General’s/Admiral’s Breast Eagles

Hand-embroidered breast eagles for officers are often small works of art in which the embroiderer had an opportunity to display his or her personal skills at detail and execution which can lead to a wide variety of designs and features. Some of these individual details are quickly recognized by longtime collectors and highly valued over other, more common varieties. Two of the three basic Wehrmacht branches, the Heer and the Luftwaffe,used gold bullion embroidery to indicate the rank of a General officer.

The Kriegsmarine is an exception, as gold was the standard color used for all breast eagles, from enlisted all the way up to Admiral (except for the Administrative branch, which was silver). So typically the only difference may be in quality of embroidery (an Admiral may have a higher quality eagle than a junior officer, though not necessarily as any officer who wanted to pay more for better quality insignia was able to do so). Therefore there really is no specific “Admiral” breast eagle. Any gold bullion or gold wire hand-embroidered breast eagle that is on a dark blue backing is considered to be that of a Naval officer up to and including Admiral.

The SS was also an exception, as they did not use a breast eagle and instead wore their own specific version of a national eagle on the left sleeve instead of the breast. These eagles were silver embroidered for all officers including General…..with the one exception being Oberst-Gruppenfuhrer Sepp Dietrich, who chose to have his own insignia created using gold bullion and wire for not only his sleeve eagle, but also his cufftitle.

Below we will explore various examples of these hand-embroidered eagles, both those on surviving tunics and loose examples.

The Army (Heer) Generals

This is an original cardboard template, or “unterlagen” which was used as a guide for the embroiderer when making Heer breast eagles. It was placed over the cloth backing while the embroiderer, using a needle and the appropriate thread (gold wire, coil bullion, box bullion, etc.) sewed around it and added his/her own distinct details. The variety of styles of embroidery we see is the result of the various individuals that did the embroidery, their level of skill and technique, and perhaps also the preferences or requirements of that particular embroidery firm.

Here’s an example of a brand new Heer General officer breast eagle, discovered in 2016 as part of a tailor-shop horde of high ranks insignia.

Once the eagles were embroidered, they were inserted in rice paper envelopes for safe storage until needed for use on a tunic.

A close look at the fine detail of the embroidery.

Another very nicely detailed example from the horde.

The reverse of the above eagle showing the protective black paper backing that is often found on hand-embroidered breast and cap eagles.

This eagle is a mixture of bullion and celleon embroidery.

The reverse of the above eagle gives us a good look at how the embroidery was finished from the back. Not all eagles have a protective paper backing attached.

A bullion example similar in style to those above.

Again, a similar style yet with tiny differences in the feet, inner and outer wings.

Two-tone bullion and celleon eagle from the uniform tunic of Generalarzt Hans-Joachim Barnewitz.

Tightly woven Celleon eagle from the uniform tunic of Generalmajor Friederich Fangohr

Un-issued gold bullion wire Generals eagle.

Bullion eagle with the typical wire twist top at the wings.

This is one of the more sought-after patterns of General officer breast eagles and is often seen on personality uniforms. Notice the multi-tone bullion wire and the extremely tight embroidery.

GFM von Manstein tunic. Gold wire and bullion in the same pattern as the above eagle.

(private collection)

This eagle is from an un-named General’s tunic and features the same wire and bullion embroidery pattern and style as the above examples.

(private collection)

A multi-tone bullion embroidered eagle.

A gold wire and bullion embroidered eagle with yellow thread highlights, from the parade dress uniform of Generalmajor Erwin Rommel.

A gold wire embroidered eagle from the tropical uniform of General der Panzertruppe Georg Stumme.

A spectacular example of a multi-tone bullion embroidered eagle with yellow thread highlights on a tropical olive backing, from the tropical uniform of Generalmajor Heinrich-Hermann von Hülsen.

A gold bullion embroidered eagle with yellow thread highlights, from the tropical uniform of Generalmajor Walter Stettner.

This example is embroidered in celleon with orange thread highlights.

A black backed Generals eagle with very interesting black thread highlights. These black backed eagles could also be used for Kriegsmarine officers.

Generalleutnant Mack tunic. Gold wire and bullion.

(private collection)

Celleon breast eagle.

(Ron Richter collection)

Celleon breast eagle.

(Ron Richter collection)

Gold wire embroidered breast eagle.

(Ron Richter collection)

Gold bullion and gold wire breast eagle.

(Ron Richter collection)

Gold wire breast eagle. This, again, is the most sought after pattern.

(Ron Richter collection)

Same pattern as above. The breast eagle from Generalfeldmarschall von Rundstedt’s uniform tunic.

Generalmajor Beelitz tunic. Gold bullion.

(John M. Donovan collection)

This breast eagle is embroidered in gold celleon thread with gold wire accent threads on the feet, tops of wings, bottom of the wreath and the eagle’s eye.

Un-named Administrative Generals tunic. Gold wire and bullion.

(Howard Kelley collection)

Generaloberst Falkenhorst tunic. Celleon and bullion.

(Howard Kelley collection)

General der Infanterie Kuno-Hans von Both tunic. Celleon.

(private collection)

Generalmajor Hermann Bacher tunic. Gold wire and bullion with thread highlights.

(Thomas Suter collection)

Un-named General’s tunic. Gold bullion.

(private collection)

Un-issued General’s eagle. Gold bullion.

(private collection)

Generalmajor Angernn tunic.

(Mike Peters collection)

Generalleutnant Schopper tunic. Celleon with thread highlights.

(private collection)

General der Panzertruppe Walter Nehring tunic. Gold bullion on a field-grey backing. The field-grey backed gold embroidered eagles were also used for Kreigsmarine land-based forces.

(private collection)

Generalfeldmarschall Walther von Brauchitsch also wore a breast eagle with a field-grey backing.

The Luftwaffe Generals

This is one of the styles of “unterlagen” which was used as a guide for the embroiderer when making Luftwaffe breast eagles. While the Heer eagles were rather simple in basic design without any variation, with the Luftwaffe there are several unique patterns allowing for different detail on the wings and chest. Also, there are two versions, beginning with the early style eagle with a “droop” tail in which the tail curves forward toward the legs.

This tightly woven, early pattern “droop tail” white backed eagle belonged to Generalfeldmarschall Erhard Milch and is embroidered in fine gold wire.

Luftwaffe Generalfeldmarschall Milch tunic of the second pattern eagle with the tail feathers outstretched. Embroidered in gold bullion coil thread.

(Holzauge Historical collection)

Yet another early, “droop tail” excellent specimen from the Milch estate, the body of the eagle in gold bullion coil thread and the swastika in gold wire.

A very high-quality eagle, tightly embroidered in gold wire with golden-yellow accent threads.

Un-issued Luftwaffe General’s eagle, with original tags from the embroidery firm Thiele & Steinert. Golden-yellow celleon (nylon) embroidery with dark brown accent thread highlights. While difficult to see in the photograph, in-hand this example has a brilliance to it that mimics bullion.

(private collection)

Luftwaffe General der Flieger tunic. Gold bullion and wire.

(Ron Richter collection)

Luftwaffe Generalmajor tunic. Gold bullion and wire.

(private collection)

A nice bullion example with a tightly woven swastika from the uniform of Generaloberst Alfred Keller.

A nice bullion example from the uniform of General Ludwig Keiper.

A white backed breast eagle from a kleiner rock, this one from the uniform of Kurt Student.

Unknown Generalmajors tunic. Tightly embroidered in golden-yellow celleon (nylon) thread.

(private collection)

The Kriegsmarine Admirals

For unterlagen, the Kriegsmarine used the exact same style of left-facing eagle as the Heer, the only difference was in the backing of the eagle as the majority of KM eagles were embroidered over black. However, they also used field-grey, which has also been photographed in use by some Heer General’s, so there was some cross-usage between the services. This creates controversy, of course, when a gold embroidered eagle is on a black background. Is it for a Heer Panzer General, or is it a standard Kriegsmarine Officer? In reality, it could be either!

Grandadmiral Donitz tunic. Gold bullion.

(private collection)

Admiral von Puttkamer’s breast eagle from his blue reefer jacket.

The removable white backed breast eagle for the summer tunic belonging to Admiral von Puttkamer.

Admiral von Puttkamer’s frock coat breast eagle (which the Admiral had been removed and has been restored).

Vizeadmiral Von Trotha’s tunic. Gold bullion with thread highlights.

(private collection)

The SS Generals

The SS Generals did not wear eagles on the breast of their tunics, as the Heer, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine did. They wore their own pattern of an eagle on their left sleeves (as did all officers and enlisted personnel). There was no SS order or regulation specifying a separate sleeve eagle for General officers and they wore the exact same silver embroidered eagles that were worn by all other officers. As shown below, Sepp Dietrich was the only exception and his use of a gold bullion eagle was a personal preference and his revered status within the SS and with Hitler allowed him to exercise this freedom.

This unterlagen is for a SS cap eagle, but is of the same style as the sleeve-eagles used by SS officers and generals.

With the exception of Sepp Dietrich, all other General officers in the SS wore a silver hand-embroidered sleeve eagle as in this example.

The only General officer in the SS to wear a gold embroidered sleeve eagle was Oberst-Gruppenfuhrer Sepp Dietrich. This example is from one of his uniform tunics.

The Police Generals

The German Police wore gold eagles on their left sleeves in the same fashion as the SS. There were two patterns of sleeve eagles worn by Police Generals. The first pattern was a similar design as the Police eagle worn on sleeves by officers and enlisted personnel with the exception that it was hand-embroidered in gold bullion or gold wire. The second pattern was exactly the same design as the Heer Generals eagle, with the exception being that the eagle’s head was to face the left (though one must assume many of the eagles worn probably had the eagle facing right as Heer eagles would have been easier to acquire or easy to mistake for a Police eagle).

The rather large and ornate unterlage template for the Police sleeve eagle. As with the Heer, Luftwaffe and SS, there was no separate design for Generals/Admirals, the eagle was the same. The only difference was the color of thread used in the embroidery. Police officers would have been embroidered in silver-aluminum and Police Generals would be embroidered in gold wire or bullion.

The first pattern Police Generals sleeve eagle, embroidered in gold wire.

A period photograph showing Police General Alfred Wunnenberg wearing the gold embroidered Heer style second pattern sleeve eagle for Police Generals. Unfortunately there is not a period example with a left-facing eagle to show.