Original Item: Only One Available. The Feldgendarmerie (Field Police) were a type of military police units of the armies of the Kingdom of Saxony (from 1810), the German Empire and NSDAP Germany until the conclusion of World War II in Europe. When Adolf H came to power in 1933, Feldgendarmerie were reintroduced into the Wehrmacht, with the new units receiving full infantry training and were given extensive police powers. They were employed within army divisions and as self-contained units under the command of an army corps. They often worked in close cooperation with the Geheime Feldpolizei (Secret Field Police), district commanders and SS and Police Leaders.

After the catastrophic winter of 1941-42 on the Eastern Front, the German military rapidly designed improved cold weather clothing. By the Fall of 1942, a variety of winter fur lined caps (Pelzmütze or Winterfellmütze) had been introduced. There were no standardized "model numbers", but this version is a commonly encountered pattern, except instead of the Heer or Waffen SS, it was intended for use by the field police.

It has a police blue green wool body, which is lined with gray light canvas cotton fabric, and it features a visor and fold down ear flaps backed with rabbit fur. The front visor is tack stitched open (stitches are partly pulled) and is rarely seen in the "down" position. As with those used by regular soldiers, a cap badge is installed on the front flap, which in this case is an aluminum civic police eagle insignia. The flaps are usually held in the "up" (open) position by a single button one flap, which fits into a loop on the other flap, both of which are still present. The black cloth ties for fastening the flaps under the chin are present on both sides, and are tied together.

This fine example is offered in very good condition with over 90% of the fur intact, and the interior gray canvas lining showing very light staining from use. It is still clearly marked with the complete manufacture information:

R.B.Nr. 0/1200/0747
58
1944

We have unfortunately not been able to identify the RB Nr. marking, which is pretty typical, as the records are highly incomplete. These have become very hard to find on the market today and even decent reproductions sell for hundreds of dollars. This is the first example we have had of the Police type, and it's definitely a good one! Ready to display!

Reichsbetriebsnummer or RB number (also represented as RB Nr or Rbnr). Before the war, the Germans set up a system for registering and recording the factory information, the Reichsbetriebskartei. This was to help enable machine tabulation of facts and figures. It was from this that the Reichsbetriebsnummer came into being. The Reichsministerium für Rüstung und Kriegsproduktion (Ministry for Armaments and War Production) files survive today in the Bundesarchiv, however, these are only fragmentary. There is a holding file from the working group created by the Office of Machine Reporting in the Armament Office of the Reich Ministry for Armaments and War Production - their main focus was the operations of the industry group for which an economic interest was Armour production. This index provides information on the most important data of the companies covered by it, production profile, operating area, number of employees and the responsible operator.

As a prerequisite for the intended use of the punch-card method in the armaments industry, it was this system which gave rise to the Rbnr. The operating numbers were assigned by the competent local district offices of Machine reporting. (Bezirksstellen des Maschinellen Berichtswesens.) The index is in the form of index cards that are accessible numerically (approximately 14 meters of index cards!). Access to this register is only possible through the naming of this company, stating the place of production. The Reichsministerium für Rüstung und Kriegsproduktion files have multiple entries on the introduction of the factory and also the lot no.

The Rbnr code was used from 1943 onwards and replaced the makers name and address (or company logo) on government contract uniforms, caps and field equipment and knives. It is either rubber ink stamped on cloth or die stamped onto leather & metal items. It has been written countless times that this numeric code system was introduced as a security measure to help mask production locations. This was not the case but it was perhaps, a helpful by- product of the system. It is not unknown to find the Rbnr together with the maker’s info. Had it been a security measure, clearly this practise would have been banned.

So what was the Rbnr? It was a nine digit number and was normally represented thus: RB Nr: 0/000/0000.

The first prefix number could range from 0 through to 9. This number determined the membership of the various groups in the realm of Trade and Industry (Reichsgruppenleitzahl)

• 0 Industry
• 1 Crafts
• 2 Commercial wholesale trading companies
• 3 Banking
• 4 Insurance Companies
• 5 Energy (Electrical companies and such)
• 6 Tourism (Including Hotels, Wine and Mineral Water companies)
• 7 Traffic
• 8 Food Industry
• 9 Not otherwise mentioned groups