""German" uniform colors of the late 1800's" Topic

Hello,

I am loking for info on the color of German uniforms from the Franco-Prussian War to 1914 period. When did they go to a field grey and how different were there unifoms after that change. Was the change from Prussian blue (and the many other assorted colors) to field grey gradual or sudden?
Any and all info on this subject or even any Home Service or colonial uniforms from this period would be appreciated. Even input on the uniforms and equipment of other colonial powers, if you feel the need to vent your knowlege, will be of great use.

Thank You
Fozzy

Now where was that website I had found, the German one with all the colour plates…

Predominantly dark blue for infantry, artillery etc. jaeger in Brunswick Green. Essentially you are looking at FPW type uniforms up until a few years prior to the Great War. The changeover to field grey took place around 1910 from memory. Can't seem to find my ref books at present.

Landsturm and Landwehr may have taken longer to be outfitted with the new feld grau uniforms but apart from that it was a pretty quick change. The colonial uniforms for late 19th cent early 20th are principally khaki.

This site has a comprehensive set of pics for 1914-18 Colonial uniforms will give you an idea of the pewar kit:

link

grosser-generalstab.de

Here it is…

"Landsturm and Landwehr may have taken longer to be outfitted with the new feld grau uniforms…"

There's quite a bit of photographic evidence that indicates this. Over the years I've seen scads of PPCs on ebay that show Landwehr and Landsturm men in dark blue as late as 1915. Granted in the 1914-15 timeframe they all appear to be on garrison duty well clear of the Front.

Fozzy, here are some of my tips on navigating the German-language-only site that I learned through trial and error as I don't read German myself.

On its homepage click on the Iron Cross icon called "Inhalt" on the page bottom. This will give a pop-up page link to an index of various book or article page links on the left-hand side of the page under the title "Zum Geleit".

When accessing a page, there will be a grey bar at the page top: clicking the "Ubersicht" button in the top left-hand corner will return you to the main index. Also, a floating grey bar at the screen bottom called "Zurük" is the "Go Back" button. Many of the documents with uniform plates also show icons of open books at the bottom of the page with arrows on them to navigate back to the previous plate or move onto the next plate without having to return to the book's index.

These are the uniform book links to look for:

Deutsche Uniformen v. H. Knötel d.J. u. M. Lezius [cigarette cards of individual figures] There's a button on the grey bars at the page top for the periods that you want.

Knötels Uniformkunde [The master work of its period on Prussian, German and world uniforms throughout post-gunpowder history in individual and multi-figure plates. You'll have to look through the index for individual plates that match your period.]

Uniformen der Alten Armee (Zigarettenbilder von Waldorf-Astoria) [June 1914 German uniforms: cigarette cards of individual German Navy and Colonial uniforms. Just go directly to the book icon marked "Uniformen" on its index page for the uniforms; the other two links are text only with just a few illustrations. I think that all of these are too late a period for you, it's outside my area of interest so I didn't look at them much, but maybe look at last just in case.]

And in case your friend Kermit is doing the other side, this should help him, although I don't know the quality of the 1870 plates as I didn't bother checking them out.

Les Uniformes de l'Armée française 1690 depuis 1900 par Dr. Lienhart & Humbert [French language. French uniforms from throughout the indicated periods using plates with a combination of lifelike and schematic drawings. Navigate from plate to plate using the "Vorheerige Tafel" and "Nachste Tafel" buttons at the page bottom. The central "Ubersicht" button returns you to the book's index of link pages. It also includes Confederation of the Rhine, Italian and other French allied states. Also note that while the plates themselves are in French, the page links to the individual plates are in German so for the French "Chasseurs ŕ Pied" it will say "Jager zu Fuss" as the link name.]

That is the above for the "grosser-generalstab" site that Jakar linked to.

fozzybear,

go to:

kaisersbunker.com

Hindenburg

One small comment. The official change from dark blue, etc. to field grey was in 1908, for campaign at first. It wasn't until 1915 that the older colours disappeared officially; prior to that they were being worn in walking out (i.e., night on the town), parades, etc.