page_title: Ranks and insignia of the Nazi Party
section_title: Armband system
hierarchical_section_title: Ranks and insignia of the Nazi Party / Nazi ranks during World War II / Armband system
caption_attribution_description: English: Screenshot showing World War II era Nazi Party Armbands. Created with Mircosoft Powerpoint &amp; Windows Paint (Windows 7)
context_page_description: Ranks and insignia of the Nazi Party were paramilitary titles used by the National Socialist German Workers Party between approximately 1928 and the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945. Such ranks were held within the political leadership corps of the Nazi Party, charged with the overseeing the regular Nazi Party members.
  The first purpose of the Nazi Party 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 political chain 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 with swastika 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.
context_section_description: 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.
  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 food rationing, war relief efforts, and civil defense.
  The administrative armbands were worn by office staffs across all levels of the party, although mostly were used by the regional staffs of the Gauleiters. The third, and least common of the armbands, were the command armbands worn by the Deputy Gauleiters, Gauleiters, and Reichsleiters.
  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, a Hauptbereichsleiter who was serving as the Kreisleiter 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 a Gauleitung.
  On the local level of the Nazi Party, political armbands were often used to denote those Nazis holding the positions of Blockleiter and Zellenleiter. A further political position, unique only to the local level of the Nazi Party, was that of Betriebsobmann, which was a type of Shop Steward position. At the top tier of the operational armbands was a unique armband worn by both the Ortsgruppenleiter and the Kreisleiter
  Administrative armbands were used across all levels of the Nazi Party, beginning with the position of Mitarbeiter, 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 and Stellenleiters), 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 a Leiter 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 of Gauleiter and Reichsleiter, each of which was denoted by its own unique armband. The political position of Deputy Gauleiter (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 utilized 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, 
caption: Nazi Party Political Armbands (1943)
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