Military ranks of the German Empire

The military ranks of the German Empire were the ranks used by the military of the German Empire 1871–1918. It inherited the various traditions and military ranks of its constituent states.

Ranks of the Imperial German Army

See also: Imperial German Army

Officer corps

Critics long believed that the Army's officer corps was heavily dominated by Junker aristocrats, so that commoners were shunted into low-prestige branches, such as the heavy artillery or supply. However, by the 1890s, the top ranks were opened to highly talented commoners.^[1][2]

The rank insignia of commissioned officers.

Rank group	General / flag officers										Senior officers						Junior officers
Epaulette (Full dress uniform)
Shoulder board (Waffenrock)
	Generalfeldmarschall	Generaloberst (im Rang des Generalfeldmarschall)	Generaloberst		General der Waffengattung		Generalleutnant		Generalmajor		Oberst		Oberstleutnant		Major		Hauptmann/ Rittmeister[a]		Oberleutnant			Leutnant

Warrant officers and officer cadets

• Cadet (Fahnenjunker, ranking between Sergeant and Vizefeldwebel) – served as cadets in the various military academies and schools. After graduation, they became a Fähnrich.
• Ensign (Fähnrich, ranking between Vize-Feldwebel and Feldwebel) A probationary officer waiting to become a 2nd Lieutenant (Leutnant).
• Deputy Officer (Offizierstellvertreter, ranking above Etatmäßiger Feldwebel) A warrant officer usually used as a brevet Leutnant or an acting platoon leader.
• Uncommissioned Lieutenant (Feldwebelleutnant, a reserve rank for promoted sergeants serving as a junior 2nd Lieutenant with Lieutenant's pay, but without an officer's commission.) They wore an officer's dress sword (degen) rather than an NCO's dagger, and wore the rank insignia of a Vizefeldwebel on the collar with second lieutenant's shoulder straps.^[3] Still a member of the NCO's Mess until 1917, when he became eligible for the Officer's Mess.

Non-commissioned officers / Unteroffiziere

Rank group	Unteroffizier mit Portepee		Unteroffizier ohne Portepee
Collar (portepee, sleeve braid)
Title	etatmäßiger Feldwebel	Vizefeldwebel	Sergeant	Unteroffizier
Cavalry/ Artillery	etatmäßiger Wachtmeister	Vizewachtmeister

• Unteroffizier mit Portepee ("Non-Commissioned Officer with Sword Knot"). Senior NCOs with the right to wear a ceremonial lanyard tied to the hilt of their NCO service dagger.
  • Etatmäßiger Feldwebel ("Budgetary Sergeant Major") A company's senior NCO. They were equivalent to a British Company Sergeant Major or an American First Sergeant.
  • Vizefeldwebel ("Assistant Sergeant Major") A platoon's senior NCO. They were equivalent to a British Sergeant.
• Unteroffizier ohne Portepee ("Non-Commissioned Officer without Sword Knot"). Junior NCOs who did not have the right to wear the sword knot.
  • Sergeant A junior NCO who leads a section, equivalent to a British Lance-Sergeant.
  • Unteroffizier ("Subordinate Officer") A junior NCO who leads a section.^[4] They were equivalent to a British Corporal.

Enlisted (Mannschaften/Gemeine) ranks

Rank group	Enlisted
Collar
Epaulette
Title	Kapitulant	Einjährig-freiwilliger	Obergefreiter	Gefreiter	Soldat
English designation	Capitulant	One-Year Volunteer Enlistee	Senior Lance Corporal	Lance Corporal	Private

• Musketeer (Musketier, Prussian army infantry regiments), Infantryman (Infanterist, Bavarian army infantry regiments), Soldier (Soldatzüng, Saxon army infantry regiments), Gunner (Kanonier, foot artillery), Pioneer (Pionier, pioneer branch). Other unit-specific enlisted ranks were: Fusilier (Füsilier), Grenadier (Grenadier), Huntsman otherwise Light-Infantryman (Jäger), Dragoon (Dragoner), Hussar (Husar), Cuirassier (Kürassier), Uhlan (Ulan), Fusilier Guard (Garde-Füsilier), Grenadier Guard (Garde-Grenadier), Wehrmann (Landwehr), etc.
• Lance Corporal (Gefreiter); up until 1918 the only rank (with exception of Obergefreiter in the foot artillery) to which a conscripted soldier could be promoted. The rank was a deputy rank to the Corporal (Unteroffizier)^[b] rank.^[6]
• Senior Lance Corporal (Obergefreiter); established in the Prussian Army from 1846 to 1853, reestablished in 1859, then in foot artillery only, replacing the artillery Bombardier rank that had been introduced in 1730.^[6]

Additionally, the following voluntary enlistees were distinguished:

• One-Year Volunteer Enlistee (Einjährig-Freiwilliger): despite the name, one-year volunteers were actually conscripts who served a short-term form of active military service, open for enlistees up to the age of 25. Such enlisted soldiers were usually high school graduates (Matura, Abitur), who would opt to serve a one-year term rather than the regular two or three-year conscription term, with free selection of their chosen military service branch and unit, but throughout were obligated to equip and subsist themselves at entirely their own cost. In today's monetary value, this could at bare minimum cost some 10,000 euro, which purposely reserved this path open to sons from mostly affluent social class families wishing to pursue the Reserve-Officer path; it was the specific intention of Wilhelm II that such Reserve-Officer career path should only be open to members of so-called "officer-material" social classes.^[7] On absolving their primary recruit training, those aspiring to become Reserve-Officers would have to qualify and achieve suitability for promotion to the Gefreiter rank and then would continue to receive further specialized instruction until the end of their one-year term, usually attaining and leaving as surplus Corporals (überzählige Unteroffiziere) (Reservists), with the opportunity to advance further as reservists. Enlistees who did not aspire to officer grade would leave at the end of their one-year term as Gemeine^[c] (Ordinary soldier) enlisted rank (for example Musketier or Infanterist) and a six-year reserve duty obligation.^[7] Eligibility for this specific one-year path of military service was a privilege approved upon examining the enlistee's suitability and academic qualifications.
• Long-Term Volunteer Enlistee "Capitulant" (Kapitulant): enlisted soldiers who had already absolved their regular two or three-year military conscription term and had now volunteered to continue serving for further terms, minimum was 4 years, generally up to 12 years.^[9][d]

Note: Einjährig-Freiwilliger and Kapitulant were not ranks as such during this specific period of use, but voluntary military enlistee designations. They, however, wore a specific uniform distinction (twisted wool piping along their shoulder epaulette edging for Einjährig-Freiwilliger, the Kapitulant a narrow band across their lower shoulder epaulette) in the colours of their respective nation state. This distinction was never removed throughout their military service nor during any rank grade advancements.

Naval ranks and ratings

The Imperial German Navy's rank and rating system combined that of Prussia's with the navies of other northern states.

Commissioned officer ranks

The rank insignia of commissioned officers.

Rank group	General / flag officers										Senior officers						Junior officers
Epaulette[11]
Sleeve insignia [12][13]
	Großadmiral				Admiral		Vizeadmiral		Konteradmiral		Kapitän zur See/ Kommodore		Fregattenkapitän		Korvettenkapitän		Kapitänleutnant		Oberleutnant zur See			Leutnant zur See

Rank flags

Title	Großadmiral	Admiral	Vizeadmiral	Konteradmiral
Command flag

Officer cadets

Officer training ranks

Title	Oberfähnrich zur See	Fähnrich zur See	Seekadett
Epaulette[11]
Sleeve
English designation	Midshipman	Sea cadet	Junior sea cadet

Warrant officers

Warrant officers
Title	Deckoffiziere als Offizier-Stellvertreter	Oberdeckoffizier	Deckoffizier
Shoulder[11]
English designation	Chief Warrant Officer as Acting Commissioned Officer.	Chief Warrant Officer	Warrant Officer
Specialty designations	Offizier-Stellvertreter	Oberbootsmann Obersteuermann Oberfeuerwerker	Bootsmann Steuermann Feuerwerker
English designation	Acting Commissioned Officer	Chief Boatswain Chief Helmsman Chief Artificer	Boatswain Helmsman Artificer

Petty officers

Senior Petty Officers			Junior Petty Officers
Title	Feldwebel	Vize-Feldwebel	Obermaat	Maat
Sleeve[11]
English designation	Chief Petty Officer 1st Class (with additional stripe around the sleeve)	Chief Petty Officer	Petty Officer 1st Class (Chief Mate)	Petty Officer (Mate)

Seamen

Seamen
Title	Obermatrose	Einjährig-Freiwilliger	Matrose
Sleeve[11]
English designation	Seaman 1st Class	Seaman Volunteer (i.e.: Reserve Officer Candidate)	Seaman

Notes

1. Several German armies and national contingents, including Prussia and Bavaria, traditionally used two different captain ranks that originated with the ownership of units. The Captain 1st Class was either the proprietor who had raised and equipped the Company / Troop / Battery or was a gentleman or nobleman who had bought a commission as its nominal Captain. The Captain 2nd Class (or Stabshauptmann > "Staff Captain") was its actual commander. By the end of the 19th century that dual-system had been gradually phased out and replaced by a single rank.
2. Duden; Origin and meaning of "Korporal", in German.^[5]
3. Duden; Definition of "Gemeine", in German.^[8]
4. Duden; Definition of "Kapitulant", in German.^[10]

References

1. Ulrich Trumpener, "Junkers and Others: The Rise of Commoners in the Prussian Army, 1871–1914," Canadian Journal of History (1979) 14#1 pp 29–47
2. Dennis E. Showalter, "The Political Soldiers of Bismarck's Germany: Myths and Realities," German Studies Review (1994) 17#1 pp. 59–77 in JSTOR
3. Great Britain (1918). Handbook of the German Army in War. War Office. General Staff, p. 109. 2025-02-27.
4. Great Britain (1918). Handbook of the German Army in War. War Office. General Staff, pp. 38-39, 109. 2025-02-27.
5. Korporal
6. "Gefreiter" – Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste, Erste Section, A-G, (Universal Encyclopaedia of the Sciences and Arts, First Section, A-G), Author: Johann Samuel Ersch and Johann Gottfried Gruber, Publisher: F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig, 1852, Page 471-472, in German. [1]
7. Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 4th Edition, Volume 6, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1885–1892, Page 659. in German
8. Gemeine Buchstabe Soldat
9. Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 4th Edition, Volume 10, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1885–1892, Page 116, in German
10. Kapitulant
11. "Dienstgrade und Uniformen." Kleinen Kreuzers “Dresden” (I). Retrieved 2017-09-22.
12. Bunkley 1918, pp. 174–175.
13. Williams 1918, p. 274.

Bibliography

• Bunkley, Joel William (1918). Military and Naval Recognition Book: A Handbook on the Organization, Uniforms and Insignia of Rank of the World's Armed Forces (2nd ed.). New York: D. Van Nostrand Company. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
• Williams, Dion (1918). "XI: Uniforms and Insignia of Foreign Armies and Navies". Army and Navy Uniforms and Insignia. New York, N.Y.: Frederick A. Stokes Company. pp. 216–292. Retrieved 5 July 2022.

Further reading

• Kraus, Jürgen (2006). The German Army in the First World War: Uniforms and Equipment, 1914 to 1918. Militaria Verlag. ISBN 978-3950164268.
• Somers, Johan (2004). Imperial German Field Uniforms And Equipment 1907-1918, Volume 2. Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-0764322624.
• Somers, Johan (2007). Imperial German Field Uniforms And Equipment 1907-1918, Volume 3. Schiffer Military History. ISBN 978-0764327780.
• Woolley, Charles (1999). Uniforms & Equipment of the Imperial German Army 1900-1918. Schiffer Military History. ISBN 978-0764309359.

External links

• Die Uniformen der Deutschen Armee II (in German). Leipzig: Verlag von Moritz Ruhl. 1899. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
• Plates illustrating the New German field service uniform of the Prussian army. London: General Staff, War Office. 1916. Retrieved 14 October 2023.