English: WW2 Third Reich Police emblem. Green "police eagle" (hellgrün Polizeiadler) insignia for the Schutzpolizei des Reiches, the State (Reich) protection police of Nazi Germany, a branch of the Ordnungspolizei: wreathed national eagle with swastika (Reichsadler mit Hakenkreuz), machine embroidered cloth sleeve patch badge (Ärmelabzeichen). 10 x 8 cm. See colour and design in Uniform Eagle Identification Guide at www.germandaggers.com. Item in the collection of the Museon, a museum for science and culture in The Hague, Netherlands. No known copyright restrictions.

Sleeve Insignia for the Ordnungspolizei in Nazi Germany

• Polizei Ärmeladler, police sleeve eagle
• The basic design of the Hoheitsabzeichen (National emblem) of Nazi Germany was a spread imperial eagle (Reichsadler) over a swastika (Hakenkreuz). The police version was a swastika eagle enclosed in a wreath of oak leaves. This wreathed Polizeiadler ("police eagle") was worn as a cap badge and on the left sleeve by all uniformed police.
• "World War II German Police Units" by Gordon Williamson: All enlisted ranks wore a machine-embroidered Policestyle national emblem of a wreathed eagle-and-swastika on the left upper sleeve. This was in the Truppenfarbe for their branch, except for a black swastika, and worked on a backing of their uniform colour. For officer ranks the eagle was hand-embroidered in silver thread, and for general officers it was worked in goldcoloured thread. Enlisted ranks’ eagles would often have the district name embroidered in an arc above, though this was not universal, and was supposed to be removed in rural areas in late 1941.
• The collar patches and shoulderboards on OrPo tunics were backed, and the sleeve eagle (below the rank of Leutnant) was embroidered (except for a black swastika), in the Truppenfarbe, a colour code indicating the branch. Tunics and caps also had piping (Paspelierung) in these branch colours:
  • Schutzpolizei (protection police) – bright ‘police-green’
  • Schutzpolizei der Gemeinden (municipal protection police) – wine-red
  • Gendarmerie (rural) – orange
  • Feuerschutzpolizei (fire brigades) – carmine-red
  • Wasserschutzpolizei (Waterways protection police) – bright yellow (gold)
  • Verwaltungspolizei (administrative police) – light grey
  • Medical and veterinary personnel wore cornflower-blue and black respectively.