In World War I the color feldgrau evolved from the light grey of peacetime field uniforms to darker green-grey shades after 1915.

[citation needed] In 1907, the so-called field-grey peace uniform (feldgraue Friedensuniform), with colored cuffs, facings, shoulder straps and gorgets began to be issued by decree in Prussia, followed by the non-Prussian contingents of the other German states and lastly by the Bavarian Army in April 1916.

Until the outbreak of war in August 1914, the traditional brightly colored uniforms of the Deutsches Heer continued to be worn as parade and off-duty wear.

[3] In 1909 the Austro-Hungarian Army adopted pike-grey (Hechtgrau) as the color of the field service uniform of its infantry, artillery, engineers and transport units.

Following the outbreak of World War I the light blue-grey shade of Hechtgrau proved unsuited for campaigning in Europe and from 1915 onwards the green-grey feldgrau was substituted.

Today, in accordance with national traditions, the uniform color of the Austrian Armed Forces is named feldgrau, though other shades such as braungrau (English: brown-grey), and steingrau (stone-grey) are used, along with NATO-oliv (NATO-olive).