Corps colours, or troop-function colours (ge: Waffenfarben) were worn in the German Luftwaffe from 1935 until 1945, in order to distinguish between several branches, special services, corps, rank groups, and appointments of the ministerial area, the general staff, and the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW). The corps colours were part of the uniform piping, gorget patches, shoulder straps, arabesque and lampasse ornaments of general and flag officers. They were also part of heraldic flags, colours, standards, and guidons.
In the Luftwaffe, there was a strictly defined system of corps colours for collar patches, piping, and coloured edging around the shoulder boards or straps. The chevrons on special clothes for Luftwaffe personnel, e.g. flight suits and jumpsuits, also showed corps colours.
The table below contains some corps colours and examples used by the Luftwaffe from 1935-45.
| Troops, unit, appointment | Corps colour | Example | Remark | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White (Weiß) | Generaloberst | |||||||
| Lampasses (uniform trousers, breeches) | |||||||||
| White (close patch) | Unterwachtmeister | |||||||
| Deep-red (piping) | |||||||||
| Deep-red (Tiefrot) | ||||||||
| Officers in general staff service (Generalstabsoffiziere) | Carmine (Karmesin) | Oberst i.G. (colonel in general staff service) | |||||||
| Gold-yellow (Goldgelb) | align=center colspan="4" | Lampasses (uniform trousers, breeches) | |||||||
| Military judicial service (Militärgerichtsbarkeit) | Purple (Purpur) | Stabsrichter | |||||||
| Field chaplains | Purple (
| ||||||||
| Aviator engineer(ing) service (Fliegeringenieurdienst) | Pink (Rosa) | From Generalleutnant (engineer) OF7 to Leutnant (engineer) OF1a | |||||||
| Gold-yellow (Goldgelb) |
| |||||||
| Bright-green (Hellgrün) | Hauptgefreiter | |||||||
| Luftwaffe Field Divisions (prior to changing to white under Heer control in 1944) | Hunter-green (Jägergrün) | align=center style="background: | align=center style="background: | align=center style="background: | Troops standard | ||||
| Universally used by the Militärverwaltung of the Luftwaffe | Dark-green (
| Main colour of the uniform gorget and collar patches' backgraund | |||||||
| Light-blue (Hellblau) | ||||||||
| Air force medical corps (Sanitätstruppe) | Blue (Blau) | Stabsgefreiter | |||||||
| Air communications corps (Luftnachrichtentruppe) | Saddle brown (Braun) |
| |||||||
| Black (Schwarz) | align=center style="vertical-align: middle" | N/A | Stabsfeldwebel | |||||
Special regulations applied to corps colours of units, services, and special troops, attached permanently to the ground services of the Heer.