German Luftwaffe Civilian Fire Brigade Cap Eagle RZM M1/13

Silvered Tombac, 58mm wing tip to wing tip, all flat wire Tombac prongs on reverse; marked RZM M1/13 for L. Christian Lauer, Nürnberg; in excellent condition.

The German armed forces had a tradition, dating from the 1700’s, of maintaining a separate branch of Administrative Official’s attached to the army to oversee all administrative functions, thus freeing up active army Officers and allowing them to concentrate on actual military matters. The Officials were responsible for a wide variety of administrative tasks from Court Martial, Librarian, Supply, Technical and Meteorological Services, to School, Barracks, and Hospital administration. On it’s inception the Luftwaffe also established an Administrative branch of service that included the Feuerschutzbeamte der Luftwaffe, (Fire Protection Officials of the Air Force). One function of the Feuerschutzbeamte was to provide fire fighting and protection services to all Luftwaffe airbases, depots, installations etc. The Feuerschutzbeamte utilized civilian employees mainly drawn from civil fire departments. Both the officials and the civilian employees were not granted the status of soldiers but were classified as Angehörige der Luftwaffe, (Members of the Air Force). The officials and the civilian employees originally wore dark blue uniforms and headgear that was similar to the Feuerschutzpolizei, (Fire Protection Police), with different insignia for each group. Regulations of November 1940 altered the officials uniform to the standard Luftwaffe blue/grey, with different insignia, although the civilian employees continued to wear the dark blue uniform and headgear. The headgear worn by the officials and civilian employees included a visor cap that was basically identical to the standard Luftwaffe visor cap but in a different color and different insignia. The civilian fire brigade personnel were allocated crimson waffenfarbe, (Branch of Service Color), which was displayed as piping on EM/NCO’s visor caps.