Mike Pullen
Erwin, Anything German that was manufactured, flown etc during the time Hitler was in power should be referenced to Deutsches Reich, i've amended this one for you. Hitlers Germany has it's own flag 🙂 Best regards

Erwin BOVYN Author
Tx Mike, didn't know. So all items WW2 German are Deutches Reich and Luftwaffe is post WW2?

Mike Pullen
Luftwaffe is correct as the air force was reformed in 1935 while Germany was under Hitlers leadership and the aircraft rudder areas introduced swastika in white circle on a red band as can be seen on the He 51 above and hence where the colours for Deutsches Reich (country code DR) originates from. Germany after WWII changed so the country code for Germany (DE) should be used so basically when you do a search for Luftwaffe you should be able to use country codes DR and DE to seperate the air force into early Luftwaffe and Post WWII. The same would apply to ships, boats and submarines and military vehicles like tanks, trucks, cars etc

Bruce Probst
I'm not sure I agree that DR is suitable for Nazi Germany. The flag shown for DR is pre-Nazi Germany, and is not applicable at all to any Nazi subjects. Obviously DE is fine for post-WW2 subjects. There really needs to be a Nazi flag and code separate from DR and DE. I understand if the swastika flag (the actual Nazi-era flag) is not a good idea because of European laws but there really should be something separate to DR. There are plenty of genuine DR subjects (all WW1 stuff, for starters) that should not be associated with Hitler's Germany.

Mike Pullen
I disagree Bruce. German air force in WW1 was called Luftstreitkrafte so no mixup with Hitlers Luftwaffe is possible. As for Navy, WW1 it was Imperial German Navy, interwar the Reichsmarine and WW2 the Kriegsmarine. Land forces are a different matter. Using a swastika is out of the question so the colours of the Nazi flag have been rightly used. From my understanding DR covers the years 1935-1945 which was when the Nazi party was in power and rearmament of Germany and war happened.

Mike Pullen
Seems i am only partially correct - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Reich

Jörg Luther
@Mike: It's a problem of classification - what do you want to describe?

Countries by standards of international laws? You got four: German Empire ("Deutsches Reich", 1871-1918 ), German Realm ("Deutsches Reich", 1918-1945), Federal Republic of Germany (BRD, 1949-today), German Democratic Republic (DDR, 1949-1990).

Historical periods? You got six: Imperium ("Kaiserreich", 1871-1918 ), Republic of Weimar ("Weimarer Republik", 1918-1933), 3rd Reich ("Drittes Reich", 1933-1945), Occupied Germany ("Besatzungszeit", 1945-1949), German Divide ("Deutsche Teilung", 1949-1990), Reunited Germany (sometimes 3rd Republic or Republic of Berlin, "Wiedervereinigtes Deutschland", 1990-today).

Armed Forces? You got five: Imperial Army/Navy ("Kaiserliche Armee/Marine", 1871-1918 ), Forces of the Reich ("Reichswehr", 1918-1935), Armed Forces ("Wehrmacht", 1935-1945), Federal Forces ("Bundeswehr", 1955-today), National Peoples Army ("Nationale Volksarmee", 1956-1990).

What does Scalemates say for "Options"? "Country code is 2 digit ISO code." I read that as ISO 3166 Alpha-2. For Germany that's obviously a little bit difficult. As we want to classify military equipment, you would need six codes to be precise:

* DE (Deutschland, ISO 3166-1, 1990-today)
* GE (BRD, STANAG 1059, 1949-1990)
* DD (DDR, ISO 3166-3, 1949-1990)
* DW ("Deutsche Wehrmacht", 1935-1945)
* DR ("Deutsche Reichswehr", 1918-1935)
* DI ("Imperial Germany", 1871-1918 )

None of the proposed codes collides with ISO 3166-1/3, STANAG 1059, or an IANA ccTLD. There is room for simplification: You could pull together Reichswehr+Wehrmacht (which used the same equipment), as well as pre-1990 West Germany [STANAG 1059:GE vs. GC for DDR] + reunited Germany. This gives you:

* DE (Bundesrepublik Deutschland, ISO 3166-1, 1949-today)
* DD (DDR, ISO 3166-3, 1949-1990)
* DR ("Deutsches Reich", 1918-1945)
* DI ("Imperial Germany", 1871-1918 )

All of them start with D, none collides with ISO 3166-1/3, STANAG 1059, or an IANA ccTLD.

Erwin BOVYN Author
Sorry to mix amongst this dicussion but if it concerns land codes I also found it difficult to add Tsjechoslovakia that once was a complete country and not Tsjechia and Slovakia as it is now. In case of this discussion you should add more possibilities of choise to the users. I really do understand that this site wants to be as precise as possible but does it really matter if a "german" aircraft or vehicle belonged to the Reich orLuftwaffe or what ever for that period? After all it is/was all German.

Jörg Luther
@Erwin: Same game - czech (1989) is not the same as czech (1993). The problem arises from Scalemates using ISO 3166 Alpha-2 codes, some of which were "reused" in ISO 3166: Czechoslovakia is an excellent example. It was CS, split up 1993 into CZ and SK, and CS went to "Serbia and Montenegro", which 2006 split up into RS and ME, with CS not longer used (at least until now). Official country code for former Czechoslovakia now is CSHH (ISO 3166/3).

A possible partial solution would be to change to ISO 3166 Alpha-3 codes, which don't get changed. Czechoslowakia=CSK, Czech Republic=CZE, Slowakia=SVK. Anyway, ISO 3166 codes are only available for states that existed 1974 or later. There are no ISO 3166 codes for earlier countries. I abolutely agree with you in so far as Scalemates says "Country code is 2 digit ISO code." and there never has been an ISO 3166 code for the Deutsches Reich. There only is one for Germany.

In my opinion, as Scalemates flags out decal options with these codes, as a matter of fact DE would be totally sufficent for this purpose, wether let's say a plane belongs to Kaiserliche Fliegertruppe in 1917, Luftwaffe in 1936 or Bundesluftwaffe in 1961. The reason: The next field is "Organisation", and one following is "Year", so it's dead clear that DE-Luftwaffe-1936 is something different than DE-Luftwaffe-1961 or DE-Kaiserl.Fliegertruppe-1917.

But that's a detail that doesn't solve the problem with countries splitting up like Czechoslovakia or the USSR, or - even worse - with follow-up countries again splitting up as in former Yugoslavia. The only way to get a line in there is in my opinion to change from ISO 3166 Alpha-2 to Alpha-3.