Police Gendarmerie Sleeve Eagle Köln

Product Description: This Police Gendarmerie Sleeve Eagle Köln is a great, uniform removed piece. It’s made of typical bluish-green Polizei wool, with a beautifully detailed German Police wreathed eagle and swastika emblem machine embroidered in orange and black thread, for Gendarmerie. The embroidery is nice and tight. Above the bird, the city name “Köln” (Cologne) is embroidered in Gothic lettering. There is some moth grazing to the wool surface in a couple of pencil eraser sized spots, and a couple of traces of the stitching that once affixed this to the uniform sleeve of a German police officer. The reverse of this Police Gendarmerie sleeve eagle Köln shows a thin, woven, black fabric backing, as well as the reverse of the embroidery. This appealing patch makes for an attractive display, and is in excellent condition.

Historical Description: The German Polizei (Police) had very many different roles before and during WWII. There were many different Police organizations that worked together for the purposes of law enforcement and maintaining order. The Ordnungspolizei was the regular police. Under the Ordnungspolizei umbrella were the various Schutzpolizei (protection police) units, including state, municipal, rural, and traffic police. There was also the Water Protection Police and the Fire Protection Police. Also within the Ordnungspolizei jurisdiction was the Hilfspolizei, a category which included volunteer fire departments, Air Raid Protection Police, postal protection, and Factory Protection Police, among other groups. Police batallions of the Ordnungspolizei deployed to occupied territories during WWII, where their duties included the roundup and elimination of Jews and other civilian groups the Nazis regarded as undesirable. Besides the Ordnungspolizei, there was also the Sicherheitspolizei, made up of the combined forces of the criminal police and the Gestapo secret police. Also under police jurisdiction was the Sicherheitsdienst, the intelligence service of the Nazi party and SS. Starting in 1943, all German police forces were placed under the command of SS leader Heinrich Himmler. The various Polizei organizations all had distinctive uniforms and insignia which indicated rank, organizational assignment, and occupational assignment. Headgear of Polizei units ranged from the mostly ornamental “Tschako” helmets of civilian police forces, to field caps and combat helmets. As with all Third Reich uniformed organizations, the Polizei had their own ID documents and awards, as well.