List of German divisions in World War II

This article lists divisions of the Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces) and Waffen-SS active during World War II, including divisions of the Army, Luftwaffe, and Kriegsmarine.
Upgrades and reorganizations are shown only to identify the variant names for what is notionally a single unit; other upgrades and reorganizations are deferred to the individual articles. Due to the scope of this list, pre-war changes are not shown, nor are upgrades from units smaller than a division. Most of these divisions trained in Berlin, which is also where new military technology was kept and tested.
German unit designations.
These designations are normally not translated and used in the German form in the unit name or description.
Army (Heer).
Panzer divisions.
Light mechanised divisions.
The designation "Light" ("leichte") had various meanings in the German Army of World War II. There was a series of 5 Light divisions; the first four were pre-war mechanized formations organized for use as mechanized cavalry, and the fifth was an "ad hoc" collection of mechanized elements rushed to Africa to help the Italians and organized into a division once there. All five were eventually converted to ordinary Panzer divisions.
Various other divisions were dubbed "Light" for other reasons, and are listed among the Infantry Series Divisions.
Infantry series divisions.
The backbone of the Heer (German Army) was the infantry division. Of the 154 divisions deployed against Soviet Union in 1941, including reserves, there were 100 infantry, 19 panzer, 11 motorised, 9 security, 5 Waffen-SS, 4 "light", 4 mountain, 1 SS police, and 1 cavalry. A typical infantry division in June 1941 had 17,734 men organized into the following sub-units: 
Infantry divisions were raised in "waves", sets of divisions with a standardized table of organization and equipment. In general the later waves (i.e., the higher-numbered divisions) were of lower quality than the earlier ones.
Numbered divisions.
Divisions are listed by number and reflect their lineage where names or designations were changed over time.
Cavalry divisions.
According to Davies, the "Cavalry" divisions were mounted infantry and the "Cossack" divisions were "true cavalry", modelled on the Russian cavalry divisions.
Air Force (Luftwaffe).
Hermann Göring divisions.
The Hermann Göring formations grew from a single police detachment to an entire armored corps over the course of the war. The later epithet "Fallschirm" ("parachute") was purely honorific.
Airborne divisions.
To keep its existence secret, the first German airborne division was named as if a "Flieger" ("flier") division in the series of "Luftwaffe" divisions that controlled air assets rather than ground troops-named 7th "Flieger" Division (often translated "7th Air Division" - which see: 1st Parachute Division (Germany)) The division was later reorganized to start a series of nominally airborne divisions. Though named "Fallschirmjäger" ("paratrooper") divisions, only some of them participated in airdrops in the early part of the war, and in practice most operated as ordinary infantry throughout their existence. The lower-numbered ones earned and maintained an élite status, but quality generally declined among the higher-numbered divisions.
Field divisions.
Luftwaffe Field Divisions were ordinary infantry divisions organized from "Luftwaffe" personnel made available after mid-war due to the manpower crunch. They were originally "Luftwaffe" units but were later handed over to the "Army", retaining their numbering but with "Luftwaffe" attached to distinguish them from similarly numbered divisions already existing in the "Heer".
Anti-Aircraft divisions.
These were headquarters for controlling aggregates of "flak" ("anti-aircraft artillery") assets rather than ordinary combined arms divisions organized for ground combat.
Waffen-SS (Schutzstaffel).
All divisions in the "Waffen-SS" were ordered in a single series up to 38th, regardless of type. Those tagged with nationalities were at least nominally recruited from those nationalities. Many of the higher-numbered units were small battle groups (Kampfgruppen), i.e. divisions in name only.
Also Panzer Division "Kempf", a temporary unit of mixed "Heer" and "Waffen-SS" components.