Incredible Photographs!!!

[alterfritz]

Originally Posted by pitsword

Some of those boy's must have gotten a terrible headache trying to figure out what color uniform to wear each day.

If you read a bit about the 3rd Reich organization, you will find out that there was a terrible quarrel between individuals for power as well as between agencies, party or gouvernment. It was far from the "strictly organized central power" we often associate with it. Over the 12 years agencies were reorganized, taken over by others or disappeared. Terribly inefficient, and it continued throughout the war, wasting resources sometimes on a grand scale, for example the struggle about the use of the ME 262 fighter or the, in the end, inefficient development of the V2 which was a big prize for either the Wehrmacht or the SS which both wanted control over the project.

I think that people in brown uniform can safely be assumed to be party members, not necessarily with a gouvernment position. Joseph Goebels for example was frequently seen in a brown uniform, although I am reasonably sure that the gouvernment position of "propaganda minister" didn't come with a uniform. Same with Hitler, he was mostly seen in a brown party uniform, probably because there was no Wehrmacht Uniform for the rank of "groesster Feldherr aller Zeiten" , not to mention the million of SA men in the early years.

Black of course is Allgmeine SS, whereas gray with black collar is usually Waffen SS. An interesting detail here is that the black SS uniform was made by Hugo Boss, which is a German company, most people think it's French or Italian. Dark blue is navy, if there's big white patches, on the side of the pants, kinda like the old US cavalry or big white lapels < I think it's Luftwaffe, see Herman Goering, although he is mostly seen in fancy made up uniforms. Gray uniforms with red accents are OKW staff and high ranking soldiers, Fieldmarshall, Generaloberst and the like would have their actual ranking symbols over some sort of red patch. White uniforms, I dont know, probably the chief waiter or so j/k.

There are a bunch of newly recolourized movies from WWII (even WWI, I recently acquired a documentary in 7 parts or so) you should search on the internet, it is really VERY interesting to see those pictures in colour for the first time. It sort of makes those people human as opposed to the black and white specters as which they usually appears. At least to me this is the impressioin that colour makes. Check it out if you have the opportunity, it is really interesting to see it in colour.