Milieus in the Military: Soldierly Ethos,Nationalism and Conformism Among Workers in the Wehrmacht

Abstract

Historiography is currently discussing the concept of the ‘Volksgemeinschaft’ as social practice in National Socialist Germany. Yet the debate barely touched upon the largest institution of the Nazi state, the Wehrmacht. This research gap was due not least to a lack of appropriate sources. A collection of sources has been made accessible, however, that enables us to address this desideratum: the files of the US interrogation centre Fort Hunt, where over 3000 German soldiers were interrogated and wiretapped during the Second World War. The files contain eavesdropping transcripts and biographical data that reveal both mentalities and socio-cultural backgrounds. These documents allow for an analysis of the extent to which milieu-specific lines of segregation and cultural interpretation retained their effectiveness in the Wehrmacht or were superimposed by an overarching collective morality. By looking at soldiers from the working-class and the Catholic milieu, the article argues that traditional dividing lines were largely blurred in the Wehrmacht, even if cores of dissident milieus persisted. Loyalty to the regime crisscrossed milieu boundaries and the majority of the soldiers across the social strata identified themselves with the Wehrmacht’s canon of values, which was a key factor for the cohesion of the armed forces of the Nazi state.