English: ORGANISATIONSBUCH DER NSDAP 1943: Tafel 22: Colour plate showing
- The paramilitary ranks and insignia (collar patches, Kragenspiegel) of the political leaders of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP) in Nazi Germany 1939–1945. The final pattern of Nazi Party ranks was put into effect in mid-1939. The new insignia pattern was a vast overhaul of previous designs beginning with a standardized set of twenty eight Nazi Party ranks that were to be uniform across all levels of the Party. To denote membership in a particular "level" of the Nazi Party (local, county, regional, or national) collar tabs would display a particular color on which the actual rank insignia would then be displayed. (For photos, see NSDAP Collar Tab and Shoulder Board Identification Guide by GermanDaggers.com.)
- Rank insignia of Sonderbeauftragter, Special Representative 1939–1945. The Nazi Party political position of Sonderbeauftragter did not exist on the local level of the Nazi Party (the Ortsgruppen) but was standard across County, Regional, and National Party lines.
- Badges for leaders of the "National Socialist Women's League" (Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft, NSF), among them for the Gaufrauenschaftsleiterin (regional level women's leader).
The Nazi Party command structure was divided into four basic levels: the general membership known as the Parteimitglieder, the political leadership corps known as the Politische Leiters, the upper command levels of the Party encompassed by the Gauleiters (district leaders) and Reichsleiters (national leaders), and finally the position of Führer held solely by Adolf Hitler as supreme leader of the Party.
The Reichsleitung was the national leadership with members of the NSDAP Party Directorate. The Gaue (singular Gau) were NSDAP regional districts which functioned as administrative organization of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. These were further subdivided into: Bezirke (districts), Kreise (counties, subdistricts, smaller units of the Bezirk), Ortsgruppen (Party branch or local branches with a minimum of fifteen members), Hauszellen (tenement cells), Straßenzellen (street cells), and Stützpunkte (strong points).
Cropped page copied from
Organisationsbuch der NSDAP by
Reichsorganisationsleiter Robert Ley (1890 – 1945) published 1943 ("Herausgeber: Robert Ley"; "7 Auflage: 301-400 Tausend"). Publisher : Zentralverlag der NSDAP, Franz Eher Nachf., München. 856 pages. 596 (ie 750) p: ill, maps, ports, plates; 22 cm; German language. Letters in
Fraktur style typefaces.