History

The Deutsche Reichsbahn (German National Railway) was created after the First World War in 1920 by combining the formerly independent state railways of the abolished German Empire into a national organisation. Under NSDAP rule, the German state railway system was reorganised in the 1930s to better meet the needs of the economy and to prepare for war, eventually supplying the front lines with soldiers and supplies. The Reichsbahn also had an infamous role to play in the Holocaust, transporting Jews and other “undesirables” to concentration and extermination camps.

The Bahnschutzpolizei (railway protection police) was founded in 1939 as a merger of the Bahnpolizei (railway police) and the Reichsbahnschutz (railway protection force), the latter being regular railway employees that, beyond their normal functions, additionally served as railway security personnel.
The Bahnschutzpolizei as a railway sub-organisation was made up of policemen that were employed by the Reichsbahn rather than the German police force. Their task was to ensure railway safety as well as preventing railway-related espionage and sabotage. During the war, most members of the Bahnschutzpolizei served in the occupied Eastern European territories.

A field cap was introduced at an unknown date and worn by members of the Reichsbahn and Bahnschutz alike. Initially, it was only worn by Enlisted Ranks. The cap is dark blue without piping. As its sole insignia it features a machine-embroidered cockade on a dark blue cloth backing. The cap was also available in dark grey with the same cockade, but with an additional black soutache and a machine-embroidered grey national eagle emblem on a green cloth backing.

The cap’s design eventually changed. Reichsbahn members and those of the Bahnschutzpolizei, established in 1941, wore a field cap in light blue (officially “Horizontblau”, horizon blue) cloth. It featured grey crown piping for Enlisted Ranks, while Officers had silver-coloured piping on the crown as well as on the flaps. Gold-coloured piping for higher leaders was introduced in November of 1941. The cap may or may not feature a soutache of the same colour scheme. It was completed by a white of silver-coloured cloth eagle and a cloth cockade, both on blue cloth backings.