Original German WWII Kriegsmarine Kapitän zur See Officer's Dress Jacket by Steinmetz & Hehl with Medal Bar - MIssing Eagle

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a tailor made named German WWII Kriegsmarine Navy evening dress jacket for the senior line officer rank of Kapitän zur See (Captain of the Sea). The short jacket for evening dress, often called the Affenjacke (Monkey Jacket), is constructed of fine blue wool with gold kriegsmarine buttons and four 14mm ribbon rank cuffs on each sleeve. We can see stitch and tack glue marks on the right chest where the officer's bullion eagle used to be, however it was removed post war to "sanitize" the jacket, probably so the owner could wear it to veteran's meetings or the like. There are also no branch badges above the sleeve rank insignia, which may have also been removed.

The jacket is double breasted with 3 gilt Kriegsmarine buttons on each side, which are all maker marked on the back. There is a horizontal slash pocket on the left breast, with no other external pockets to maintain the sleek look. The interior is lined with what feels like black polished cotton, or maybe a cotton rayon blend. It is relatively shiny and slick. There are internal slash pockets on either side, and the sleeves are lined with white rayon faux silk.

The hanging loop on the inside of the collar is detached at one end, and there is no tailor label there, however there is one on the inner left chest under the slash pocket, which reads:-

STEINMETZ & HEHL
HAMBURG

Hamburg is a major port area in Germany, so it makes sense that outfitters in the city would have this type of dress jacket on hand. 

Above the left pocket is a four award medal bar with ribbons from the WWI, Interwar, and WWII era, showing that the soldier received the following awards:

- German WWI Iron Cross 1914 2nd Class EKII.
- German WWI Kingdom of Baden Service Medal
- German WWI Honor Cross of the World War 1914/1918 (Hindenburg Cross) with Swords (for combat)
- German Pre-WWII Entry into Sudetenland / Czech Conquest medal

There are also two thread loops below the pocket, however whatever award was there was removed. Overall condition is very good, with very little wear and no real mothing that we can see. The sleeve ring insignia have also turned a somewhat gray color due to age and oxidation.

This is a high quality WWII German Kriegsmarine Naval officer evening dress jacket offered in wonderful condition, most likely "sanitized" for wear post war. Ready to display!

Approximate Measurements:-
Collar to shoulder: 10.5"
Shoulder to sleeve: 25”
Shoulder to shoulder: 17.5"
Chest width: 19”
Waist: 17.5"
Front length: 22.5"

Kapitän zur See (Captain of the Sea, abbreviated KptzS, KZS, or KzS) is a senior officer rank in the German Navy. It is usually given to an officer who is in command of a ship-of-the-line or capital ship, and is just below the rank of Kommodore.

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.