The Line Infantry wear a black helmet with brass spike, Prussian eagle and scale chin strap; a blue single-breasted tunic with gilt buttons, and dark gray trousers; the facings and piping being red, but the infantry regiments of Saxony, Bavaria, Wurttemburg and some other states have variations from this in both color and design.
The Uhlans wear the Czapka helmet; a blue double-breasted tunic with a red plastron front and red facings; and dark gray trousers; the Prussian Hussars wear a black fur busby with heavy gilt decorations and a bag of the distinctive color of the facings, a single-breasted blue tunic heavily decorated with white braid, loops and frogs; a blue pelisse with white braid decorations slung from the left shoulder; dark gray tight fitting breeches with white braid decorations, and black Hessian boots with embroidered tops.
The Prussian Cuirassiers wear white uniforms with black hip boots and cuirasses of brass or iron, the iron being black for some regiments and bright for others.
The Saxon Jager regiments wear uniforms of green cloth and a cap with a feather plume.
The Prussian Dragoon regiments wear helmets with drooping white plumes, light blue jackets, dark gray breeches.
The Field Artillery regiments usually wear black helmets with a spike ending in a brass ball; dark blue coats with gilt buttons, dark gray breeches and black boots.
There are many other distinctive uniforms and the varied colors, bright trappings and decorations and waving plumes made a peace time assemblage of German troops of all arms a most imposing sight; but early in the present century the leaders realized that while all this gaudy panoply and pomp added to the attractiveness of the service, kept alive the traditions of the past, and aided in holding the esprit de corps, it would not do for service on the modern battlefield, where the troops must be as inconspicuous as possible to avoid annihilation under the drum fire of artillery and the rapid fire of machine guns.
As a result a field service uniform of a dull gray color was adopted for all arms but it was not generally issued to the troops until just before the opening of the present world war.
The German officer’s field service uniform consists of a gray single breasted sack coat with a standing turn-over collar; breeches of the same color and black or tan leather boots. With this uniform the old bright helmets are worn with a gray cover to make them less conspicuous, or in many cases a gray cap with sloping visor is worn. The buttons are of gilt allowed to become dull in the field, in some cases of leather or bone, and in other cases the coat is closed by buttons concealed beneath a fly.
The corps and regimental colors are worn in small patches on the collar at each side of the neck opening and also as cuff stripes in some corps. In some corps the distinctive color is also worn around the cap band.