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Late '50s Bundeswehr soldier. Armed with a Belgian FN-FAL, he wears the Bundeswehr-Leibermuster, a short-lived camouflage pattern that was also manufactured in Belgium for the newly-formed German army. [Image: Daniel Peterson/The Crowood Press Ltd.]

Bundeswehr-Leibermuster
Federal Republic of Germany

Appearing between 1955 and 1958, the Bundeswehr-Leibermuster ('body pattern') is based on the 1945 SS-Leibermuster camouflage pattern. Like its antecedent, it is a six-colour camouflage pattern, which comprises a tan background, white flecks overprinted with a very light green, overprinted with feathered, leaf-shaped medium green and brick-red swathes, overprinted with black 'branches'.

The fact that all of the surviving BW-Leibermuster uniforms were manufactured in Belgium and are prominently marked 'ABL' (acronym Armee Belge/Belgische Leger — 'Belgian Army', in French and Dutch) has given rise to the widespread belief that this pattern was originally intended for use by the Belgian armed forces. However, photos from the mid- to late-1950s clearly show the uniforms being worn only by soldiers of the newly-formed Bundeswehr. Moreover, Belgian veterans, when interviewd by Daniel Peterson — author of Waffen SS Camouflage Uniforms & Post-War Derivatives — had no recollection of the camouflage pattern ever being used by their own army, even on a trial basis.

Peterson's belief that this camouflage was produced exclusively for the newly-formed Bundeswehr is supported by the existence of at least one indisputably German Zeltbahn, which is also patterned in Bundeswehr-Leibermuster.

Dan Feldkamp — whose Web site Truppenversuche der Bundeswehr 1976–1994 is an indispensible source of information about Bundeswehr uniforms — also believes that the BW-Leibermuster was never used by the Belgian Army. Instead, it was developed in accordance with early plans to create a European Defense Force, which was to comprise elements of the French, German, Italian, and BeNeLux armed forces. Production and development of various types of equipment was distributed among the member nations, and Belgian uniform makers were responsible for producing uniforms for the German Army; it is for this reason that the labels are marked 'ABL'.

Whatever its origins, Bundeswehr-Leibermuster was a short-lived camouflage pattern. It is not really known why this was so, but many have speculated the camouflage pattern's close association with the Waffen-SS was simply felt to conjure too many unpleasant, and politcally unacceptable, memories; while Peterson, for his part, has suggested that the Bundeswehr desired its soldiers to be visibly distinct from the armies of Czechoslovakia and Switzerland, which had adopted similar camouflages at around the same time. On the other hand, it might simply have been the withdrawal of France from the proposed European Defense Force that saw BW-Leibermuster early relegated to the scrap-heap.

kamouflage.net is grateful to Dan Feldkamp, for his invaluable contributions to this article.

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