ORPO

Posted 27 December 2003 11:43
The Landespolizei were the state police of the individual German Länder, such as Baden, Bavaria, Prussia, etc. The Landespolizei were barracks Polizeisoldaten who were highly militarized with armor and artillery. Many LAPO units were transferred en-masse into the Wehrmacht in 1935-36. The remaining LAPO units were absorbed into the Ordnungspolizei after nationalization of the police in 1936.

This particular NCO tunic is the uniform of the Bavarian LAPO, circa 1935. It is stahlgrün color with schwarz collar and cuffs. The breeches were schwarz along with the belts and boots. Notice the striking similarity to the standardized Ordnungspolizei tunic introduced in 1936. No doubt Himmler's stint as head of the Bavarian Secret Police had an effect on his uniform selection for the ORPO.

George

"You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself." Ricky Nelson


Posts: 2456 | Registered: 25 October 2003

ORPO

Posted 27 December 2003 11:51
Sewn-in shoulder boards for LAPO Oberwachtmeister with one versilberten Stern. The outer cords are silver wire and the inner cords are green. All buttons are plain nickel.

George

"You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself." Ricky Nelson


Posts: 2456 | Registered: 25 October 2003

ORPO

Posted 27 December 2003 11:54
Tall black collar, fastened with three hooks & eyes, with machine sewn LAPO collar tabs. The Litzen are grey with green bars and the center embroidery and backing are black to match the collar.

George

"You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself." Ricky Nelson


Posts: 2456 | Registered: 25 October 2003

ORPO

Posted 27 December 2003 12:01
Black functional cuff with single Bavarian style Litzen stripe. Notice that the stripe is sewn to the cuff instead of above it as on later ORPO tunics.

George

"You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself." Ricky Nelson


Posts: 2456 | Registered: 25 October 2003

ORPO

Posted 27 December 2003 12:06
Heer style breast eagle in grey Bevo style embroidery. This eagle was only introduced on the Bavarian LAPO tunic around 1934 or 1935. I am uncertain of the exact date.

George

"You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself." Ricky Nelson


Posts: 2456 | Registered: 25 October 2003

ORPO

Posted 27 December 2003 12:11
Back of tunic showing standard four panel cut with a box tail. Notice there are three buttons on each side of the boxed tail. The top two buttons are belt supports.

George

"You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself." Ricky Nelson


Posts: 2456 | Registered: 25 October 2003

Dave Cameron
Posted 27 December 2003 15:56
Well, now this tunic is a new twist from the usual topics! Was it typical of the time to sew the Litzen to the cuff instead of above it? A fascinating and most interesting tunic to see, thanks for sharing!
Posts: 1673 | Location: Colorado | Registered: 08 April 2001

ORPO

Posted 27 December 2003 16:47
Dave,

The Bavarian LAPO sewed their cuff Litzen directly to the cuff itself. Also notice that the Litzen is distinctly Bavarian and different from the later ORPO cuff embroidery. Here is a photo of a Bavarian LAPO NCO holding an appointment as "der Spiess" wearing the dual cuff stripes on his black cuffs.

George

"You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself." Ricky Nelson


Posts: 2456 | Registered: 25 October 2003

ORPO

Posted 27 December 2003 16:57
One more photo of a group of Bavarian LAPO in greatcoats. Notice that the cuff stripe was only worn on one cuff on the greatcoat. Folks holding these appointments (not earned rank) in the ORPO wore the cuff stripe on both sleeves on their greatcoats.

George

"You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself." Ricky Nelson


Posts: 2456 | Registered: 25 October 2003

JWotka
Posted 28 December 2003 16:47
Nice tunic George. With my camera connection down because of unknown USB problems, I can't show mine which seems the same save for insignia. It is strange but mine has NCO boards with three (3) identical pips. Can't find anything for it in Lohken or my Bavarian Bereitschaftpolizei (LAPO) manual.

George, I think the Heer eagle would have been applied AFTER the first absorption of the LAPO units into the Wehrmacht in summer 1935. Yours has the litzen adopted post March 1933, but was the tunic made before then? Any markings on the inside as shown in Lohken?

Also, the leather belt and cross straps were supposed to be dark brown. Were the boots dark brown too?

"Whoever dies with the most toys wins!" Anonymous
Posts: 1575 | Registered: 16 March 2002

ORPO

Posted 28 December 2003 21:04
Joe,

Thanks for the info on the breast eagle. I thought it was applied in 1935 and what you say makes sense. My Bavarian LAPO Major's tunic does not have a beast eagle and I have always assumed it was earlier than this NCO tunic. It is identical to the Oberst tunic on page 134 of Löhken, except it does not have the bullion "wings" on the shoulder boards for a retired Col. I am like you, I don't know what the three NCO pips would represent. Are they the silver plated pips according to regulations?

The LAPO NCO tunic does have markings similar to those in Löhken, but unfortunately no date. The tunic is marked to the Munich LAPO. Interestingly, these folks wore either black or steelgreen pants and I have a pair of the long trousers in steelgreen, while Löhken says the long pants were black and the riding breeches steel green. Just the opposite...and photographs seem to show black breeches being worn. He also says the belts were dark brown, but my Munich marked belt is black and always seems to have been that way. He seems to stop with the LAPO in 1928, so perhaps these regs changed after that? Does your Bavarian LAPO manual say anything after 1928?

Here is a photo of my black LAPO belt as shown in the photos above. I have since wiped off the original mildew patina it came with, but it is black.

George

"You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself." Ricky Nelson


Posts: 2456 | Registered: 25 October 2003

JWotka
Posted 29 December 2003 10:12
George, the manual is for the Wachtmeister of the Bereitschaftspolizei and it is dated October 1928. As it explains, the Bavarian police law of 1928 reorganized the Staatspolizei known as the Schutzmannschaft and the Landespolizei into the Schutzpolizei. The Schutzpolizei after 1928 consisted of Einzeldienst in the cities and Bereitschaftpolizei (barracked police-the former LAPO). The uniforms stayed the same and the colors noted by Lohken are listed in the manual. The only "color" evidence I have is a 1927 Bavarian LAPO stein showing a LAPO Wachtmeister with his green tunic and breeches, putees and brown belt, cross belt and ammo pouches. Is there a possibility your "Munich" belt was for the PDM (Polizei Direktion Munchen)? The Schutzmannschaft colors were continued under the Schupo Einzeldienst and would be black leather. Lohken continues with the LAPO after 1928 but he notes the change to the Bereitschaftspolizei in 1928. There was addtional changes in insignia after 1933 which brought in the Tress on your tunic. The terminology of Landespolizei continued to be used unofficially for the Bereitschaftspolizei until the term was used again with the creation of the Landespolizei in Bavaria, following the model started in Prussia. With these barracked, militarized police forces called the Black Reichswehr, the Nazis were able to circumvent the 100,000 man restrictions of the Versailles Treaty by training an almost equivalent size force which was then merged into the Wehrmacht in the transfers of 1935 and 1936.

"Whoever dies with the most toys wins!" Anonymous
Posts: 1575 | Registered: 16 March 2002

ORPO

Posted 29 December 2003 13:26
Joe,

You are exactly right about the reorganization and Löhken's book discussion after 1928. When I re-read the Bavarian section this morning I realized he was mostly concerned with the insignia changes after 1928. It is possible that my black belt was used by PDM folks as it is not specifically LAPO marked as is the tunic. This belt is the only one I have seen in the flesh so I don't see why dark brown ones could not also exist.

The issue with the pants seems unresolved however. The photo of der Spiess above seems to show him with long trousers that are the same color as his tunic (even though it did not reproduce well here). Here is a photo of an Officer with what certainly appears to be black breeches, and I have other similar ones in a Bavarian LAPO photo album. The cape is the old style light color cape as is the greatcoat worn by the officer in the group photo above. All very interesting!

George

"You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself." Ricky Nelson

[This message was edited by ORPO on 29 December 2003 at 13:39.]


Posts: 2456 | Registered: 25 October 2003

JWotka
Posted 30 December 2003 01:41
George, here is the shot of the LAPO trooper on the 1927 dated stein to the Munich Landespolizei. The collar tabs are the pre-1928 v-shaped leaves.

"Whoever dies with the most toys wins!" Anonymous


Posts: 1575 | Registered: 16 March 2002

JWotka
Posted 30 December 2003 20:52
George here is a shot of my LAPO nco tunic without the litzen yours has. BLP marked with a Munich factory stamp on the other side of the lining. I used a standard brown officer belt as I don't have one of the Bavarian belts with the roller buckles like yours.

"Whoever dies with the most toys wins!" Anonymous


Posts: 1575 | Registered: 16 March 2002

JWotka
Posted 30 December 2003 20:53
Here is a shot of the three pip shoulder board. The pips are not silver plated, though the regs all seem to indicated Weiss Metal.

"Whoever dies with the most toys wins!" Anonymous


Posts: 1575 | Registered: 16 March 2002

JWotka
Posted 30 December 2003 20:58
To finish up this thread, here is an officer model of the Bavarian Landespolizei shako with black parade buch.

"Whoever dies with the most toys wins!" Anonymous


Posts: 1575 | Registered: 16 March 2002

ORPO

Posted 02 January 2004 11:34
Dave & Gary,

I think we can carry on with LAPO uniform discussions on this thread. One has to remember that the Landespolizei terminology is being used here as a rather generic term for the individual barracked state police forces that became units of either the nationalized Deutsche Polizei or the Wehrmacht after 1935-1936. The Bavarian LAPO is an excellent example of what happened in the other German states as Bavaria was Hitler's home base and the uniforms are strikingly similar to the post 1936 nationalized police uniform that Himmler and Frick adopted for the Ordnungspolizei. Also bear in mind that police uniforms from the time of the Weimar Republic continued to be worn until the 1936 uniform changes largely eliminated them.

Since Joe showed his excellent Freistaat Bayern Tschako, I will show an example of the LAPO Mütze. This peaked cap is made of green cloth with a black band and green piping. The militarized LAPO forces in the photos above wore the Heer style eagle and national ****ade (and sometimes a Heer style oak leaf wreath) insignia. The cap insignia configuration changed over time, evolving from just the Bavarian blue & white cocade into the NS Zeit insignia.

George

"You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself." Ricky Nelson


Posts: 2456 | Registered: 25 October 2003

ORPO

Posted 02 January 2004 11:43
Model 1934 police eagle and national ****ade insignia. This cap is dated 1936 and was probably worn by a policeman who remained in the police forces as opposed to one who was transferred to the army or airforce. I do not know of any LAPO units that may have been transferred to the navy.

George

"You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself." Ricky Nelson


Posts: 2456 | Registered: 25 October 2003

Gary8
Posted 12 January 2004 11:12
Thought you guys might be interested in what I found today. Superb cap George


Posts: 1565 | Location: England | Registered: 03 June 2002

Gary8
Posted 17 January 2004 18:02
I have been told that this is Prussian landspolizei is this correct?


Posts: 1565 | Location: England | Registered: 03 June 2002

Gary8
Posted 17 January 2004 18:05
Collar


Posts: 1565 | Location: England | Registered: 03 June 2002

Gary8
Posted 17 January 2004 18:07
board


Posts: 1565 | Location: England | Registered: 03 June 2002