Uniforms of the German Soldier

This book traces the evolution of the German Army uniform from 1870 to the present day, using nearly 800 photographs to offer the reader an unparalleled analysis. Each image is accompanied by a detailed caption, explaining interesting aspects of the soldier’s uniform, insignia and equipment.

It begins with the German Empire at its height, with the iconic spiked Pickelhaube and the colonial troops in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and moves on to the field-grey uniforms of the First World War. After 1918, the uniforms of the Reichswehr and the Freikorps are detailed, and then those of the revived Wehrmacht up to the end of the Second World War. The post-war years saw the establishment of the Bundeswehr in the West and East Germany’s Nationalen Volksarmee, facing each other across the border of a divided Germany, before reunification in 1991.

No other country’s army has undergone such changes in the past century-and-a-half, and this book provides a unique visual record of those changes.