The full dress uniform consists of a cocked hat similar to that worn by British naval officers; a long double-breasted frock coat; trousers with gold lace stripes down the outer leg seams; black shoes; a sword belt covered with silver and gold lace with a wide red stripe running through it, and epaulets or shoulder knots depending upon the rank and corps of the officer. A distinctive feature of this full dress frock coat is that while it has a standing collar trimmed with gold lace, the front is provided with wide triangular lapels covered with color facing indicating the corps or branch of the service to which the wearer belongs.
The dress uniform consists of a bell-crowned cap of dark blue cloth with a braid of the distinctive corps around the band and a distinctive insignia on the front; a frock coat like that of the British or American naval officer; with which shoulder knots are worn; plain dark blue trousers, and black shoes. With this uniform the same sword belt is worn as with the full dress but instead of the sword a short sword or dirk is worn. As a variation of this uniform the cocked hat is sometimes worn with it for special occasions.
The blue service uniform consists of the blue cap; a double-breasted square cut sack like that worn by British officers; plain dark blue trousers, and black shoes. A plain black double-bow knot tie is worn with this uniform.
The white service uniform consists of a white cap of the same design as the blue cap but with a black band and black visor as in the United States and British navies; a white single-breasted sack coat with standing collar, a patch pocket on the left breast and a patch pocket on each side below the waist; white trousers, and black or white shoes depending upon the occasion. The dirk is worn with this uniform suspended from a black leather belt worn beneath the coat. Shoulder straps showing the rank are worn on the white service coat.
The overcoat is a long double-breasted coat cut to fit the figure, buttoning to the neck, with a wide falling collar and an outside pocket with flap on each side below the waist. It is closed by gilt buttons, one row down each side.
Following the universal military custom, the rank of German naval officers is indicated on the blue uniforms by stripes worn upon the sleeves of the coat just above the cuff. The number, width and arrangement of these stripes are shown in the accompanying [illustration].
On the full dress coat sleeves there is a vertical three-pointed strap on the outside over the rank stripes, its color being the distinctive color for the corps to which the wearer belongs.
The rank is also indicated by insignia upon the tops of the epaulets and shoulder knots. The tops of the epaulets are of the distinctive colors of the corps except those for officers of the Line which are of gold. The lower grade in each branch has no fringe of bullion on the epaulets.
The stripes indicating the rank of officers of the Line are sewn directly upon the cloth of the coat sleeves and have a German Imperial crown above the upper stripe. Officers of the Staff corps do not wear the crown above their rank stripes. The corps or branch of the service to which officers of the Staff corps belong is indicated by stripes of colored cloth worn between the stripes indicating the rank, and the distinctive colors are:—
| Engineer officers | Black. |
| Gunnery officers | Dark gray. |
| Torpedo officers | Dark gray. |
| Medical officers | Dark blue. |
| Naval Constructors | Black. |
| Paymasters | Light blue. |
| Legal Department officers | Red. |
| Pilot officers | Light gray. |
| Dockyard Construction officers | Black. |