Sleeve Eagles of the German Railway

The Deutsche Reichsbahn (German National Railway) was one of the major uniformed civilian or "civil service" branches of the German government. It was a branch of the Reichsverkehrsministerium (National Transportffraffic Ministry), headed by the Reichsverkehrsminister (National Minister of Transport). At the time the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler came into power in January 1933, this position was held by Paul Freiherr von Eltz-Riibenach, who had been Minister of Transport since June 1932.1 At this time the German National Railway (then called the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft, or German National Railway Company) was headed by Dr.-lng. Julius Dorpmuller, who had been appointed Generaldirektor der Deutsche ReichsbahnGesellschaft on 4 June 1926.

Dr. Julius Dorpmuller was appointed Minister of Transport by Hitler on 2 February 1937, replacing Freiherr von Eltz-Rubenach - who had been "retired" after declining to accept the NSDAP Golden Party Badge awarded to him by the Fuhrer on 30 January. Dorpmuller remained in this position until the fall of Germany in 1945. As of 10 February 1937, the title of the Deutsche Reichshahn-Gesellschaft was officially shortened to Deutsche Reichsbahn.

As was the case with virtually all German military, political, and government organizations, the uniforms and insignia of the German Railway underwent repeated changes during the brief lifetime of the Third Reich. Basic uniforms, collar tabs and shoulder boards were prescribed in 1937, and significant changes were made in early 1941 (including an entirely new series of collar tabs, and some new shoulder board designs). Somewhat later in 1941, more radical changes were made to the shoulder boards. To make matters even more confusing, a mixture of the various official patterns of Railway uniforms and insignia were worn until the war's end in 1945 and "regulations" appeared to have been virtually ignored on a widespread basis. Railway rank insignia (collar tabs and shoulder boards) will be examined in a future article. This installment will look at the distinctive sleeve eagles worn by many - but by no means all - uniformed German Railway personnel during the war years.

On 1 September 1941, new Railway sleeve eagles were introduced for wear on the upper left arm of the dark blue service uniform.? These eagles were to replace a series of special cuff titles which had only been introduced a few months earlier and were therefore very short-lived even by Third Reich standards. Those cuff titles will be touched upon briefly later herein. The new sleeve eagles were intended to show the wearer's regional/area assignment within the organizational structure of the Deutsche Reichsbahn. Their design took the form of a shield-shaped patch of black cloth (flat across the top and rounded at the bottom) bearing a golden-yellow eagle and swastika, with the eagle facing to its right and having outstretched wings. Below the eagle was the name designation of the wearer's assignment in golden-yellow Roman letters (Antiquaschrift), with the wording following the curve of the lower patch edge. In the great majority of cases, the insignia was machine-woven in artificial silk thread in the so-called "Be Vo" style. A few original examples (mostly in foreign areas) were machine-embroidered in yellow cotton thread on a wool base, but this pattern is seldom encountered.

The most often-encountered examples of these 1941-pattern Railway sleeve eagles are those which denoted the Reichsbahndirektion (National Railway Directorate) - abbreviated "RBD" - to which the wearer was assigned. These Directorates were the regional zones/territories into which Germany proper was divided for the administration of the German National Railway system. As of about 1940, there were some thirty-one such Directorates (RBDs) within Greater Germany. Each of them was further assigned a number (1 through 31) in addition to the name of the city in which the headquarters of the individual Directorate was located. This same number - in the form of silver or gold metal numerals - was used on the shoulder boards of Bahnpolizei/Bahnschutzpolizei (Railway Police) personnel who provided security for the railway system in each Directorate. Continued...

Clyde R. Davis, "Sleeve Eagles of the German Railway", Military Advisor, Bender Publishing, 2005

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