Ranks and Insignia of The Nazi Party - Early Nazi Party Titles

Early Nazi Party Titles

The early titles used by the Nazi Party were far removed for their late 1930s and World War II counterparts. Between 1921 and 1923, 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 wear World War I uniforms at party meetings. When Adolf Hitler replaced Anton Drexler as the leader of the Nazi Party, Hitler began calling himself by the title of Führer, thus establishing the first formal Nazi Party titles. A position of Deputy Führer, held by Rudolf 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 abortive Beer Hall Putsch in 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 the Sturmabteilung (SA). These early regulations created some of the earliest paramilitary titles used by the Nazis, among them Gruppenführer and Oberführer, with the regular rank and file of the SA known by the title of Mann. These titles, however, were confined to the SA while the rest of the Nazi Party still had no former 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 fledgling SS (Schutzstaffel) which had begun to appear as a force within the Party. As the Nazis gained more support throughout Germany, and moved outward for their power base in Munich, regional Nazi cells began to appear in such major cities as Stuttgart, Berlin, and Heidelberg. These "local Nazis" often adopted their own uniforms and titles with little standardization from the main Nazis operated out of Munich.

The first formal Nazi Party rank and insignia regulations were published in 1930 although standardization across the Nazi Party did not occur until 1932 and then still 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, however, called for the Nazi Party to be divided into two levels - the Politische Leitung (political leadership) and the Partei 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:

• Blockleiter (Block Leader)
• Zellenleiter (Cell Leader)
• Ortsgruppenleiter (Local Group Leader)
• Kreisleiter (County Leader)
• Gauleiter (Regional Leader)
• Landesinspekteur (State Inspector)
• Reichsinspekteur (National Inspector)

A higher rank, that of Reichsorganizationsleiter (National Organizational Leader) was created for the senior most Reich Inspector of the Nazi Party. The special rank did not entail any additional insignia other than that worn by the regular Reichsinspekteur rank.

By 1932, 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.