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Ranks and insignia were used by theNational Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) asparamilitary titles between approximately 1928 and the fall ofNazi Germany in 1945. Such ranks were held within the political leadership corps of the Nazi Party, charged with the overseeing of the regular Nazi Party members.

The first purpose of the Nazi Party's political ranks was to provide election district leadership positions during the years where the Nazis were attempting to come to power in Germany. After 1933, when the Third Reich had been established, Nazi Party ranks played a much more important role existing as a politicalchain of command operating side by side with the German government.

Contrary to modern day cinema and layman perceptions regarding the Nazi Party, which often portrays all Nazis as wearing brown shirts withswastika armbands, Nazi ranks and titles were only used by a small minority within the Party, this being the political leadership corps. Regular Nazi Party members, unconnected with the political leadership, often wore no uniforms at all except for a standard Nazi Party Badge issued to all members (agolden version of this badge also existed for early Nazi Party members).

The history of Nazi Party ranks and insignia can be divided into the ranks used during several different time periods as well as the positions held by senior Nazis who were, by default, the supreme leaders of the Party regardless of what title they chose to call themselves by.

The early titles used by the Nazi Party were far removed from their late 1930s andWorld War II counterparts. Between 1921 and 1924, considered the earliest time period that the Nazi Party existed, there were no titles or ranks used by the regular Nazi Party members although several members choose to wearWorld War I uniforms at party meetings. WhenAdolf Hitler replacedAnton Drexler as the leader of the Nazi Party, Hitler began calling himself by the title ofFührer (Leader), thus establishing the first formal Nazi Party titles. A position of DeputyFührer (Stellvertreter des Führers), held byRudolf Hess was created shortly thereafter, as well as a few administrative titles such as Party Secretary and Party Treasurer, which had become formal titles by the time of the abortiveBeer Hall Putsch in November 1923.

The Nazi Party was disbanded between 1923 and 1925, but upon returning the very first uniform and insignia regulations were published, albeit for the Nazi Party's paramilitary group theSturmabteilung (SA). These early regulations created some of the earliest paramilitary titles used by the Nazis, among themGruppenführer andOberführer, with the regular rank and file of the SA known by the title ofMann. These titles were confined to the SA while the rest of the Nazi Party still had no formal ranks and insignia except for the titles used by senior Nazi leaders such as Hitler.

Between 1925 and 1929, it became common for Nazis to wear makeshift paramilitary uniforms at Party rallies and during this time the SA expanded its own system of insignia as did the fledglingSS (Schutzstaffel), which had begun to appear as a force within the Party. As the Nazis gained more support throughoutGermany, and moved outward from their power base inMunich, regional Nazi cells began to appear in such major cities asStuttgart,Berlin, andHeidelberg. These "local Nazis" often adopted their own uniforms and titles with little standardisation from the main Nazis operated out of Munich.

The first formal Nazi Party rank and insignia regulations were published in 1930 although standardisation across the Nazi Party did not occur until 1932. Even then it met with limited success since regional Nazi leaders, far removed from Hitler in Munich, frequently spent little effort enforcing uniform guidelines and, in some cases, outright ignored them. The early regulations called for the Nazi Party to be divided into two levels—thePolitische Leitung (political leadership) and thePartei Mitglieder (party membership) with political leaders adopting standard uniforms and insignia. Hitler and his senior entourage were actually not included in the uniform regulations and continued to wear paramilitary uniforms of their own choosing without special insignia. The Nazi Party paramilitary groups, such as the SA and SS, also by this time had their own uniform and insignia regulations separate from the main Nazi Party.

The first formal Nazi Party ranks were therefore as follows:

Collar insignia[1]	Shoulder insignia[1]	Title[1]	Translation[1]
		Reichsorganisationsleiter Reichsinspekteur	Reich organization leader Reich inspector
		Landesinspekteur	State inspector
		Gauleiter	Regional leader
		Kreisleiter	District leader
		Ortsgruppenleiter	Local group leader
		Zellenwart	Cell warden
		Blockwart	Block warden

By 1932, the Nazi Party's uniform regulations had included a series of braided shoulder boards to be worn in conjunction with Nazi collar insignia. The next major change to Nazi uniforms would occur in 1934, a year after the Nazis had come to power in Germany.

In 1933, the Nazi Party took national power in Germany and began a process known asGleichschaltung to completely merge the civilian government of Germany with the political leadership of the Party. After theNight of the Long Knives in 1934, the Nazi Party underwent a major reorganisation as a prelude to Nazi leadership members merging their own positions with local, state, and federal government establishments.

The first step in this process was to divide the Nazi Party into several "levels", which were designed to act independently from each other. These levels in turn were:

• Ortsgruppen (Local level – German towns and cities)
• Kreisleitung (District level – German counties)
• Gauleitung (Regional level – German states and their provinces)
• Reichsleitung (National level – German nation)

Nazi Party political leaders were to choose a level in which they would make a career. Each level of the Nazi Party was self-contained and separate from other levels. While, in theory, this was intended to avoid jurisdictional conflict, the result was that the level leaderships ignored the wishes of the others and, in some cases, came into direct conflict. Hitler and the senior Nazi leaders were also "outside the chain", giving orders to all levels simultaneously and sometimes different party levels were given orders to carry out the same task. This caused high levels of in-fighting andbackstabbing in Nazi leadership circles, to such a degree that regulations had to be introduced preventing deputies from succeeding their own superiors therefore to discourage subordinates from intentionally sabotaging their leaders.

The new Nazi Party levels called for several new ranks and the Nazi Party titles were overhauled with several new positions. Some positions were duplicated on each level of the Party while others were unique to the local, county, state, or national level. The Nazis also created a supreme political rank, known asReichsleiter, considered the top rank of theReichsleitung (national) level, as well as the senior-most political rank in the party next to Hitler himself.

In all, the following were the primary Nazi political staff ranks used between 1933 and 1939:

Rank group
Parteigericht
	Reichsleiter	Beisitzer beim Obersten Parteigericht	Gaurichter	Kreisrichter Ortsrichter	Gaubeisitzer		Kreisbeisitzer Ortsbeisitzer
Reichsleitung[2]
	Reichsleiter	Hauptdienstleiter	Dienstleiter	Hauptamtsleiter	Amtsleiter	Hauptstellenleiter		Stellenleiter		Hilfs-Stellenleiter	Mitarbeiter
Gauleitung[2]
		Gauleiter	Stellvertreter gauleiter	Hauptamtsleiter	Amtsleiter		Hauptstellenleiter		Stellenleiter		Mitarbeiter
Kreisleitung[2]
			Kreisleiter	Hauptamtsleiter	Amtsleiter		Hauptstellenleiter		Stellenleiter		Mitarbeiter
Ortsleitung[2]
			Ortsgruppenleiter	Stützpunktleiter	Amtsleiter		Hauptstellenleiter	Zellenleiter	Stellenleiter	Blockleiter	Mitarbeiter

Further additions included the creation of several positional titles, which were not actual ranks but merely titles that a Nazi Party political leader could hold in addition to their own formal rank. There was at this time no outward system to denote these special titles, other than verbal and written correspondence. This would change in 1939 with the creation of theNazi Party's armband system.

The system of Nazi Party ranks adopted in 1934 would remain unchanged throughout the remainder of the 1930s. It was not until 1939, at the start of World War II, that Nazi Party ranks would change again for a final time.

The final pattern of Nazi Party ranks was designed in 1938 byRobert Ley, who personally oversaw the development of Nazi Party insignia through his position as Reichs Organisation Leader of the NSDAP, and put into effect in mid-1939. The new insignia pattern was a vast overhaul of previous designs beginning with a standardised set of twenty-eight Nazi Party ranks that were to be uniform across all levels of the Party. To denote membership in a particular "level" of the Nazi Party (local, county, regional, or national) collar tabs would display a particular colour on which the actual rank insignia would then be displayed.

This new design was intended to eliminate the manner in which different levels of the Nazi Party separated themselves and allow for command across all Party lines. For instance, anAbschnittsleiter (Section leader) in theOrtsgruppen (local) level would now be seen as outranking and could issue directives to a junior rank, such asArbeitsleiter (Work leader) even if the junior rank served in a higher echelon of the Nazi Party, such as on theGau (regional) orReich (national) level. The vast array of new ranks also allowed for a military appearance to the Nazi Party, in particular during World War II when political leaders were exempt fromconscription. More ranks also involved more opportunity for promotion and served as a means to distinguish highly successful political leaders from others who might hold the same position in the Nazi Party.

Within each level of the Party, there was a cap on the highest possible rank one could achieve. The heads of the lower levels, theOrtsgruppenleiter and theKreisleiter, now held standard Nazi Party ranks in addition to their leadership titles. The positions ofGauleiter andReichsleiter held their own special insignia and these two positions were considered outside the promotion tier and were available only by direct appointment from Hitler.Gauleiters andReichsleiters also outranked all other Party members, regardless of standard Nazi Party ranks. Thus, the highest possible rank in each level of the Party was as follows:

(*) The rank ofGauleiter was the senior-most rank of theGau level but outside the regular promotion tier.

Between 1939 and 1942, these new uniform regulations were slow to be implemented and Nazi Party leaders can frequently be seen in photographic evidence wearing pre-1939 insignia well after Ley had introduced the final insignia pattern. It was not until 1943 that most Nazi Party members had completely converted to the new insignia patterns.

By the start of World War II, Nazi Party paramilitary groups had also been expanding and developing their own uniform designs, such asSS uniforms and insignia as well as uniforms used by such other Nazi groups such as theNational Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK),Organisation Todt, and many others. In addition, as the Nazi Party and the German government became one and the same, each German ministry had the option to develop a standardised uniform and dress code with a state employee also having the choice to wear a Nazi Party uniform, a uniform of a Nazi paramilitary group (such as the SS or SA), or (if the person was a reservist in the military) a uniform of theWehrmacht. This created an extremely confusing array of titles, ranks, and uniforms, which has also caused historical difficulty in determining the various positions and titles that senior members of the German government held.

In addition to the array of Nazi titles and ranks there also existed the original government of Germany to include such historic positions asBurgermeister (town mayor). Such individuals could also hold the approximate equivalent of a Nazi Party position or be unconnected to the Party. Through the process ofGleichschaltung, Nazi officials existed side by side with local government authorities with the local government existing as arubber stamp to Nazi designs.

The "armband system" was instituted by the Nazi Party in 1939 at the same time that the political leadership ranks were expanded into their final form. The purpose of the armband system was to denote positional titles within the Nazi Party in contrast to a party member's political rank.^[3]

There were three groupings of armbands, classified as "operational", "administrative", and "command". The operational armbands were used by Nazi Party political leaders on the local and county levels and were worn by those Party leaders directly engaged in implementing Party policies to the public. During World War II, this was most often associated with foodrationing, war relief efforts, andcivil defence.

The administrative armbands were worn by office staffs across all levels of the party, although mostly were used by the regional staffs of theGauleiters. The third, and least common of the armbands, were the command armbands worn by the DeputyGauleiters,Gauleiters, andReichsleiters.

The Nazi Party armbands were intended for immediate implementation upon the outbreak of World War II in 1939, although it was not until 1943 that the system was in total effect. Even then, photographic evidence reveals it was not uncommon for some political leaders to simply wear the pre-1939 bare swastika armband, with some photographs as late as 1945 revealing political leaders failing to wear the appropriate Nazi positional armband.

By pairing up a wearer's political collar tabs and armband, it was possible to determine exactly what their position and responsibilities were within the Nazi Party political leadership corps; the armband system was also used to differentiate between Party leaders who may have held the same political ranks but were entrusted with vastly different responsibilities. For instance, aHauptbereichsleiter who was serving as theKreisleiter of a German county, would wear a more elaborate armband than a Nazi Party member of the same rank who was on the administrative staff of aGauleitung.

On the local level of the Nazi Party, political armbands were often used to denote those Nazis holding the positions ofBlockleiter andZellenleiter. A further political position, unique only to the local level of the Nazi Party, was that ofBetriebsobmann, which was a type ofShop Steward position. At the top tier of the operational armbands was a unique armband worn by both theOrtsgruppenleiter and theKreisleiter

Administrative armbands were used across all levels of the Nazi Party, beginning with the position ofMitarbeiter, which was a catch-all staff position encompassing a wide variety of duties.Mitarbeiter had itself been a political rank prior to 1939, after which time the rank was phased out of the Nazi Party but survived as a political position. Leadership administrative armbands were worn by Office Leaders (Amtsleiters andStellenleiters), of which there were eight levels of hierarchy.

In all, the Nazi political offices, denoted by special armbands, were as follows:

• Hilfssachgebiet – Auxiliary administrative area
• Sachgebiet – Administrative area
• Hilfsstelle – Auxiliary area
• Stelle – Area
• Hauptstelle – Head area
• Amtes – Office
• Hauptamtes – Head office
• Oberst Amtes – Supreme office

A leader of a political office was known as aLeiter followed by the office name. For instance,Leiter eines Sachgebietes would indicate the leader of an administrative area office.

Command armbands matched up directly with the positions ofGauleiter andReichsleiter, each of which was denoted by its own unique armband. The political position of DeputyGauleiter (Stellvertreter Gauleiter) was phased out as a political rank in 1939 (explaining why there was no "one leaf"Gauleiter insignia during World War II), but survived as a political armband denoting status as a Deputy Regional Leader.

The operational, administrative, and command armbands were utilised across all levels of the Nazi Party (local, county, regional, and national) with some armbands applying to multiple levels simultaneously and others specific to a particular Party level. In addition, depending on the specific duties of the political leader in question, an alternate positional title could be implied by a particular armband. When paired up with party member's political rank, this mixture of political titles and alternate positions resulted in a confusing array of titles and nomenclature.

The various political armband distribution, with primary designation listed first, was as follows

The senior leadership of the Nazi Party were intentionally removed from Nazi Party political ranks, with such senior leaders unquestionably above and outranking all other members of the Party. This concept has been interpreted by historians^[who?] to imply that the leadership was the "spring" from which Nazi promotions, ranks, andawards were granted, to be bestowed upon the lesser members of the Party. Under this concept, Hitler and his inner circle needed no grand titles, heaps of awards, or elaborate uniforms since they were already known as the most senior members of the state and party. It is for this reason that Hitler and senior Nazis are frequently seen in photographic and film evidence as wearing uniforms with little insignia or uniforms without excessive decorations. This set Hitler apart from other dictators of the time, such asBenito Mussolini who appointed himselfFirst Marshal of the Empire and wore a full Italian military uniform with many state and military decorations displayed.

Hitler, who served asFührer of the Nazi Party, held the absolute highest possible Nazi Party position.Albert Speer (in his bookInside the Third Reich) remarked that Hitler was the only party member to wear a solid gold "Golden Eagle of Sovereignty Pin" on his civilian jackets (every other member wearing the round party badge), though the jacket design itself did not differ from other civilian jackets of the time. This "Führer Badge" was the only unique insignia ever created to denote Hitler's rank asFührer.^{[4][page needed]}

Prior to 1939, Hitler wore a brown paramilitary uniform, considered the uniform of theOberste SA-Führer (Supreme Storm Trooper Commander). Upon the outbreak of World War II, Hitler adopted a grey army style uniform, without any particular insignia, with Hitler pledging that he was the “first soldier” of the German Reich and would wear his army style uniform until "victory has been achieved or I will not survive the outcome".

Heinrich Himmler was a senior member of the Nazi Party and is most well known asReichsführer-SS; as a result, most of Himmler's attire is connected to his SS uniform. In addition to beingReichsführer-SS and aReichsleiter, towards the end of World War II he held numerous high level positions including Commander of the Replacement Home Army and General Plenipotentiary for the entire Reich's administration(Generalbevollmächtigter für die Verwaltung). Himmler however, never chose to wear a Nazi Party uniform and all photographs of him are in either civilian clothes or in his SS uniform.

Other high Nazi positions, that did not entail any particular insignia, included the office of DeputyFührer held byRudolf Hess until he personally flew hisMesserschmitt Bf 110 fighter plane to Scotland and crash landed atEaglesham in 1941. He was captured, imprisoned, and then sent to England. The office of DeputyFührer was thereafter abolished.

Martin Bormann held the title of Party Secretary, during which time he wore the uniform of aReichsleiter. Bormann would later take up cabinet-level positions in the German government, and after receiving his (honorary) SS membership he wore the insignia of anSS-Obergruppenführer. Albert Speer, in his early days as the Party Architect, wore a brown Nazi party jacket similar to the insignia-less uniform thatJoseph Goebbels wore throughout his career as NaziPropaganda Minister. As for Speer, he would later adopt the uniform ofOrganisation Todt, and towards the end of World War II wore a senior Nazi Party political uniform through his position as Minister of Armaments.

Some senior Nazis did incorporate themselves into the standard Nazi Party rank system, but only at the highest levels. Robert Ley held the position ofReichsleiter andJulius Streicher was aGauleiter.Hermann Göring is most associated with his rank ofReichsmarschall, but was also aGruppenführer in the SA as well as the equivalent of aReichsleiter through his position as Director of theFour Year Plan.

In its simplest form, theNazi Party command structure was divided into four basic levels: the general membership known as theParteimitglieder (lit. 'party members'), the political leadership corps known as thePolitische Leiters (lit. 'political leaders'), the upper command levels of the Party encompassed by theGauleiters andReichsleiters, and finally the position ofFührer held solely by Adolf Hitler as supreme leader of the Party (a position of DeputyFührer also existed until 1941).

Apart from this basic organisation, the Nazi Party political ranks expanded over a period of twenty five years into a vast array of nomenclature denoted by a plethora of insignia and positions. From 1930 onward, this encompassed the political ranks, divided into the following time periods.

Party rank		Wehrmacht equivalent[5]	Party position[6]
ObersterFührer (Highest Leader) -Adolf Hitler
	Reichsleiter	Generalfeldmarschall	Senior leadership -Reichs level
	Gauleiter	Generaloberst	Senior leadership -Gau level
	Hauptbefehlsleiter	General der Waffengattung	Senior administrative positions
	Oberbefehlsleiter	Generalleutnant
	Befehlsleiter	Generalmajor
	Hauptdienstleiter
	Oberdienstleiter
	Dienstleiter
	Hauptbereichsleiter	Oberst	Kreisleiter (Area leader)
	Oberbereichsleiter
	Bereichsleiter
	Hauptabschnittsleiter
	Oberabschnittsleiter
	Abschnittsleiter
	Hauptgemeinschaftsleiter	Oberstleutnant	Ortsgruppenleiter (Regional office leader)
	Obergemeinschaftsleiter
	Gemeinschaftsleiter	Major
	Haupteinsatzleiter	Hauptmann/Rittmeister	Zellenleiter (Cell leader)
	Obereinsatzleiter	Oberleutnant
	Einsatzleiter	Leutnant	Blockleiter (Block leader) Zellenleiter (Cell leader)
	Hauptbereitschaftsleiter	Stabsfeldwebel	Blockleiter (Block leader) Zellenleiter (Cell leader) Zellenwalter (Cell operations foreman or cell presider)
	Oberbereitschaftsleiter	Oberfeldwebel	Blockleiter (Block leader) Zellenwalter (Cell operations foreman or cell presider)
	Bereitschaftsleiter	Feldwebel
	Hauptarbeitsleiter	Unterfeldwebel	Blockwalter (Block operations foreman or block presider) Zellenwalter (Cell operations foreman or cell presider)
	Oberarbeitsleiter		Blockwalter (Block Operations Foreman or Block Presider)
	Arbeitsleiter	Unteroffizier	Blockhelfer (Block assistant or block helper) Blockwalter (Block operations foreman or block presider)
	Oberhelfer	Obergefreiter	Blockhelfer (Block assistant or block helper)
	Helfer	Gefreiter	Helfer (Assistant or helper)
	Politischer-Leiter Anwärter (Parteigenosse -Pg.)	Soldat	--
	Politischer-Leiter Anwärter (Nicht-Parteigenosse -Nicht-Pg.)	Rekrut Freiwilligenbewerber	--

• Nazi Germany paramilitary ranks
• Ranks and insignia of the Waffen-SS, the Nazi Party's military forces
• The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich
• Uniforms and insignia of theSchutzstaffel
• Uniforms and insignia of theSturmabteilung

• Clark, Jeff (2007).Uniforms of the NSDAP. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Military History.ISBN 978-0-7643-2579-3.

• Nazi paramilitary ranks
• Nazi political ranks

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