Original German WWII 1939 Dated Heer Artillery Hauptmann Officer’s M36 Uniform Tunic by Otto Meis with WWI – WWII Era Medal Bar Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice early pattern German WWII Heer Army Artillery Officer’s M-36 Tunic, showing light wear from service and in very good display condition. This looks to be a depot issued tunic, and still has the original maker and size markings on the left interior, which read:

Otto Meis. Erfurt
96       47
43          
86       68
E 39

This indicates 1939 processing through the clothing depot in Erfurt, Germany. The tunic features four pockets with scalloped flaps and pebbled magnetic buttons, which look to be made from pebbled stamped aluminum with galvanized steel backings and eyelets. The front closure features 8 of the same buttons on the right breast flap meeting an equal number of reinforced buttonholes on the left flap. The buttons all appear to be marked on the back with EXTRA FEIN, and they are sewn directly to the fabric. There are also two brass hook and loop collar securing fasteners, which are fully functional.

The interior is lined with with a lovely olive / gray colored lightweight brushed cotton or rayon twill, which extends all the way down the sleeves. There are some repairs to the lining near the collar, which also shows some signs of repairs while in service. There is an interior slash pocket inside the left front hip, with the large eyelet below for the dagger hanger. It looks like there have been some adjustments to this, and there is a very nice dagger hanger attached to the left sleeve seam.

It is adorned with the usual rank and branch insignia used on German tunics. The attractive Army breast eagle is the correct officer’s silver bullion hand embroidered type on a dark bottle green background, and is stitched to the outer layer of fabric only. There is just a bit of fraying on the eagle due to wear.

The collar is wrapped in flaschengrün (dark bottle-green) wool, and has officer’s dress style litzen collar patches on each side, which are woven from silver bullion thread with a Hochrot (Deep Red) wool background, the Waffenfarbe (Corps Color) during WWII for Artillery, as well as General Level Officers. The front closure, cuffs, and collar are also piped with this color. As this is a company grade officer tunic, this is definitely for artillery, and Generals also did not use the Litzen collar insignia, instead using red and gold “Arabesque” insignia. The collar is in good shape, tough there is a bit of wear around the top edge, which is usually one of the first places to show damage from use.

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 and have the correct red piping around the edges. There are two gold “pips” installed on each, indicating the officer rank of Hauptmann (Head man), equivalent to a U.S. Army captain. The outer pips on both look to be gilt brass alloy, while the inner are gilt zinc, so they were probably added as this officer rose through the ranks.

Above the left pocket is a seven award medal bar with ribbons from the WWI, Interwar, and WWII era, showing that the soldier received the following awards:

– German WWI Iron Cross 1914 2nd Class EKII.
– German WWII War Merit Cross 2nd Class KVKII with swords (for combat)
– German WWI Honor Cross of the World War 1914/1918 (Hindenburg Cross) with Swords.
– Imperial German WWI War Commemorative Medal (Austria) with Swords
– Imperial German Prussian Long Service Medal
– Imperial German Austro-Hungarian WWI Pro Deo et Patria Military Medal 1914-1918.
– German WWII Faithful Service Decoration 2nd Class Cross for 40 Years of Service

There are also some thread loops on the pocket underneath, so there are awards that the German soldier removed, probably to put on another uniform. From these awards we can see that the owner of this tunic was from the Austria, and fought during WWI. They were also involved in civil service for a long period of time.

Overall condition is very good, with just a bit of light wear and staining consistent with service. We cannot see any major mothing or other issues with the uniform, just a few nips around the collar insignia. The litzen and shoulderboards also show some light wear. This is a uniform tunic that that saw light to moderate service during the war, and overall it displays very nicely.

A very nice 1939 dated German Artillery Officer’s Tunic with a lovely medal bar, ready to display!

Approximate Measurements:
Collar to shoulder: 9.5″
Shoulder to sleeve: 26”
Shoulder to shoulder: 15”
Chest width: 17.5″
Waist width: 17″
Hip width: 21″
Front length: 30″

Terms 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.

Field Tunic (Feldbluse) Model 1936
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.