Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Fritz n.

also Fritzer, Fritzey, Fritzie, Fritzy
[Ger. dimin. of proper name Friedrich, esp. as used of ‘Old Fritz’, Friedrich II of Prussia; the English-language usage emerged c.1880 and came into widespread use during WWI, although it fell from favour afterwards; Brophy & Partridge, Songs and Slang of the British Soldier (1930), suggest it was generally replaced by Jerry n. (1) after 1915]

a German, esp. a German soldier.

[[UK]T. Power St Patrick’s Eve I i: Good, says old Fritz [i.e. Frederick II King of Prussia] where’s Captain Gustavus?].
[[UK]W.A. Baillie-Grohman Camps in the Rockies 387: The statue of ‘old Fritz‘ – Carlyle’s hero, Frederic the Great].
[US]St Paul Dly Globe (MN) 14 Jan. 6/2: Play ‘Ofer der Garden Vall’ [...] Fritzy.
[UK]R. Tressell Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1955) 491: Has anyone seen a Germin band, Germin Band, Germin Band? [...] I want my Fritz, / What plays tiddley bits / On the big trombone!
J.R. McConnell ‘With the American Ambulance in France’ in Outlook III 125: ‘Anything stirring?’ ‘Yes; Fritz eased in a few shrapnel about five-thirty, but did n’t hurt any one’.
[Aus]Truth (Melbourne) 17 Mar. 3/5: Every Fritz, which, you know, is the slang name for Hun, / When he smells an Australian, starts off on a run.
[US]A.C. Huber Diary of a Doughboy 22 Sept. 🌐 ‘Old Fritz’ is in for a merry time, and shortly too.
[US]Eve. Star (DC) 3 Nov. 68/2: Fritzy thought this would stop the tanks!
[Aus]E. Dyson ‘Bricks’ in ‘Hello, Soldier!’ 31: He slugged a tubby Hun, Then choked a Fritzie with his dukes, ’n’ pinched the sooner’s gun!
Watch on the Rhine [Cologne] 3 July 2/2: We was rippin’ from Hazebrouck to Wipwers / With out lights, for old Fritzey was out!
[US]M.E. Smith Adventures of a Boomer Op. 83: Anyway, I spent eighteen months shooting Fritzies and trying to make the world safe for the Democrats.
[UK](con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 17: When they’ve ’ad me at ’em for a fortnight, they’ll be anxious to meet Fritz, they will.
[US](con. 1917–19) Dos Passos Nineteen Nineteen in USA (1966) 391: Joe [...] told them how they were prisoners there like they were fritzies.
[Aus](con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 98: So hopeless and idiotic was the task [...] The Fritzies up there knew it too.
[Aus]X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 117: There is a spot in Germany where we Aussies soon will be; / We’ll get to Berlin if it costs us our lives, / We’ll kill all the Fritzers and pinch all their wives. [Ibid.] 127: The blunny Fritzes seem to be winnin’ hands down.
[NZ]Eve. Post (N.Z.) 14 June 6/8: Rome was simply rotten with Fritzes.
[Aus]A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 17 Apr. [synd. cartoon strip] Another two thousand wiped out!! Fritzies or Italians?
[UK]G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 5: You’re going to beat the pith out of old Herr Fritz.
[NZ]N. Marsh Died in the Wool (1963) 202: Think I don’t know a Jerry when I get one [...] Not yet, Fritzy, darling.
[Aus](con. 1941) E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves 130: I wonder if the Russians take any prisoners, with the Fritzes shooting the women and children.
[Aus]F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 148: Shot at by every Fritz in Africa.
[Aus]L. Haylen Big Red 101: The Fritzies could hear him.
[US] (ref. to 1917–18) H. Berry Make the Kaiser Dance 36: When we were in combat all I had to do was relay a target back to Jim and it was good nigh, Fritzie. [Ibid.] 261: If Fritz could put a slug in one of those tanks, you were a goner.
[UK] in F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) ii: The sick dread of the next attack (‘Don’t worry, we’ll soon have old fritz on the run . . .’).
[US]F.X. Toole Pound for Pound 70: Fritzie was up and bouncing on his thick legs.
[US](con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 341: It’s a Nazi bunkhouse flick. Fritzie types strutted in jockstraps and peeled from there.