History

The Army Paratrooper Badge was instituted on September 1, 1937. Like its Luftwaffe equivalent, this badge was a qualification badge given to those that had passed the tests to become paratroopers. The same number of parachute jumps, six, had to be performed for this.

When on January 1, 1939 the Army paratrooper unit was merged with the Luftwaffe paratroopers, the Army Paratrooper Badge ceased to be awarded. Former Army paratroopers were allowed to keep wearing their Army Paratrooper Badges on their new Luftwaffe uniforms.

However, in 1943 the Army began training of another elite paratrooper unit which came to be known as the “Brandenburgers”. Therefore, the Army Paratrooper Badge was reinstated on June 1, 1943.

Army Paratrooper Badges were initially made from aluminum, with a silvered eagle and a gilt wreath. However, when they were reinstituted in 1943, badge production had switched to zinc as the material of choice. It was of lower quality, but cheap and abundant.

For the longest time, Juncker was seen as the only producer of the Army Paratrooper Badge. However, fairly recently it has been discovered that in all likelihood F. Linden from Lüdenscheid also made these badges.

The Army Paratrooper Badge is one of the few army badges to be made in a cloth version, most likely because the Luftwaffe Paratrooper Badge was, too.

The eagle and wreath were stitched onto an oval backing that was typically made of wool. Cotton thread was used for the stitching. Contrary to the Luftwaffe Paratrooper Badge, a bullion thread version for officers is not known to exist.

There are two different types of Army Paratrooper Badges in cloth.