Original Items: Only One Set Available. This is an outstanding private purchase two piece, black leather deck uniform in a variant pattern as worn by NCO Kriegsmarine personnel. The jacket, of heavy black leather with five button front closure furnished with classic German Kriegsmarine Naval buttons, all marked on the back by Overhoff & Cie, a known maker of buttons during the war. There is an additional hook and loop closure for the "Mandarin" style collar, which would definitely make putting on a hood easier. It features waist pockets with flaps, as well as a pocket on the left breast as well, so this was definitely an upmarket example, possibly used by an officer.

The interior is fully lined with charcoal gray wool, with silver striped black rayon in the sleeves, and has a slash pocket on the right interior. The jacket shows wear from use but is still in fantastic shape with the lining remaining almost entirely intact. There is a maker’s tag on the interior faintly reading:

Czulik & Langer

Proßnitz

10    54    42

This town is more correctly known as Prostějov, and was part of occupied Czechoslovakia during the war, after which any German names ceased to be used.

The closely matching trousers are of fine black leather and feature a three plastic button fly with a sturdy hook and loop closure at the top. There are vertical slash pockets on both sides, as well as suspender buttons on the waistband reading CLEO. The rear of the trousers has an opening with leather sizing strap and metal buckle, and there are also closure straps at the bottoms of the legs. They are fully lined with dark blue cotton cloth. There is a label on the inner right that has an RBNr with the measurements marked underneath:-

RBNr. 0/1297/0009
14    46    44

We have seen this exact same code on other leather trousers in the past. This is a very nice private-purchase set as associated with deck and U-boat personnel offered in very good condition with a maker & RBNr stamp. Comes ready for further research and display!

Approximate Measurements:-
Collar to shoulder: 10.5"
Shoulder to sleeve: 26.5”
Shoulder to shoulder: 16"
Chest width: 21”
Waist: 21"
Front length: 31"

Pants:-
Waist: 13"
Inseam: 30"

WWII Kriegsmarine
In violation of the Treaty of Versailles, the Kriegsmarine grew rapidly during German naval rearmament in the 1930s. The 1919 treaty had limited the size of the German navy and prohibited the building of submarines.

Kriegsmarine ships were deployed to the waters around Spain during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) under the guise of enforcing non-intervention, but in reality supported the Nationalists against the Spanish Republicans.

In January 1939, Plan Z, a massive ship-building program, was ordered, calling for surface naval parity with the British Royal Navy by 1944. When World War II broke out in September 1939, Plan Z was shelved in favour of a crash building program for submarines (U-boats) instead of capital surface warships, and land and air forces were given priority of strategic resources.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine (as for all branches of armed forces during the period of absolute NSDAP power) was AH, who exercised his authority through the Oberkommando der Marine ("High Command of the Navy").

The Kriegsmarine's most significant ships were the U-boats, most of which were constructed after Plan Z was abandoned at the beginning of World War II. Wolfpacks were rapidly assembled groups of submarines which attacked British convoys during the first half of the Battle of the Atlantic but this tactic was largely abandoned by May 1943 when U-boat losses mounted. Along with the U-boats, surface commerce raiders (including auxiliary cruisers) were used to disrupt Allied shipping in the early years of the war, the most famous of these being the heavy cruisers Admiral Graf Spee and Admiral Scheer and the battleship Bismarck. However, the adoption of convoy escorts, especially in the Atlantic, greatly reduced the effectiveness of surface commerce raiders against convoys.

Following the end of World War II in 1945, the Kriegsmarine's remaining ships were divided up among the Allied powers and were used for various purposes including minesweeping. Some were loaded with superfluous chemical weapons and scuttled.