Bracht, this Administrative & Rights department was also divided into three Amtsgruppen:
Amtsgruppe I was responsible for pay and allowances, pensions, budgeting, the Police legal code, and other administrative matters.
Amtsgruppe II covered registration and control of the population, theatres, cinemas and places of entertainment, trades and handicrafts, and traffic control.
Amtsgruppe III dealt with Police billeting and accommodation.
Amt III – Wirtschaftsverwaltungsamt. Headed by SS-Obergruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS und Polizei August Frank, this Economic department was subdivided into four Amtsgruppen dealing with clothing and rations, finance and pay, quartering and billeting, and pensions and allowances. A fifth subsection also dealt with personnel matters.
Amt IV – Technische Nothilfe Headed by SS-Gruf u. Genlt der Polizei Willy Schmelcher, this branch was the technical emergency service of the SS and Police – effectively, its Engineering branch.
Amt V – Feuerwehren This was the fire brigades bureau, headed by Genmaj der Polizei Schnell.
Amt VI – Kolonialpolizei The colonial police, headed by SS-Ogruf u. Gen der Waffen-SS u. Polizei Karl von Pfeffer-Wildenbruch.
Amt VII – Technisches SS und Polizeiakademie The SS and Police technical training academy, headed by SS-Brigaf u. Genmaj der Polizei Prof Dr Hellmuth Gerloff.
As well as these main administrative offices, Hauptamt Orpo also included various inspectorates, and supervised many training schools.
Since 1919 Germany’s national territory had been divided into ‘military districts’ or Wehrkreise, numbered in Roman numerals – e.g. Wehrkreis III, with headquarters in Berlin, covered the Altmark, Neumark and Brandenburg. Their primary purpose had been as Army divisional recruitment and training commands, but with the creation of a unified state Police service its territorial structure was grafted on to this existing organization. In each Wehrkreis a Befehlshaber der Ordnungspolizei (BdO – Senior Order Police Commander) was appointed as the representative of the Hauptamt Orpo and of the regional Höhere SS und Polizei Führer (Higher SS & Police Leader). Amongst the staff allocated to the BdO was the Polizei Schulungsleiter; this individual equated roughly to the Soviet political commissar, with the task of ensuring that Police personnel were fully indoctrinated in the tenets of Nazism. Below the BdO in the organizational structure were a number of Kommandeure der Orpo, who answered to the BdO for the control of various sub-units of the Ordnungspolizei within a district or region.
In conversation with an Allgemeine-SS officer, a scarred Police colonel, Oberst Dr Nozieff (right), wears walking-out uniform with straight trousers and shoes. The sabre is of an earlier style used before the introduction of the Polizei Degen, but the photo shows the suspension strap emerging from under the pocket flap. The fine quality of the officer’s collar patches, and the hand-embroidered aluminium wire Police national emblem worn on the left sleeve, is evident. The peaked service cap has officer’s silver chin cords. (Josef Charita)
Police enlisted ranks’ shoulder straps: (left to right) Wachtmeister (1936–41), Oberwachtmeister (1941–45), Revieroberwachtmeister (1936–41), Hauptwachtmeister (1936–41), and Meister (1936–45). The cord across the base of NCOs’ straps – see second left – was only added in 1941. The outer cords were analagous to the Tresse on Wehrmacht shoulder straps. Although some minor branches had their own designs, the great majority of Police organizations used these patterns, with variations of colour. The inner cords are of wool in the uniform facing colour – here, as most often, brown; the outer cords are of silver (aluminium, either bright or matt) flecked with chevrons of brown; the rank ‘pips’ are aluminium; and all are worked on underlays of Truppenfarbe. The Wasserschutzpolizei differed slightly in that the basic ‘facing colour’ inner cords and the Truppenfarbe underlay were both bright yellow.
Before looking individually at the multifarious branches of the German Police, we list here their rank sequence, which mostly followed the same basic system. Rank titles in each of the diverse branches normally consisted of the basic rank designation followed by a suffix indicating the exact branch, e.g. Meister der Schutzpolizei, Hauptmann der Gendarmerie, etc. Ranks are listed from junior to senior:
| Police rank | Military equivalent |
| where appropriate | |
| Polizei Anwärter | (Private soldiers) |
| Unterwachtmeister | Unteroffizier |
| Wachtmeister | Unterfeldwebel |
| Oberwachtmeister | Feldwebel |
| Revierwachtmeister | – |
| Hauptwachtmeister | Oberfeldwebel |
| Meister | – |
| Obermeister | – |
The officer rank titles, from Leutnant up to Generaloberst der Polizei, nmirrored those of the Army and Air Force.
For all enlisted ranks these were woven on a base of the colour identifying the wearer’s branch, with silver-grey thread Litzen – the traditional German Army ‘Guard lace’ bars; the patches were edged with narrow silver-grey cord all round. For officer ranks, hand-embroidered silver wire Litzen were worked on a wool base in the branch colour, without cord edging. The base colours or Truppenfarben – equivalent to military Waffenfarben – were as follows:
Schutzpolizei – bright ‘police-green’
Schutzpolizei der Gemeinden – wine-red
Gendarmerie – orange
Feuerschutzpolizei – carmine-red
Wasserschutzpolizei – bright yellow
Verwaltungspolizei – light grey
Medical and veterinary personnel wore cornflower-blue and black respectively.
General officers initially wore collar patches in the same style as those of the Army, but with the ‘alt Larisch’ embroidery worked in gold thread on a police-green rather than a red base. In early 1942 Police generals were authorized new insignia based on the SS pattern, but executed in gold on police-green rather than silver on black, as follows:
SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Polizei – three oak leaves
SS-Gruppenführer u. Generalleutnant der Polizei – plus one ‘pip’
SS-Obergruppenführer u. General – plus two pips
SS-Oberstgruppenführer u. Generaloberst – plus three pips.
For junior enlisted ranks and NCOs, shoulder straps of rank differed markedly from those of the Army, Air Force and Waffen-SS. They were made on a base underlay of the appropriate Truppenfarbe which showed around the edges, but were of a bewildering variety. The basic design showed an inner core of four straight cords or braids in an appropriate solid colour – usually the uniform facing colour, so dark brown for the bulk of the Orpo – around which were two outer lengths of cord flecked with a fine chevron design. For the most junior ranks these outer cords were in the same colour as the central cord, with silver chevrons; for the Wachtmeister grades they were in silver flecked with facing-coloured chevrons. Senior NCOs or warrant officers – the Meister grades – wore straps with interwoven facing-coloured and chevron-flecked silver cords in the centre, in a diagonal pattern, surrounded by the usual chevron-flecked silver outer cords.
Ranks were indicated as described below, from junior to senior. Police ranks, like those of many other organizations, were revised at various times during the war, and the ranks listed here represent the final system, from the mid-point of the war onwards:
Polizei Anwärter – plain strap as described above
Unterwachtmeister – plain strap as above
Rottwachtmeister – as above, with silver braid loop around base
Wachtmeister – silver/chevron-fleck outer cords
Oberwachtmeister – silver/chevron-fleck outer cords around sides and base
Revieroberwachtmeister – as above, plus single silver pip
Hauptwachtmeister – as above, with two silver pips
Meister – diagonal interwoven central cords, facing colour and silver/chevron fleck, outer cords silver/chevron fleck.
Officer ranks wore military-pattern shoulder straps, with silver cords on an underlay in Truppenfarbe, and gilt rank pips:
Leutnant – straight silver cords on coloured underlay
Oberleutnant – as above, with single gilt pip
Hauptmann – as above, with two pips
Major – interwoven silver cords on coloured underlay
Oberstleutnant – as above, with single pip
Oberst – as above, with two pips
Generalmajor – interwoven gold/silver cords
Generalleutnant – as above, with single large silvered pip
General der Polizei – as above, with two pips
Generaloberst der Polizei – as above, with three smaller pips
A Hauptwachtmeister of Schutzpolizei supervises the installation of a sign showing the direction of the nearest air raid shelter (‘Zum öffentlichen/uftschutzraum’, with a red arrow). Note the enlisted ranks’ peaked service cap with a leather chin strap; the enlisted ranks’ collar patches with cord edging; the Police national emblem on the left sleeve, with a location name embroidered above in an arc; the large, unpleated skirt pockets of the tunic; the fine quality of his boots, more like officers’ riding boots than soldiers’ marching boots; and the Police dress bayonet, with its aluminium brocade Troddel shot with lines of black and red. (Joseph Charita)
A Police junior NCO in the mid-or late war years, wearing the grey-green field cap, and the M1943 field blouse issued to replace the more elaborate Police tunic – the contrast in shades suggests that this tunic is in Army field-grey. The cap was of the shape used by the Wehrmacht services other than the Army. From 1942 the top edge of the flap was piped in Truppenfarbe, but this example shows the earlier Y-shape of the green piping which followed both crests of the top fold and passed vertically down the front of the crown. The Police national emblem is machine-woven in silver-grey on black. Note that the collar Litzen are applied directly to the collar, without coloured base patches or silver-grey edging. (Josef Charita)
All enlisted ranks wore a machine-embroidered Police-style national emblem of a wreathed eagle-and-swastika on the left upper sleeve. This was in the Truppenfarbe for their branch, except for a black swastika, and worked on a backing of their uniform colour. For officer ranks the eagle was hand-embroidered in silver thread, and for general officers it was worked in gold-coloured thread.
Enlisted ranks’ eagles would often have the district name embroidered in an arc above, though this was not universal, and was supposed to be removed in rural areas in late 1941.
Members of the Police who were also members of the SS were authorized to display a set of embroidered SS-runes low on the left breast, in silver-grey or silver on a uniform-coloured backing.