Original German WWII Administrative Oberstleutnant Lieutenant Colonel Military District Officer's Reichswehr-Style Service Tunic with Bullion Breast Eagle

Item DescriptionOriginal Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice Reichswehr pattern German Pre-WWII Heer Army M-36 Dienstrock (Service Tunic), showing moderate wear and in very good display condition. We were not able to find any maker or size information inside of the tunic, so it is definitely a bespoke example, made for a high ranking administrative official. The tunic features four pockets with scalloped flaps and silver pebbled aluminum buttons, and has a six button front closure, with two 'hook and loop' fasteners for the collar. The buttons on the tunic are sewn directly to the fabric, not attached with metal circlips, and are all marked on the back.It is adorned with the usual rank and branch insignia used on German tunics. The Army breast eagle is the correct early pattern officer's silver bullion hand embroidered type on a dark bottle green background, but this example has heavy wear to the bullion with some loss, and the set is rather crudely stitched through to the interior lining as shown.The front edge, cuffs, and collar on this tunic are wrapped in a dark-green wool, which is more akin to the Reichswehr, and has officer's field litzen collar patches on each side, which are woven from gold bullion thread with aDunkel-grün(Dark Green) background. Surrounding each litzen is a row of bright red piping for Military District Administration in theHeeresverwaltung.Heer officials normally wore, in addition to their dark green main corps colour (Haupt-Waffenfarbe), a secondary color (Nebenfarbe) denoting their branch. The Nebenfarbe was worn as piping surrounding the collar Litzen and underneath the shoulder boards on top of the dark green Waffenfarbe. In March 1940 distinct Nebenfarben were abolished and replaced with light grey. This example has a set of Heer Administration officer's collar tabs, each constructed of forest-green wool with buckram cores and trimmed on three sides with red piping, each bearing dual gold machine-embroidered insignia, which has now heavily faded to a dark color, though the buckram still retains its color. There is minor fraying to the trim.The 'sew-in' style company officers schulterklappen (shoulder boards) of this tunic are constructed with two rows of fine silver flatware 'Russia Braid' double piping, with a thin row of dark green piping between them, all looping around the button hole. Under this is the military district administration red piping, with more dark green piping underneath. There is a single rank 'pip' on each side, as well as gilt metal HV monogram devices for the Heeresverwaltung. There is unfortunately not much information out there regarding the rank structure of the Army Administration, so we do not know what 'title' the rank insignia indicate, but in the army this would denote an Oberstleutnant or a Lieutenant Colonel.There is moderate wear to the uniform with some moth nips on the exterior and heavy service wear on the interior. There are no tags we could find. There is some tearing but the straps and hole for the dagger still remain.This is a good Administrative M36 Officer's tunic, ready for further research and display.Approximate Measurements:-Collar to shoulder: 9.5'Shoulder to sleeve: 23'Shoulder to shoulder: 15.5'Chest width: 18.5'Waist: 17'Hip: 20'Front length: 29.5'Field Tunic (Feldbluse) Model 1936Terms such as M40 and M43 were never designated by the Wehrmacht, but are names given to the different versions of the Model 1936 field tunic by modern collectors, to discern between variations, as the M36 was steadily simplified and tweaked due to production time problems and combat experience.When the NSDAP came to power in early 1933 the Reichswehr, the armed forces of the Weimar Republic, were near the end of a two-year project to redesign the Army Feldbluse (field-blouse). Beginning in that year the new tunic was issued to the Reichsheer and then the rapidly growing Wehrmacht Heer, although minor design changes continued to be made until the appearance of the standardized Heeres Dienstanzug Modell 1936. The M36 tunic still retained the traditional Imperial and Reichswehr uniform color of grey-green 'field gray' (feldgrau) wool, but incorporated four front patch pockets with scalloped flaps and pleats (on Reichswehr tunics the lower pockets were internal and angled). The front was closed with five buttons rather than the previous eight, and the collar and shoulder straps were of a dark bottle-green instead of the Reichswehr grey. Compared to the Weimar-era uniforms the skirt of the feldbluse was shorter and the tailoring was more form-fitting due to Germany's adoption of mechanized warfare: soldiers now spent much time in the confined space of a vehicle and a shorter jacket was less likely to pick up dirt from the seats. It also included an internal suspension system, whereby a soldier could hang an equipment belt on a series of hooks outside of the tunic. These hooks were connected to two straps inside the lining, which spread the weight of equipment without having to use external equipment suspenders. The M36 was produced and issued until the very end of the war, though successive patterns became predominant.Shipping RestrictionsThis product is available for international shipping.Shipping not available to: Australia, France, or GermanyPayment OptionsNot eligible for payment with Paypal or AmazonLegal InformationDue to legal restrictions this item cannot be shipped to Australia, France or Germany. This is not a comprehensive list and other countries may be added in the future.