The tschako had its origins in military headdress (from at least 1806) much like the police pickelhaube and was adopted by the Landwehr, Gendarmerie and then increasingly State and City forces. Tschakos were in use from the 1900s (and possibly earlier), were standardised by the Nazis (with the exception of the Sachsen tschako) and then re-emerged in both the Federal Republic and DDR until being largely phased out in the 1960s.
The early tschakos were of an all-leather construction with those manufactured from the 1930s onwards being of a harder material, a bit like bakerlite: ‘Echt Vulkan Fiber’ in German. If you know precisely what it is please let me know. There are literally dozens of different types of tschako crest, reflecting the different provinces and cities of Germany through the ages, but only a few different types of coloured body. As a general rule the greatest number are plain black shell, with those coloured white coming from the traffic police, green of the WW2 era ordnungspolizei and brown of the rural gendarmerie. I’ve also seen one that was blue but I haven’t been able to identify it, possibly a variant used by the Luftschutzpolizei or Wasserschultpolizei? I’ve laid out my Tschako collection in date order, oldest first.
Weimar Republic, 1919 – 1933
This is my only Tschako that predates the First World War, albeit that the tschakostern is from 1919. It’s a bit battered and the crown has detached from its stitching, but on the plus side, it has excellent clear Stamps inside and with the 1919-21 transitional wappen. Detail about this transitional badge can be found on p30 of Radecke’s second volume: 1918 – 1945.
You will notice from the gallery that it has a single vent to each side, with a second small opening to the left side. Stamps to the interior read ‘Aufgearbeitet R. Becker & Co. Berlin O.27’. The street name is hard to make out, but I think it is ‘Marsiliusstr. 4-5’. Below are the numerals (first 2 faded) 1027 and the size (small) of 54 ½. Below that S. P. Berlin (Sicherheitspolizei).
The Kokarde is felt, in the Prussian State colour of black with silvered braiding and the rear is unusually sealed with a type of paper or layered card. Detailed pictures can be seen below in the gallery.
The next Tschako is not as old, but has the same short-lived Prussian eagle badge:
While otherwise non-descript, the tschako sports an unpainted aluminium kokarde manufactured by C. Th. Dicke of Ludenscheid. Another example (last picture in the gallery) was similarly without internal stamps save the size, but sports a 1938 S.R.M. kokarde in the old national colours of black, white and red. Although it came with the tschako on purchase, it is incorrect for the period.
The Württemberg Tschako shown below appears similar to the post-war examples, but the patina to the wappen and the internal configuration points to this being a Weimar-era example.
A most interesting piece is this Verkehrspolizei example, also Weimar in age, with the standardised Prussian eagle. It came with a kokarde in the correct national colours, but many Lander forces dispensed with a kokarde for ease of use when using motorised transport.
The final tschako in this series is a favourite, my Baverian Landespolizei. As per all Bavarian Landespolizei tschakos of the period, it sports the Bavarian national colours in the kokarde and the badge, representative of the Bavarian flag, is silvered.
National-Socialist Regime, 1933 – 1945
There is no denying the atrocities of the Nazi regime and the following images are here purely for the historical record. The picture below shows an officer’s tschako, denazified, as used from May 1945 until 1946. The gallery below has examples from the police reserve, rural gendarmerie, sicherheitspolizei, feldgendarmerie (Heer) and finally a police combat helmet.
The Kasernierten Volkspolizei (KVP) of the DDR 1952 – 1990
Like police in the Federal Republic, the police of the DDR initially made use of denazified headress and other equipment, before gradually adopting Soviet and Warsaw pact equipment. At first, the soviets permitted recreation of the former Landespolizei and headress from this era is highly collectable. With the creation of the DDR in 1949, centralisation began with the adoption in 1950 of a single crest utilising the pan-german colours of 1848 (black-red-gold). Uniforms remained more reminicent of the former regime than in the West, but the tschako style was quite different, albeit utilising war-time and pre-war liners initially. Although the tschako style itself did not alter, they come with two different style crests: the first displaying the pan-German colours (1954-60), whilst the second incorporated the state emblems of the DDR. As in the west and following German tradition, the Volkspolizei (VoPo) utilised aluminium schuppenkette over the chipstrap to denote higher ranks.
Officer’s Tschako, first style badge
Other Ranks Tschako, second style badge
The tschako began to be phased out of use in the DDR earlier than in the west, with the introduction of the now classic DDR helmet (below). VoPo tschakos were completely replaced in 1962 by order of the Interior Ministry and most were subsequently destroyed.
Details and close-ups of these different types of VoPo headress can be seen in the gallery below.
The Federal Republic of Germany
Policing in the western zones of occupation proceded initially in a smilar manner to that in the soviet zone. Land and Stadt polizei were recreated and influenced depending on which allied zone of occupation they were in, according to British, French or American traditions. The formation of the Federal Republic in 1949 preserved the independence of each Bundesland to have their own police force and while fashions and uniforms may have changed over the years, this remains in place. Across Germany, variants existed: for traffic police (white); Bremen retained the green wool varient from the former regime, but painted them a dark green and discarded the kokarde. Several States applied a similar wool to the tschakos of senior officers, but in black. As in the Weimar period, different quality and types of fittings and badges differentiated tschakos across different ranks.
I am lucky enough to have two tschakos that were in use prior to the creartion of the Federal Republic. One from the old Prussian Rheinprovinz and the other from Westfalen. Together the emblems were merged to create the new State of Nordrheinwestfalen (NRW).
Rheinprovinz:
Westfalen:
Nordrheinwestfalen:
This next tschako is an odd one. The green wool is a much brighter green than those used from 1933-45. Also the kokarde is a distinct black similar to those used by Prussia. This is one I need to research – is it a mock-up or fake, or something unusual? If you know, please use the contact form to let me know. I’d be delighted to hear from you.
A second example NRW other ranks tschako below. To all intents identical to that above.
Berlin
Although technically not part of the Federal Republic, (West) Berlin followed similar practice to the rest of western Germany. I have four Tschakos from Berlin: an officers example, a traffic police tschako and two regular examples, one with silver badge and kokarde, the other in gold. I also have a stahlhelm that I’ve included in the end gallery.
Bremen
The Bremen police were unique in West Germany for continuing to use the tschakos from the national socialist period and modernising them by painting the wool green and removing the kokarde and (naturally enough) replaced the NS Eagle with the State Emblem. Here again, gold and slivered examples, followed by a ‘modern’ black wool officers:
Hamburg
I only have the one tschako from Hamburg. It came without a kokarde and I have since added a post-war example.
Niedersachsen
Schleswig-Holstein
S-H is an interesting State insofar as it went through three varients in the tschako badge in only nine years. The first, September 1946, the second was introduced in 1947, with the final version adopted in 1955. The first version is the rarest and I’m lucky enough to have an example below. The second version of the crest had milling to the edge of the inner circle and the landeswappen are contained within a shield, of a different variant to that in type 3. For an explanation and photos of these crests see Radecke, Vol. 3 1945 – 1933 pp25-26.
City Tschakos
Stadt Stuttgart:
Stadt Braunschweig:
Landkreis Braunschweig:
Polizei-Gruppe Kiel:
Polizei-Gruppe Lubeck:
Stadt Dusseldorf:
This is a particularly interesting Tschako because the Dusseldorf crest was never actually worn or used, only being obtained by collectors.
Stadt Oldenburg:
I hope that you have found this page interesting. The gallery below includes some close-ups not included above, particularly of makers marks. I have also included what appears to be a luftschutz type helmet. There are no identifying stamps, so I’ve included it here for want of a better place. Ditto the Bahnpolizei sign.
