German Colonial Uniforms

This page shows period photographs taken of German colonial or overseas troops in uniform from various private and family collections. They include members of the Schutztruppe, Imperial Navy, Seebatallione, East Asian Expeditionary Corps and the Tsingtao Chinese Police.

All photographs seen on this page are used with the prior consent of the owners. Please respect their generosity in sharing these photos with us by not reproducing them without prior permission.

(Click on the pictures below to enlarge)



Three privates ("Reiter") of the German South West African Schutztruppe taken sometime in the early 20th Century. They all wear the Schutztruppe 1896 khaki tropical uniform piped in blue, with grey (or possibly grey/brown corduroy) field caps also piped in blue with blue hatbands with a small imperial cockade on the front. Photo © Joe Mikolajczak	A photograph of Robert Bartsch, a sailor on the SMS Iltis that served in China, and his family. Over his white summer shirt he wears a dark blue other ranks dress jacket ("Affenjacke") with specialist insignia on the left sleeve in yellow metallic thread. Photo kindly shared with us by his nephew, Axel Scharr ©	A photo of a soldier of the German East Asian Expeditionary Corps taken in about 1900. He wears a straw slouch hat pinned up on the right hand side with a large imperial cockade above a smaller state cockade, and a khaki tunic with white shoulder boards displaying his regimental number in red. Photo © Doppler

A photo of a soldier of the III. Seebatallion in the khaki tropical uniform with matching peaked field cap. This cap could also be worn with a neckshade. Note the white shoulder boards with a yellow imperial crown, crossed anchors and the battalion numeral III. Also notice the curious way in which old orthochromatic film shows yellow (on the shoulder straps) as a much darker shade than natural. This was caused by the inferior photographic techniques of the time. Photo © Doppler	A photo of a soldier of the III. Seebatallion in the 1900 grey Litewka tunic worn on duty and in action in the Winter months. His peaked field cap has a white hatband and piping and appears to be in grey to match his tunic. Note the same white shoulder board and large yellow collar Litzen, that again due to the photographic process appear very dark. Photo © Doppler	A photo of a soldier of the II. Seebatallion taken in Germany. He is wearing the dark blue home uniform piped in white. He wears a peaked field cap in dark blue to match his tunic with the same white piping and hatband. Again the yellow Litzen shows up dark. Note the same white shoulder boards this time with the numeral II. Photo © Doppler

This photo shows the field artillery battery (Marine Feld Batterie) of the III. Seebatallion in Tsingtao wearing khaki tropical helmets and khaki uniforms. Photo © Doppler	New recruits to the Chinese Tsingtao Police force. Note the khaki Chinese style uniforms, dark blue/grey puttees and imperial brassards (see Identification Brassards Page for details). Photo © Doppler	A photo of a mounted soldier of the field artillery battery of the III. Seebatallion taken in Tsingtao prior to the First World War. He is wearing dark blue winter uniform with Jäger style shako. Note the cartouche belt worn over the shoulder and artillery pattern sword, both unique to the Marine Feld Batterie. Photo © Doppler

Three NCOs of the III. Seebatallion wearing 1893 dark blue Litewkas guarding suspected Boxer prisoners. This photo was probably taken in about 1901. Photo © Doppler	A company of the III. Seebatallion at Tsingtao Harbour taken in the early 1900's. Photo © Doppler	Another photo of the same unit. Photo © Doppler

Please contact me here if you have other photographs of the German colonies that you would be happy to share with us.

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