Original Item: One-of-a-kind. This is a tailor made named German WWII evening dress Kriegsmarine Waffenoffizier für Sperrwaffen (Weapons Officer for Blocking Weapons) jacket for the line officer rank of Korvettenkapitän (Corvette Captain). The short jacket for evening dress, often called the Affenjacke (Monkey Jacket), is constructed of fine blue wool with gold kriegsmarine buttons, three 14mm ribbon rank cuffs on each sleeve, with patinated bullion embroidered naval mine devices on both sides. These are correct for "Blocking Weapons", and indicates the owner was a Weapons officer involved in sea mines and other defensive weaponry.

There is a wonderful patinated officer's bullion eagle to the right chest, correctly only sewn to the outer layer of fabric. The bullion has oxidized to a lovely blue color, which allows the celleon retaining threads to easily be seen. The jacket is double breasted with 4 gilt Kriegsmarine buttons on each side, which are all maker marked on the back. There are no exterior pockets on the jacket to maintain the sleek look. The interior is lined with what feels like black polished cotton, or maybe a cotton rayon blend. It feels a bit like silk but seems to be too thick for that. There are internal slash pockets on either side, and the sleeves are lined with white rayon.

The rear collar of the jacket still has a fully intact and legible maker's tag, which reads Niemann & Lappe / KIEL. This matches the tailor label on the left inside pocket, which reads:

NIEMANN & LAPPE
vörm. CHR. EHLERS
KIEL, Brunswikerstraße 16
Herr Leutnant (Kp.) Kalura
No. 3273   Datum Dezbr. 1935.

Kiel is a major Baltic Port city in Germany, and was one of the major shipbuilding cities during WW2, so this is exactly the right location for a tailor specializing in Kriegsmarine officer's tunics. It looks like the owner purchased this when they were ranked as an Kapitänleutnant, and had it updated when they were promoted to Korvettenkapitän. We are not quite sure on the spelling of the last name, but there is definitely a nice possibility for further research here!

Overall condition is excellent, with very little wear and no real mothing that we can see. The sleeve insignia have also turned a somewhat gray color due to age and oxidation, as with the breast eagle.

This is a high quality WWII German Naval officer evening dress jacket offer in wonderful condition. Ready to display!

In the Imperial German Navy and Kriegsmarine the Korvettenkapitän (Corvette Captain) was the lowest officer rank of the senior officer's rank group. The rank insignia consisted of shoulder strap and sleeve stripes. Shoulder straps had to be worn on uniform jackets and consisted of twisted silver-braids (without pip/star) on padding in navy blue weapon color. Cuff insignia consisted of three stripes, and a five-point naval star above. The sleeve rings encircled the lower cuffs. In the case of specialized officers, a corps insignia would replace the star.

The Kriegsmarine was the navy of NSDAP Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war Reichsmarine (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches, along with the Heer and the Luftwaffe, of the Wehrmacht, the German armed forces from 1935 to 1945.

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 shipbuilding 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 favor 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 Adolf H, 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.