Collar Tabs of the NSDAP

Because of my interest in Political Leader (PL) tabs and because I am always advertising for them in DG, I have received many letters and inquiries about these items. Many collectors are not aquainted with this area of collecting and in their correspondence I have noticed numerous misconceptions, incorrect identifications etc. This is understandable because of the lack of reference material in this area. About the only good reference is a copy of the Organization Book or a couple of books by Kahl and Altmark Publications; the former is expensive and the latter are (I think) out of print and hard to find. For the interested collector I would like to offer a brief explanation of these items, and to keep it brief I will concentrate on the "late style tabs which are the more attractive and most sought after by collectors, these were the style which were worn during the war.

The Party was organized on four levels: Ortsgruppen or Local level; Kreisleitung, or District; Gauleitung or Regional; and Reichsleitung or National. The tabs of each level have their own color scheme: Orts is light brown tab with blue piping, Kreis is dark brown with white piping, Gau is red with wine red piping and Reich is carmine with gold piping. Ranks are indicated by pips and oak leaves and each tab has an eagle at the top, except for a Political Leader candidate who is not a party member, who wears a completely blank tab. Also within each rank grade there are what might be called "upper grades and these are indicated by cloth litze in the case of pip grades and a horozontal row of oakleaves in the case of oakleaf grades. Starting at the bottom of the ranks there is the PL candidate non-Party member with the blank tab, then when he joins the party he is entitled to wear an eagle at the top of the tab, when promoted again he becomes an "Assistant" and wears one litze with the eagle, then when he is a good Nazi he gets a second litze and becomes a "Senior Assistant". After this are the piped grades and as he goes up in rank he gains pips and litzes, finally he goes into the oakleaf grades and the big time.

There was a limit to how high a rank an individual could advance in the "Level in which he worked. The highest rank on the Orts level is Oberabschnittsleiter; the highest for Kreis level is Dienstleiter and on both Gau and Reich level he can rise to Hauptbefehlsleiter and then to Gauleiter or Reichsleiter respectively.

* The 1943 Organization Book shows the Gau level going only as high as Oberbefehlsleiter and then to Gauleiter, however examples of Hauptbefehlsleiter on Gau level have been observed.

THE RANKS

27. Politischer Leiter-Anwarter (Nicht Pg.) (Political leader candidate, not party-member).

28. Politischer Leiter-Anwarter (Pg.) (Political leader candidate, party-member).

29. Helfer (Assistant).

30. Oberhelfer (Upperassistant).

31. Arbeitsleiter (Work-leader).

32. Ober-Arbeilslelter (Upper work-leader).

33. Haupt-Arbeitsleiter (Senior work-leader).

34. Bereitschaftsleiter (Alert-leader).

35. Ober-Bereitschaftsleiter (Upper alert-leader).

36. Haupt-Bereitschaftsleiter (Senior alert-leader).

37. Einsatzleiter (Action-leader).

38. Ober-Einsatzleiter (Upper action-leader).

39. Haupt-Einsatzleiter (Senior action-leader).

40. Gemeinschaftsleiter (Community-leader).

41. Ober-Gemeinschaftsleiter (Upper community-leader).

42. Haupt-Gemeinschaftsleiter (Senior community-leader).

43. Abschnittsleiter (Section-leader).

44. Ober-Abschnittsleiter (Upper section-leader).

(Following ranks on district-level)

45. Haupt-Abschnittsleiter (Senior section-leader).

46. Bereichsleiter (Zone-leader).

47. Ober-Bereichsleiter (Upper zone-leader).

48. Haupt-Bereichsleiter (Senior zone-leader).

49. Dienstleiter (Service-leader).

(Following ranks only on province-level and higher)

50. Ober-Dienstleiter (Upper service-leader).

51. Haupt-Dienstleiter (Senior service-leader).

52. Befehlsleiter (Command-leader).

53. Ober-Befehlsleiter (Chief command-leader).

55. Gauleiter.

(Following ranks only on state-level).

54. Haupt-Befehlsleiter (Senior command-leader).

56. Reichsleiter (State-leader).

The collar-patches were worn on both sides of the collar.

Leader candidates and Stammtiihrer (clan-leaders) of the Ordensburgen (political trainings centres for leader candidates of the NSDAP) wore shoulder-patches on both shoulders of brown or bronze wickwork on a yellow fabric surface, comparable with SA high leaders shoulderpatches. The clan-leaders wore the collar-patches of the party and stars on the shoulder-patches according to rank.

Bob Treend,"Collar Tabs of the NSDAP", Der Gauleiter", 1977