Collar patches for Beamte a.K.

[HPL2008]

I felt I would like to present these separate from my "collar patch terminology" thread as well.

These are collar patches for Army Beamte auf Kriegsdauer (a.K.), i.e. officials holding a temporary assignment for the duration of the war.

Unlike the regular career- and reserve Beamte, whose collar patches displayed a primary- and seconary branch color and had double Litzen, all Beamte a.K. wore collar patches with a single, pointed Litze (of the so-called "Old Prussian" style) and dark green piping (dark green being the primary branch color for officials). These collar patches were introduced by an order of 21 March 1940; prior to this, the same collar patches as for the other officials were to be worn.

For NCO-ranked officials, the Litze was woven in grey cloth; for officer-ranked officials, it was hand-embroidered in metallic thread (gold-colored thread for officials of the höherer Dienst, aluminum thread for the others).

• Top: A pair of collar patches for NCO-ranked Beamte a.K. of the einfacher Dienst [basic-level career] and mittlerer Dienst [medium-level career]
• Center: Two collar patches (not a pair) for officer-ranked Beamte a.K. of the mittlerer Dienst [medium-level career] and gehobener Dienst [elevated career]
• Bottom: A single collar patch for officer-ranked Beamte a.K. of the höherer Dienst [high-grade career]

As its name implies, the creation of this corps of temporary officials was only an emergency wartime measure. The powers-that-be were even unwilling to await the end of the war, which would have ended it automatically: An order of 11 August 1943 ordered the group to be disbanded, with the majority of Beamte aK to be taken over as Beamte des Beurlaubtenstandes (d.B.) [reserve officials] or, if they did not meet the necessary requirements, as Soldaten [soldiers] by 31 December 1943, with exceptions for certain specialty groups being permitted. Apparently, this took longer than expected, as an order of 21 October 1944 called for the completion of this measure.