Thanks Doug - Much appreciated
Neither is Feuerschutzpolizei's. Feuerschutzpolizei ORs' sleeve eagles are embroidered on a specific "Police" shade of green.
Blue-black backed carmine eagles are for ORs' Feuerwehren, still a fire fighting service but a different branch.
Indeed.
The term Feuerschutzpolizei is often misunderstood and used to refer to any Third Reich-era firefighting service. However, it is more complicated than that:
Fire departments are Feuerwehren. There were - and are - Freiwillige Feuerwehren [volunteer fire departments] (to include Pflichtfeuerwehren [compulsory fire departments]) and Berufsfeuerwehren [professional fire departments].
From 1936 to 1938, the professional and volunteer fire departments had the status of a Polizeiexekutive besonderer Art (roughly "Police executive force of a special status") and were collectively referred to as the Feuerlöschpolizei (Firefighting Police).
After 1938, most of the professional fire departments made up the newly-formed Feuerschutzpolizei [Fire Protection Police], thus becoming part of the police proper and being kitted out with mottled-green police uniforms, while the volunteer fire departments - which retained their dark-blue uniforms - merely had the status of a Technische Hilfspolizei (Technical Auxiliary Police) and were under the supervision of the Hauptamt Ordnungspolizei [Main Office of the Order Police]. (The Technische Nothilfe and Luftschutzpolizei also had that status.)
(Hope I don't come across as an old nitpicker, but this is a bit of a pet peeve of mine.)
My intervention was succinct, too succinct I admit. I can only thank you for your willingness to explain more extensively the historical and organizational context .
(By the way, I like old nitpickers, they make the difference).
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