Piping/Waffenfarbe Colors — Assistance Required

Forums New posts
TheSublimeGoose

TheSublimeGoose

Joined
Mar 8, 2025
Messages
4
Thanks Received
0
Hello!

I am a prolific Wikipedia editor and have recently been updating the “Hitler Youth” article on the English Wikipedia. I am most concerned with updating the uniform section, and filling-out the remaining “troop colors” or “Waffenfarbe.” Link to the section in-question here.


as of now, I’m missing colors for:
  • -Mounted Hitler Youth: (Reiter-HJ)
  • -Hitler Youth mountain walk groups: (HJ-
    • Bergfahrtengruppen)
  • -Hitler Youth field surgeon: (HJ-Feldschere)
  • -BDM-health service girl (BDM-Gesundheitsdienstmädel)
  • -Mountain Hitler Youth: (Gebirgs-HJ)
The only topic I could find on the site that was similar was this:

Colors of piping on Hitler Youth headgear | Headgear

Can anyone tell me how many diffrent colors there are on the HJ side caps, and what thay mean....
www.hj-research.com www.hj-research.com

Which obviously didn’t help much.

I’m assuming the BDM gals didn’t have colors since they didn’t wear shoulders boards. I’m also going to guess most of these groups either had white or red piping, but I wanted to make sure.

Any assistance would be appreciated. If you see anything else on the article, by the way, that should be corrected or could be expanded, please let me know.

Cheers

~Goose
 
Hi Goose and welcome to the forum.

  • Reiter-HJ (these units were all disbanded by order of the RJF*. No special colour of piping on shoulder straps and headwear was ever officially introduced for the Reiter-HJ.
  • Feldschere (first-aiders) - no colour identifier.
  • Gebirgs-HJ / HJ-Bergfahrtengruppen were not an official Sonderformation so no identifiers.
  • Until 1936 there was a Pionier-HJ. It was disbanded in this year with all existing units being absorbed into the Nachrichten-HJ** Prior to disbandment there was no colour identifier for the Pionier-HJ on shoulder straps and headwear.

  • Females did not have any piping colour identifier on their uniforms.



  • *Verordnungsblatt Reichsjugendführung der NSDAP (Hitler-Jugend) IV/10 dated 8th of May 1936 p119
  • **Verordnungsblatt Reichsjugendführung der NSDAP (Hitler-Jugend) IV/17 dated 31st of July 1936 p197
 
Garry said:
Hi Goose and welcome to the forum.

  • Reiter-HJ (these units were all disbanded by order of the RJF*. No special colour of piping on shoulder straps and headwear was ever officially introduced for the Reiter-HJ.
  • Feldschere (first-aiders) - no colour identifier.
  • Gebirgs-HJ / HJ-Bergfahrtengruppen were not an official Sonderformation so no identifiers.
  • Until 1936 there was a Pionier-HJ. It was disbanded in this year with all existing units being absorbed into the Nachrichten-HJ** Prior to disbandment there was no colour identifier for the Pionier-HJ on shoulder straps and headwear.

  • Females did not have any piping colour identifier on their uniforms.



  • *Verordnungsblatt Reichsjugendführung der NSDAP (Hitler-Jugend) IV/10 dated 8th of May 1936 p119
  • **Verordnungsblatt Reichsjugendführung der NSDAP (Hitler-Jugend) IV/17 dated 31st of July 1936 p197
Click to expand...

Perfect, thank you! So, safe to say, the Sonderformation without unique colors would be piped with red?

Gebirgs-HJ & HJ-Bergfahrtengruppen had no unique piping, and were not Sonderformation, understood. I will correct this. What would these units be considered? Or were they more ‘programs?’ Were they subordinated to any particular Sonderformation or simply programs any member of the HJ could take-part in?

Reiter and Pionier shoulder straps did not have unique colors. The former was disbanded in 1936 and the latter was amalgamated into the Nachrichten-HJ in 1936.

Thank you!

P.S. Is referring to this piping as Waffenfarbe acceptable? Or is there a better term?
 
"Waffenfarben" is a military term. It was not used by the Hitler Youth. The braid used on shoulderstraps and headwear by the HJ was simply called Paspel.

The shoulder straps and headwear of members of the general HJ (those not members of a Sonderformation) had red or, for those working on a staff, Karmesin red braid.

Kids involved in mountain-climbing, trekking etc were normal members of the HJ. They would often train and work with the German Alpine Association (DAV). During the war they were likely to be selected for service with mountain troops.

On your wiki page you have "1943" next to the entry for the HJ-Streifendienst (SRD). If you mean that this was when white was authorised then this is incorrect. The colour white was sanctioned for the SRD in June 1942. Link
 
Perfect! How does it look now?

Also, I’m seeing some indications in the sources that the HJ-Ferwehrscharen was subordinated to the SRD. Is this true? If so, would they have borne white piping? All indications seem to be they wore the standard red, hence my confusion.
 
"White (weiß): NSDAP educational institutions". This should read NPEA (Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalt).

Also, I’m seeing some indications in the sources that the HJ-Ferwehrscharen was subordinated to the SRD. Is this true? If so, would they have borne white piping? All indications seem to be they wore the standard red, hence my confusion.
Click to expand...

HJ fire-fighting units had existed prior to 1939 but in this year training was formalised** Members of HJ fire-fighting units were now recruited exclusively from the SRD* Boys who were not SRD but working in the fire-fighting units at this time were transferred into the SRD. Boys who would normally not have met the requirements to join the SRD were kept on at this time. By 1940 the units were known as Feuerwehrscharen im SRD. Initially, when wearing the fire-fighting clothing, the boys wore shoulder straps (not HJ shoulder straps) with carmine red piping **. From mid-1942 and the introduction of a new uniform, the HJ-Feuerwehrscharen were authorised to wear SRD shoulder straps.****


*Reichsbefehl RJF 19/K dated 21.12.1939

**Vereinbarung zwischen dem Jugendführer des Deutschen Reichs und dem Reichsführer SS und Chef der Deutschen Polizei über die Ausbildung der Hitler-Jugend im Feuerlöschdienst dated 21.4.1939 and Amtliches Nachrichtenblatt Jugendführer des Deutschen Reichs VII/12 dated 30.6.1939

***Dienstkleidung der HJ-Feuerwehrscharen, Erlaß des JFdDtR dated 10.6.1941 - IJ 2140 and Amtliches Nachrichtenblatt JFdDtR 7/41 page69

**** Handbook of the Hitler-Jugend, Wilhelm P.B.R. Saris 2009 p400
 
Garry said:
"White (weiß): NSDAP educational institutions". This should read NPEA (Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalt)… HJ-Feuerwehrscharen
Click to expand...
I’ll fix all of this, and I’ll insert the references you provided!

Were the fire-fighting units generally referred to as Feuerwehrscharen im SRD or HJ-Feuerwehrscharen or both interchangeably?

And prior to the switchover to SRD white, they wore carmine red, not the 'standard' HJ red?
 
In 1939 they wore the standard winter uniform with winter cap when on fire-fighting duty. The fire service supplied them with any technical equipment that they needed according to the situation. They were transferred into the SRD from Nov 1939 and would have continued to wear standard shoulder straps with red braid. The firefighter uniform that was introduced for them in 1940 had its own cloth (Uniformtuch) shoulderstraps with carmine red braid. The boys HJ rank was applied to them.

HJ-Feuerwehrscharen is the correct term.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top