Germany

Germany was one of the greatest innovators of military camouflage in the Second World War, and a complete history of WW2 era German military camouflage can be found in the seperate article on Germany (Third Reich). Although rebuilt and trained largely under the auspices of Allied nations (particularly the United States and Great Britain), the West German Army nonetheless quickly embraced many of her predecessor's military traditions, including a healthy interest in the employment of camouflage uniforms. Initially, the Germans experimented with and modified a number of WW2 era patterns, including Leibermuster, Sumpfmuster, and variations of the Wehrmacht Splittermuster. Nevertheless, the majority of the German Army remained outfitted in olive drab for the next twenty-five or more years, in keeping with unofficial NATO standards.

A renewed period of interest in camouflage arose in the mid-1970s and led to the Bundeswehr Truppenversuch 76, or German Army Uniform Trials of 1976. The work leading up to these trials produced a number of camouflage patterns, including the Sägezahnmuster ("saw tooth" pattern), Punktmuster ("dot pattern") and three variations of a pattern called Flecktarn (from the German Fleck, or spot, and Tarnung, or pattern). The three flecktarn patterns are generally known as Flecktarn A (klein)/(small), Flecktarn B (groß)/(large), and Flecktarn C (Schattenmuster)/(shadow pattern). Nevertheless, adoption and implementation of a general service camouflage uniform for the German Army did not occur until 1990, following a second series of combat uniform trials, the Bundeswehr Truppenversuch 89. German Flecktarn camouflage has since become a highly effective and influential pattern, spawning a large number of derivative patterns in use by countries as diverse as Denmark, Japan, Poland, China, and Belgium. Germany itself has produced tropical and desert variations of the basic pattern as well, and continues to use the pattern despite a widespread international fascination with so-called digital or pixelated patterns.

German Army Camouflage Patterns

Patterns used by (West) Germany after 1945:

• Flecktarn