Collar Insignia - Officers

The standard "collar tab" was called a Kragenpatte in German.  The term "patte" could refer to the entire insignia, or to just the backing.

 collarmap.gif (2940 bytes)

Doppellitze - (double braid)

mounted on

Kragenpatte (Collar patch)

The coloured stripes consisted of

Mittelstreife (Middle stripe)
and
Litzenspiegel (Braid mirrors)

The page on Enlisted Men's collar insignia provides a brief history of this insignia, and the many changes in such.  For officers, there appear to have been fewer changes, and while Enlisted Men's collar insignia was changed to create "universal" patterns, German officers retained their branch - affiliations throughout the war.

As the war progressed, officers did choose to wear Enlisted Men's uniforms and insignia while in the field, but the specific insignia authorized for wear did not seem to vary from the insignia described below.  There were no "universal" collar patches, either in field grey or "tropical" pattern, etc., for officers.

FIELD DRESS
wehrcoll.gif (1109 bytes)

Doppellitze - light grey artificial silk
Kragenpatte - dark green cloth to match the new collars
Mittelstreife - dark green to match the new collars
Litzenspiegel - waffenfarbe

FULL DRESS
waffcoll.gif (1090 bytes)

Doppellitze - aluminum
Kragenpatte - as above
Mittelstreife - as above
Litzenspiegel - as above

officercollar.jpg (8509 bytes)

Officers insignia was obviously of higher quality than that worn by enlisted men.  This example of a collar patch is in heavy metal wire.

officercoll2.jpg (9346 bytes)

Collar tabs for an armoured officer; pairs came from the manufacturer attached by thread as shown here.  Note the difference in construction compared to the patch above, particularly the coloured waffenfarbe stripes.

pzoff.jpg (13154 bytes)

As was true for Enlisted Men's collar patches, the tabs came in right and left pairs conforming to the shape of the collar.

fulldressof.jpg (36543 bytes)
Full dress collar tabs for an artillery officer.