The title says most of it. My grandfather told me his dads name once but they have a very generic surname so looking on any ancestry site is akin to trying to find a distant relative called John Smith
Definitely regular army. Judging by the style / shape of the shoulderboards, he'd be a company grade officer (Leutnant, Oberleutnant, or Hauptmann). In a good color photo, we'd be able to tell what sort of unit he'd be in (i.e. infantry, artillery, signals, etc.) from the color accent on the collar insignia. Since the Waffenfarbe appears to be dark, we're able to at least rule out a few branches that had especially light colors associated with them - namely infantry (white) and signals (light yellow).
You might try to reach out to these people for help. They've been a huge help to me researching some of my wife's relatives.
The problem with identifying the insignia in black and white is that it was actually colored differently for different branches, but overall very similar.
Thank you everyone for your comments, especially for some of the more in-depth replies. I really value everyone's input and have just not had the time to go through this thread since I posted.
Hello there! As your question is related to looking for identification/information regarding military personnel, our Guide on Military Identification may be of use to you. It provides a number of different resources, including how to request service records from a number of national agencies around the world, as well as graphical aids to assist in deciphering rank, unit, and other forms of badges or insignia. While the users here may still be able to lend you more assistance, hopefully this will provide a good place to start!
