Ranks and insignia were used by the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) as paramilitary titles between approximately 1928 and the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945. Such ranks were held within the political leadership corps of the Nazi Party, charged with the overseeing of the regular Nazi Party members.
The first purpose of the Nazi Party's political ranks was to provide election district leadership positions during the years where the Nazis were attempting to come to power in Germany. After 1933, when the Third Reich had been established, Nazi Party ranks played a much more important role existing as a political chain of command operating side by side with the German government.
Contrary to modern-day cinema and layman perceptions regarding the Nazi Party, which often portrays all Nazis as wearing brown shirts with swastika armbands, Nazi ranks and titles were only used by a small minority within the Party, this being the political leadership corps. Regular Nazi Party members, unconnected with the political leadership, often wore no uniforms at all except for a standard Nazi Party Badge issued to all members (a golden version of this badge also existed for early Nazi Party members).
The history of Nazi Party ranks and insignia can be divided into the ranks used during several different time periods as well as the positions held by senior Nazis who were, by default, the supreme leaders of the Party regardless of what title they chose to call themselves by.
Early Nazi Party titles
The early titles used by the Nazi Party were far removed from their late 1930s and World War II counterparts. Between 1921 and 1924, considered the earliest time period that the Nazi Party existed, there were no titles or ranks used by the regular Nazi Party members although several members choose to wear World War I uniforms at party meetings. When Adolf Hitler replaced Anton Drexler as the leader of the Nazi Party, Hitler began calling himself by the title of Führer (Leader), thus establishing the first formal Nazi Party titles. A position of Deputy Führer (Stellvertreter des Führers), held by Rudolf Hess was created shortly thereafter, as well as a few administrative titles such as Party Secretary and Party Treasurer, which had become formal titles by the time of the abortive Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923.
The Nazi Party was disbanded between 1923 and 1925, but upon returning the very first uniform and insignia regulations were published, albeit for the Nazi Party's paramilitary group the Sturmabteilung (SA). These early regulations created some of the earliest paramilitary titles used by the Nazis, among them Gruppenführer and Oberführer, with the regular rank and file of the SA known by the title of Mann. These titles were confined to the SA while the rest of the Nazi Party still had no formal ranks and insignia except for the titles used by senior Nazi leaders such as Hitler.
Between 1925 and 1929, it became common for Nazis to wear makeshift paramilitary uniforms at Party rallies and during this time the SA expanded its own system of insignia as did the fledgling SS (Schutzstaffel), which had begun to appear as a force within the Party. As the Nazis gained more support throughout Germany, and moved outward from their power base in Munich, regional Nazi cells began to appear in such major cities as Stuttgart, Berlin, and Heidelberg. These "local Nazis" often adopted their own uniforms and titles with little standardisation from the main Nazis operated out of Munich.
The first formal Nazi Party rank and insignia regulations were published in 1930 although standardisation across the Nazi Party did not occur until 1932. Even then it met with limited success since regional Nazi leaders, far removed from Hitler in Munich, frequently spent little effort enforcing uniform guidelines and, in some cases, outright ignored them. The early regulations called for the Nazi Party to be divided into two levels—the Politische Leitung (political leadership) and the Partei Mitglieder (party membership) with political leaders adopting standard uniforms and insignia. Hitler and his senior entourage were actually not included in the uniform regulations and continued to wear paramilitary uniforms of their own choosing without special insignia. The Nazi Party paramilitary groups, such as the SA and SS, also by this time had their own uniform and insignia regulations separate from the main Nazi Party.
The first formal Nazi Party ranks were therefore as follows:
By 1932, the Nazi Party's uniform regulations had included a series of braided shoulder boards to be worn in conjunction with Nazi collar insignia. The next major change to Nazi uniforms would occur in 1934, a year after the Nazis had come to power in Germany.
Nazi Germany political positions
In 1933, the Nazi Party took national power in Germany and began a process known as Gleichschaltung to completely merge the civilian government of Germany with the political leadership of the Party. After the Night of the Long Knives in 1934, the Nazi Party underwent a major reorganisation as a prelude to Nazi leadership members merging their own positions with local, state, and federal government establishments.
The first step in this process was to divide the Nazi Party into several "levels", which were designed to act independently from each other. These levels in turn were:
Ortsgruppen (Local level – German towns and cities)
Kreisleitung (District level – German counties)
Gauleitung (Regional level – German states and their provinces)
Reichsleitung (National level – German nation)
Nazi Party political leaders were to choose a level in which they would make a career. Each level of the Nazi Party was self-contained and separate from other levels. While, in theory, this was intended to avoid jurisdictional conflict, the result was that the level leaderships ignored the wishes of the others and, in some cases, came into direct conflict. Hitler and the senior Nazi leaders were also "outside the chain", giving orders to all levels simultaneously and sometimes different party levels were given orders to carry out the same task. This caused high levels of in-fighting and backstabbing in Nazi leadership circles, to such a degree that regulations had to be introduced preventing deputies from succeeding their own superiors therefore to discourage subordinates from intentionally sabotaging their leaders.
The new Nazi Party levels called for several new ranks and the Nazi Party titles were overhauled with several new positions. Some positions were duplicated on each level of the Party while others were unique to the local, county, state, or national level. The Nazis also created a supreme political rank, known as Reichsleiter, considered the top rank of the Reichsleitung (national) level, as well as the senior-most political rank in the party next to Hitler himself.
In all, the following were the primary Nazi political staff ranks used between 1933 and 1939:
Further additions included the creation of several positional titles, which were not actual ranks but merely titles that a Nazi Party political leader could hold in addition to their own formal rank. There was at this time no outward system to denote these special titles, other than verbal and written correspondence. This would change in 1939 with the creation of the Nazi Party's armband system.
The system of Nazi Party ranks adopted in 1934 would remain unchanged throughout the remainder of the 1930s. It was not until 1939, at the start of World War II, that Nazi Party ranks would change again for a final time.
Nazi ranks during World War II
The final pattern of Nazi Party ranks was designed in 1938 by Robert Ley, who personally oversaw the development of Nazi Party insignia through his position as Reichs Organisation Leader of the NSDAP, and put into effect in mid-1939. The new insignia pattern was a vast overhaul of previous designs beginning with a standardised set of twenty-eight Nazi Party ranks that were to be uniform across all levels of the Party. To denote membership in a particular "level" of the Nazi Party (local, county, regional, or national) collar tabs would display a particular colour on which the actual rank insignia would then be displayed.
The rank insignia for Gauleiter and Reichsleiter, before and after the 1939 insignia change
This new design was intended to eliminate the manner in which different levels of the Nazi Party separated themselves and allow for command across all Party lines. For instance, an Abschnittsleiter (Section leader) in the Ortsgruppen (local) level would now be seen as outranking and could issue directives to a junior rank, such as Arbeitsleiter (Work leader) even if the junior rank served in a higher echelon of the Nazi Party, such as on the Gau (regional) or Reich (national) level. The vast array of new ranks also allowed for a military appearance to the Nazi Party, in particular during World War II when political leaders were exempt from conscription. More ranks also involved more opportunity for promotion and served as a means to distinguish highly successful political leaders from others who might hold the same position in the Nazi Party.
Within each level of the Party, there was a cap on the highest possible rank one could achieve. The heads of the lower levels, the Ortsgruppenleiter and the Kreisleiter, now held standard Nazi Party ranks in addition to their leadership titles. The positions of Gauleiter and Reichsleiter held their own special insignia and these two positions were considered outside the promotion tier and were available only by direct appointment from Hitler. Gauleiters and Reichsleiters also outranked all other Party members, regardless of standard Nazi Party ranks. Thus, the highest possible rank in each level of the Party was as follows:
(*) The rank of Gauleiter was the senior-most rank of the Gau level but outside the regular promotion tier.
Between 1939 and 1942, these new uniform regulations were slow to be implemented and Nazi Party leaders can frequently be seen in photographic evidence wearing pre-1939 insignia well after Ley had introduced the final insignia pattern. It was not until 1943 that most Nazi Party members had completely converted to the new insignia patterns.
By the start of World War II, Nazi Party paramilitary groups had also been expanding and developing their own uniform designs, such as SS uniforms and insignia as well as uniforms used by such other Nazi groups such as the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK), Organisation Todt, and many others. In addition, as the Nazi Party and the German government became one and the same, each German ministry had the option to develop a standardised uniform and dress code with a state employee also having the choice to wear a Nazi Party uniform, a uniform of a Nazi paramilitary group (such as the SS or SA), or (if the person was a reservist in the military) a uniform of the Wehrmacht. This created an extremely confusing array of titles, ranks, and uniforms, which has also caused historical difficulty in determining the various positions and titles that senior members of the German government held.
The final pattern of Nazi Party rank insignia, used from 1939 through 1945
In addition to the array of Nazi titles and ranks there also existed the original government of Germany to include such historic positions as Burgermeister (town mayor). Such individuals could also hold the approximate equivalent of a Nazi Party position or be unconnected to the Party. Through the process of Gleichschaltung, Nazi officials existed side by side with local government authorities with the local government existing as a rubber stamp to Nazi designs.
Armband system
The "armband system" was instituted by the Nazi Party in 1939 at the same time that the political leadership ranks were expanded into their final form. The purpose of the armband system was to denote positional titles within the Nazi Party in contrast to a party member's political rank.[3]
There were three groupings of armbands, classified as "operational", "administrative", and "command". The operational armbands were used by Nazi Party political leaders on the local and county levels and were worn by those Party leaders directly engaged in implementing Party policies to the public. During World War II, this was most often associated with food rationing, war relief efforts, and civil defence.
The administrative armbands were worn by office staffs across all levels of the party, although mostly were used by the regional staffs of the Gauleiters. The third, and least common of the armbands, were the command armbands worn by the Deputy Gauleiters, Gauleiters, and Reichsleiters.
The Nazi Party armbands were intended for immediate implementation upon the outbreak of World War II in 1939, although it was not until 1943 that the system was in total effect. Even then, photographic evidence reveals it was not uncommon for some political leaders to simply wear the pre-1939 bare swastika armband, with some photographs as late as 1945 revealing political leaders failing to wear the appropriate Nazi positional armband.
Nazi Party political armbands (1943)
By pairing up a wearer's political collar tabs and armband, it was possible to determine exactly what their position and responsibilities were within the Nazi Party political leadership corps; the armband system was also used to differentiate between Party leaders who may have held the same political ranks but were entrusted with vastly different responsibilities. For instance, a Hauptbereichsleiter who was serving as the Kreisleiter of a German county, would wear a more elaborate armband than a Nazi Party member of the same rank who was on the administrative staff of a Gauleitung.
On the local level of the Nazi Party, political armbands were often used to denote those Nazis holding the positions of Blockleiter and Zellenleiter. A further political position, unique only to the local level of the Nazi Party, was that of Betriebsobmann, which was a type of Shop Steward position. At the top tier of the operational armbands was a unique armband worn by both the Ortsgruppenleiter and the Kreisleiter
Administrative armbands were used across all levels of the Nazi Party, beginning with the position of Mitarbeiter, which was a catch-all staff position encompassing a wide variety of duties. Mitarbeiter had itself been a political rank prior to 1939, after which time the rank was phased out of the Nazi Party but survived as a political position. Leadership administrative armbands were worn by Office Leaders (Amtsleiters and Stellenleiters), of which there were eight levels of hierarchy.
In all, the Nazi political offices, denoted by special armbands, were as follows:
A leader of a political office was known as a Leiter followed by the office name. For instance, Leiter eines Sachgebietes would indicate the leader of an administrative area office.
Command armbands matched up directly with the positions of Gauleiter and Reichsleiter, each of which was denoted by its own unique armband. The political position of Deputy Gauleiter (Stellvertreter Gauleiter) was phased out as a political rank in 1939 (explaining why there was no "one leaf" Gauleiter insignia during World War II), but survived as a political armband denoting status as a Deputy Regional Leader.
The operational, administrative, and command armbands were utilised across all levels of the Nazi Party (local, county, regional, and national) with some armbands applying to multiple levels simultaneously and others specific to a particular Party level. In addition, depending on the specific duties of the political leader in question, an alternate positional title could be implied by a particular armband. When paired up with party member's political rank, this mixture of political titles and alternate positions resulted in a confusing array of titles and nomenclature.
The various political armband distribution, with primary designation listed first, was as follows
Albert Speer (far left) wearing the uniform of Organisation Todt. Speer, who was a Hauptdienstleiter in the NSDAP, chose to wear a uniform with little insignia rather than a full uniform of the Nazi Party.The standard uniform of Joseph Goebbels, consisting of a brown Nazi Party jacket, with no insignia, and a bare swastika armband. This generic "catch-all" style uniform was worn by many top Nazis who held cabinet and ministry level positions in the German government.
The senior leadership of the Nazi Party were intentionally removed from Nazi Party political ranks, with such senior leaders unquestionably above and outranking all other members of the Party. This concept has been interpreted by historians[who?] to imply that the leadership was the "spring" from which Nazi promotions, ranks, and awards were granted, to be bestowed upon the lesser members of the Party. Under this concept, Hitler and his inner circle needed no grand titles, heaps of awards, or elaborate uniforms since they were already known as the most senior members of the state and party. It is for this reason that Hitler and senior Nazis are frequently seen in photographic and film evidence as wearing uniforms with little insignia or uniforms without excessive decorations. This set Hitler apart from other dictators of the time, such as Benito Mussolini who appointed himself First Marshal of the Empire and wore a full Italian military uniform with many state and military decorations displayed.
Hitler, who served as Führer of the Nazi Party, held the absolute highest possible Nazi Party position. Albert Speer (in his book Inside the Third Reich) remarked that Hitler was the only party member to wear a solid gold "Golden Eagle of Sovereignty Pin" on his civilian jackets (every other member wearing the round party badge), though the jacket design itself did not differ from other civilian jackets of the time. This "Führer Badge" was the only unique insignia ever created to denote Hitler's rank as Führer.[4][pageneeded]
Prior to 1939, Hitler wore a brown paramilitary uniform, considered the uniform of the Oberste SA-Führer (Supreme Storm Trooper Commander). Upon the outbreak of World War II, Hitler adopted a grey army style uniform, without any particular insignia, with Hitler pledging that he was the “first soldier” of the German Reich and would wear his army style uniform until "victory has been achieved or I will not survive the outcome".
Heinrich Himmler was a senior member of the Nazi Party and is most well known as Reichsführer-SS; as a result, most of Himmler's attire is connected to his SS uniform. In addition to being Reichsführer-SS and a Reichsleiter, towards the end of World War II he held numerous high level positions including Commander of the Replacement Home Army and General Plenipotentiary for the entire Reich's administration (Generalbevollmächtigter für die Verwaltung). Himmler however, never chose to wear a Nazi Party uniform and all photographs of him are in either civilian clothes or in his SS uniform.
Other high Nazi positions, that did not entail any particular insignia, included the office of Deputy Führer held by Rudolf Hess until he personally flew his Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighter plane to Scotland and crash landed at Eaglesham in 1941. He was captured, imprisoned, and then sent to England. The office of Deputy Führer was thereafter abolished.
Martin Bormann held the title of Party Secretary, during which time he wore the uniform of a Reichsleiter. Bormann would later take up cabinet-level positions in the German government, and after receiving his (honorary) SS membership he wore the insignia of an SS-Obergruppenführer. Albert Speer, in his early days as the Party Architect, wore a brown Nazi party jacket similar to the insignia-less uniform that Joseph Goebbels wore throughout his career as Nazi Propaganda Minister. As for Speer, he would later adopt the uniform of Organisation Todt, and towards the end of World War II wore a senior Nazi Party political uniform through his position as Minister of Armaments.
Some senior Nazis did incorporate themselves into the standard Nazi Party rank system, but only at the highest levels. Robert Ley held the position of Reichsleiter and Julius Streicher was a Gauleiter. Hermann Göring is most associated with his rank of Reichsmarschall, but was also a Gruppenführer in the SA as well as the equivalent of a Reichsleiter through his position as Director of the Four Year Plan.
Comparison tables
In its simplest form, the Nazi Party command structure was divided into four basic levels: the general membership known as the Parteimitglieder, the political leadership corps known as the Politische Leiters, the upper command levels of the Party encompassed by the Gauleiters and Reichsleiters, and finally the position of Führer held solely by Adolf Hitler as supreme leader of the Party (a position of Deputy Führer also existed until 1941).
Political ranks
Apart from this basic organisation, the Nazi Party political ranks expanded over a period of twenty five years into a vast array of nomenclature denoted by a plethora of insignia and positions. From 1930 onward, this encompassed the political ranks, divided into the following time periods.
Führer is a German word meaning "leader" or "guide". As a political title, it is strongly associated with Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. Hitler officially styled himself der Führer und Reichskanzler after the death of President Paul von Hindenburg in 1934 and the subsequent merging of the offices of Reichspräsident and Reichskanzler.
A Gauleiter was a regional leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) who served as the head of a Gau or Reichsgau. Gauleiter was the third-highest rank in the Nazi political leadership, subordinate only to Reichsleiter and to the Führer himself. The position was effectively abolished with the fall of the Nazi regime on 8 May 1945.
Gruppenführer was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), first created in 1925 as a senior rank of the SA. Since then, the term Gruppenführer is also used for leaders of groups/teams of the police, fire departments, military and several other organizations.
The uniforms and insignia of the Schutzstaffel (SS) served to distinguish its Nazi paramilitary ranks between 1925 and 1945 from the ranks of the Wehrmacht, the German state, and the Nazi Party.
The Party Chancellery, was the name of the head office for the German Nazi Party (NSDAP), designated as such on 12 May 1941. The office existed previously as the Staff of the Deputy Führer but was renamed after Rudolf Hess flew to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate a peace agreement without Adolf Hitler's authorization. Hess was denounced by Hitler, his former office was dissolved, and the new Party Chancellery was formed in its place under Hess' former deputy, Martin Bormann.
Standartenführer was a Nazi Party (NSDAP) paramilitary rank that was used in several NSDAP organizations, such as the SA, SS, NSKK and the NSFK. First founded as a title in 1925, in 1928 it became one of the first commissioned NSDAP ranks and was bestowed upon those SA and SS officers who commanded a unit known as a Standarte, a unit equivalent to an army battalion and comprising 300–500 personnel.
The uniforms and insignia of the Sturmabteilung (SA) were Nazi Party paramilitary ranks and uniforms used by SA stormtroopers from 1921 until the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945. The titles and phrases used by the SA were the basis for paramilitary titles used by several other Nazi paramilitary groups, among them the Schutzstaffel (SS). Early SS ranks were identical to the SA, since the SS was originally considered a sub-organisation of the Sturmabteilung.
Scharführer was a title or rank used in early 20th century German military terminology. In German, Schar was one term for the smallest sub-unit, equivalent to a "troop", "squad", or "section". The word führer simply meant "leader".
The supreme SA leader, was the titular head of the Nazi Party's paramilitary group, the Sturmabteilung (SA).
Stabschef was an office and paramilitary rank in the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary stormtroopers associated with the Nazi Party. It was a rank and position held by the operating chief of the SA. The rank was equivalent to the rank of Generaloberst in the German Army and to General in the U.S. Army.
Julius Schreck was an early senior Nazi official and close confidant of Adolf Hitler.
Staffelführer was one of the first paramilitary ranks used by the German Schutzstaffel (SS) in the early years of that group's existence. The later SS rank of Staffelführer traces its origins to the First World War, where the title was used by commanding officers of the Deutsches Heer's Luftstreitkräfte aircraft squadrons initially named as Feldflieger Abteilung as observation-only units in 1914, and during 1916, became known as Staffeln.
Reichsleiter was the second-highest political rank in the Nazi Party (NSDAP), subordinate only to the office of Führer. Reichsleiter also functioned as a paramilitary rank within the NSDAP and was the highest rank attainable in any Nazi organisation.
Political decorations of the Nazi Party were medals and awards issued by the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) between 1920 and 1945. Political awards were authorised for wear on any paramilitary uniform of Nazi Germany, as well as civilian attire, but were generally discouraged on Wehrmacht military uniforms. The Waffen-SS freely wore both political awards and military decorations on their uniforms.
The Uschla was an internal Nazi Party tribunal that was established by Adolf Hitler in 1925 to settle intra-party problems and disputes. After the Nazi seizure of power, the Uschla was renamed the Supreme Party Court in January 1934, under which title it functioned throughout the remainder of the Nazi regime until May 1945.
Kreisleiter was a Nazi Party political rank and title which existed as a political rank between 1930 and 1945 and as a Nazi Party title from as early as 1928. The position of Kreisleiter was first formed to provide German election district coordination and, after the Nazi assumption of power, the position became one of county municipal government, effectively replacing the traditional German government establishment.
Dienstleiter was a high-ranking Nazi Party political rank of Nazi Germany which existed between 1933 and 1945. The rank was first created after the Nazi assumption of power and served as the second highest rank of the Reichsleitung Nazi Party organizational level, subordinate to the Reichsleiter.
Befehlsleiter was a Nazi Party political rank of Nazi Germany.
Fritz Wächtler was a Nazi Party official and politician who served as the Gauleiter of the eastern Bavarian administrative region of Gau Bayreuth. Trained as a primary school teacher, he also became head of the National Socialist Teachers League (NSLB) in 1935. During World War II he held the honorary rank of SS-Obergruppenführer and was the Reich Defense Commissioner of Gau Bayreuth. Prone to alcoholic outbursts and unpopular with the local residents, he eventually ran afoul of Martin Bormann in a political intrigue. Wächtler was executed on orders from Führer Headquarters near the end of the war on 19 April 1945.
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