Original German WWII Kriegsmarine Navy Engineering Konteradmiral Rear Admiral Reefer Jacket by Th. Thöl with Medal Bar

 Original Item: Only One Available. German Naval uniforms and headgear were based on the traditional designs that date back to the creation of the Prussian Navy in 1848. The uniforms and headgear did evolve during the interim years, many items used during the Third Reich era would still have been quite recognizable to the Imperial sailor.

The Reefer jacket was a basic uniform item intended for all ranks, with minor variations, and followed the basic design of the Imperial German Navy Reefer jacket. Officers and certain senior NCO ranks were responsible for purchasing their own uniforms and headgear and as a result, were allotted a clothing allowance through the Offizier Kleiderkasse der Kriegsmarine, (Officer’s Clothing Account of the Navy). Although enlisted personnel were issued their uniforms and headgear from government supplies, they were also permitted to purchase privately tailored items, but the price may have been restrictive. Generally speaking officers bought nicer quality, private purchase uniform items, but they could also choose to buy their uniforms directly from the military clothing depots.

This is a very nice, high quality private purchase Reefer Jacket with a navy blue wool construction, three quarter length. The double breasted style jacket features fold back, peak lapels and a lay down collar and has two, vertical and parallel rows of five front closure buttons with corresponding button eyelets on both the left and right front panels. The top button on each side are ornamental and not functional. The fold back peak lapels also have a single ornamental button eyelet to each. The right breast has a hand embroidered national breast eagle in gilt wire threads with gold Celleon accent threads, mounted on a cut-out, navy blue wool base. The eagle is neatly hand stitched to the jacket, though the gold bullion has oxidized in areas, so it now appears a lovely tarnished blue color.

The jacket has two, horizontal slash, front hip pockets with straight edged flaps, which can be placed inside the pockets if desired. The sleeves have straight cut, non-adjustable cuffs and each sleeve has a single 51mm wide horizontally ribbed, woven gilt wire horizontal rank tresse strip, with a narrower single 21mm wide tresse strip of similar construction above it. The wider strip features six raised horizontal bars, while the narrower strip features two, and both have a a recessed crosshatch pattern between the bars. The tress strips are machine stitched in position and would been applied at the time the jacket was manufactured as they are inserted into the reverse sleeve seam. The sleeves also have a small, hand embroidered bullion Ingenieuroffizier (Engineering Officer) career administrative insignia, which is neatly hand stitched to the sleeves. The tresse pattern of one wide strip with a narrow strip above signifies the rank of Konteradmiral, equivalent to a Heer Army Generalmajor or a U.S. Navy Rear Admiral (Lower Half).

The interior of the jacket is fully lined in black rayon with white rayon faux silk in the sleeves. The lining has a horizontal slash pocket to both the left and right front breast panels, and the rear of the collar has a great original tailor label from Th. Thöl of KIEL, one of the largest ports and shipyards in Germany. All the buttons are the non-magnetic gilt stamped type with an embossed, fouled, anchor on a horizontally ribbed field with a simulated, twisted, rope outer border. The buttons are all still clean and bright and appear to have their original stitching. They are all maker marked on the back by F. W. Assmann & Söhne of Lüdenscheid, and all also are marked with either FEUERVERGOLDUNG or FEUER VERGOLDET, indicating that they are fire gilt.

Attached to the left breast of the uniform is a lovely 5 award ribbon bar, which indicates the owner was awarded the War Merit Cross 2nd Class with Swords, The Eastern Front Medal, the 13 March 1938 Commemorative "Anschluss" Medal, the 1 October 1938 Sudetenland Medal, and the last one looks to be either a Romanian or Finnish liberation award. There are also three pairs of thread loops underneath for additional awards, which are not included.

This is a wonderful example of a WWII German Kriegsmarine Konteradmiral's Reefer Jacket. Comes more than ready for further research and display!

Approximate Measurements:-
Collar to shoulder: 9"
Shoulder to sleeve: 25”
Shoulder to shoulder: 15"
Chest width: 19.5”
Waist: 19.5"
Hip: 21"
Front length: 30"

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.