German Military Policy
1871-1918
Long before the founding of the German national state, later Chancellor Bismarck declared that the"German question" must be "solved on the battlefield". Three wars (against Denmark, Austria and France) finally made the proclamation of the German Reich possible in 1871. Within the community of the Empire the ruling structures of Prussian feudalism, whose highest principle of order consisted in military obedience, were dominant. The tone customary in the Berlin exercise yard prevailed throughout the rest of the country. The bureaucracy and the military supervised the labour of the subjects, who were expected, in rising industrial enterprises, to exhibit the subordination of a soldier. Military virtues ("discipline and order") were formative for everyday life and culture.
When competition between the major industrial states accelerated and the new colonial division of the world led to war during the second half of the 19th century, the German Empire demanded equal say. The Berlin alliance of the middle class and the feudal aristocracy took it for granted that its claim (to "a place in the sun") must also be implemented by military means. The demand for a share in the booty became a uniquely German claim accompanied by the idea of "German greatness", which lead to plans for world dominance. Already before the turn of the century forced rearmament was begun. The German general staff developed the notorious blitzkrieg-strategy: Germany must wage offensive war to push through its expansionist goals. The element of surprise, the high development of armaments technology in some areas and a well-developed railroad network, as well as the discipline resulting from the Prussian training of the soldiery and a ruthless policy towards civilians - all these factors were to be taken advantage of in order to conquer the decisive forces of the opposition in rapid extermination campaigns, before the actual inferiority of both the German military and economic potential could have effect. These plans were implemented during World War I.
Fritz Fischer
Krieg der Illusionen
Die deutsche Politik von 1911 - 1914
Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag, 1987
ISBN 3-7700-0913-4
DM 32,-
Fritz Fischer
Griff nach der Weltmacht
Die Kriegszielpolitik des kaiserlichen Deutschland 1914/18
Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag, 1984 (Erste Auflage 1961)
ISBN 3-7700-0902-9
DM 24,-
Helmut Otto / Karl Schmiedel (Hg.)
Der erste Weltkrieg
Dokumente Berlin: Militärverlag der DDR, 1977
(nur noch antiquarisch oder über Bibliotheken erhältlich)
1918-1945
After the collapse of the German Empire the military forces of the World War were integrated into the Weimar Republic. Generals and the officer corps were for the large part retained, although they were now to serve a demilitarized state without the capacity for war. This contradiction was never to be solved. Instead of building up a democratic army, the members of the Berlin general staff pushed through plans of revenge. As early as the 1920s secret rearmament programms were developed. In order to avoid international control, the German military sought cooperation with the Red Army and carried out illegal manoeuvers on the territory of the USSR. The transformation of the rump army demanded by the Versailles Treaty into an offensive force began. The beginning of Adolf Hitlers chancellorship brought a trial use of this regained potential. Although the still weak military forces could have been repulsed, the war victors retreated upon German occupation of the Rhineland. Paramilitary German incursions into border areas of Czechoslovakia were unopposed as well. The rearmament policy pursued from 1933 on led within three years to a lead in armaments that the European competition could scarcely recoup. In 1936 the political leadership of the Wehrmacht decided that the capacity to wage war must be attained within a short period: in 1937 air attacks were carried out against the Spanish Republic and a terror attack in the form of the bombardment of civilians was begun.
The advance of German forces into Austria placed the Berlin military in an advantageous starting position for the hoped-for battles, which they expanded by means of attacks on Poland, Denmark, Norway and France to a Europe-wide war and, after the surprise attack on the Soviet Union, to a world war. The blitzkrieg-strategy of the German generals led to a war of extermination which did not stop at the economic plundering of the conquered states. The opposing civilian population was to be permanently enslaved and occupied territories laid waste if they did not offer exploitable resources useful for the German rulers. In order to secure transport routes the Germanisation of eastern Europe was initiated ("the acquisition of living space"). After the first great defeats (the battle of Stalingrad), the German occupation forces unscrupulously overpowered any form of opposition. In eastern and south-eastern Europe countless crimes were perpetrated by the Wehrmacht and the SS. In Italy and France tens of thousands of civilians were killed in German massacres. In the grip of the national socialist ideology and a fanatical total distortion of reality, the Wehrmacht protected the German racist war and drove Jews, Sinti and Roma, prisoners of war and civilians into the hands of the SS, where they were murdered by the millions.
Fritz Fischer
Bündnis der Eliten
Zur Kontinuität der Machtstrukturen in Deutschland 1871 - 1945
Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag, 1985
ISBN 3-7700-0911-8
DM 22,-
Carl Dirks / Karl-Heinz Janßen
Der Krieg der Generäle
Hitler als Werkzeug der Wehrmacht
Berlin: Propyläen Verlag, 1999
ISBN 3-549-05590-0
DM 39,90
Dietrich Eichholtz / Wolfgang Schumann (Hg.)
Anatomie des Krieges
Neue Dokumente über die Rolle des deutschen Monopolkapitals bei der Vorbereitung und Durchführung des zweiten Weltkrieges
Berlin: VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1969 (nur noch antiquarisch oder über Bibliotheken erhältlich)
Erhard Moritz (Hg.)
Fall Barbarossa
Dokumente zur Vorbereitung der faschistischen Wehrmacht auf die Aggression gegen die Sowjetunion (1940/41)
Berlin: VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1970
(nur noch antiquarisch oder über Bibliotheken erhältlich)
Gerhart Hass / Wolfgang Schumann (Hg.)
Anatomie der Aggression
Neue Dokumente zu den Kriegszielen des faschistischen deutschen Imperialismus im zweiten Weltkrieg
Berlin: VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1972
(nur noch antiquarisch oder über Bibliotheken erhältlich)
Wolfgang Schumann (Hg.)
Griff nach Südosteuropa
Neue Dokumente über die Politik des deutschen Imperialismus und Militarismus gegenüber Südosteuropa im zweiten Weltkrieg
Berlin: VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1973
(nur noch antiquarisch oder über Bibliotheken erhältlich)
Wolfgang Schumann / Ludwig Nestler (Hg.)
Weltherrschaft im Visier
Dokumente zu den Europa- und Weltherrschaftsplänen des deutschen Imperialismus von der Jahrhundertwende bis Mai 1945
Berlin: VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1975
(nur noch antiquarisch oder über Bibliotheken erhältlich)
Manfred Menger / Fritz Petrick / Wolfgang Wilhelmus (Hg.)
Expansionsrichtung Nordeuropa
Dokumente zur Nordeuropapolitik des faschistischen deutschen Imperialismus 1939 - 1945
Berlin: VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1987 ISBN 3-326-00215-7 (nur noch antiquarisch oder über Bibliotheken erhältlich)
Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung (Hg.)
Vernichtungskrieg
Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941 bis 1945. Ausstellungskatalog
Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 1996
ISBN 3-930908-24-7
DM 40,-
Hannes Heer / Klaus Naumann (Hg.)
Vernichtungskrieg
Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941 - 1944
Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 1995
ISBN 3-930908-04-2
DM 68,-
Gerhard Schreiber
Deutsche Kriegsverbrechen in Italien
Täter, Opfer, Strafverfolgung
München: Beck Verlag, 1996
ISBN 3 406 39268 7
24,. DM
Friedrich Andrae
Auch gegen Frauen und Kinder
Der Krieg der deutschen Wehrmacht gegen die Zivilbevölkerung in Italien 1943 - 1945
München: Piper Verlag, 1995
ISBN 3-492-03698-8
DM 45,-
Christoph Diekmann / Matthias Hamann u.a. (Hg.)
Repression und Kriegsverbrechen
Die Bekämpfung von Widerstands- und Partisanenbewegungen gegen die deutsche Besatzung in West- und Südeuropa
Berlin: Verlag der Buchläden, 1997 (Beiträge zur nationalsozialistischen Gesundheits- und Sozialpolitik Band 14) ISBN 3-924737-41-X DM 26,-
Hannes Heer
Tote Zonen
Die deutsche Wehrmacht an der Ostfront
Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 1999
ISBN: 3-930908-51-4
DM 48,-
Omer Bartov
Hitler`s Army
Soldiers, Nazis, and War in the Third Reich
Oxford University Press 1992
Omer Bartov
Hitlers Wehrmacht
Soldaten, Fanatismus und die Brutalisierung des Krieges
Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt Verlag, 1995
ISBN 3-499-60793-X
DM 16,90
Walter Manoschek (Hg.)
Die Wehrmacht im Rassenkrieg
Der Vernichtungskrieg hinter der Front
Wien: Picus Verlag, 1996
ISBN 3-95452-295-9
DM 39,80
Christian Streit
Keine Kameraden
Die Wehrmacht und die sowjetischen Kriegsgefangenen 1941 - 1945
Bonn: Verlag J.H.W. Dietz, 1997
ISBN 3-8012-5023-7
DM 49,80
Paul Kohl
Der Krieg der deutschen Wehrmacht und der Polizei 1941 - 1945
Sowjetische Überlebende berichten
Frankfurt (Main): Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1995
ISBN 3-596-12306-2
DM 19,90
Rolf-Dieter Müller
Hitlers Ostkrieg und die deutsche Siedlungspolitik
Die Zusammenarbeit von Wehrmacht, Wirtschaft und SS
Frankfurt (Main): Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1991
ISBN 3-596-10573-0
DM 19,80
Christian Gerlach
Kalkulierte Morde Die deutsche Wirtschafts- und Vernichtungspolitik in Weissrussland 1941 bis 1944
Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 1999
ISBN: 3-930908-54-9
DM 98,-
Christian Gerlach
Krieg, Ernährung, Völkermord
Forschungen zur deutschen Vernichtungspolitik im Zweiten Weltkrieg
Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 1998
ISBN 3-930908-39-5
DM 24,-
1945-1989
The capitulation of the Wehrmacht on 8 May 1945 seemed to have put an end to Prussian militarism and to the plans for world domination of the German elites. But the break-up of the anti-Hitler coalition placed the scattered generals in an advantageous position. They were in the possession both of knowledge and of dutiful personnel that could be helpful to both the USA and the USSR. While the eastern systemic opposition was not able to gain sufficient support within the German military for a total reorientation, important representatives of the officers corps and Hitlers generals put themselves at the disposal of the western powers. They took advantage of the political situation and were ready to rebuild the German army, for which they demanded "equal treatment".
They demanded that the production of armaments (including atomic weapons) must take place under German direction and the future possession of weapons subjected to German sovereignty, as an early memorandum declares. In 1949 Konrad Adenauer stated that "war between America and Russia is unavoidable - and then we must be involved on the right side." This rearmament, kept secret from the war-weary German populace (the "Blank Office"), led in 1956 to the creation of the Bundeswehr. In the GDR, the National Peoples Army was set up. Both partial armies were integrated into the treaty systems of the two opposing sides. The Bundeswehr was to become one of the best-supplied armies of Europe within the next decades. Several attempts to acquire atomic weapons failed. Until 1989, the scope of action oft the West German forces was critically limited by their integration into NATO and by constitutional barriers to aggression. After the annexation of the GDR and the dissolution of the National Peoples Army only the Bundeswehr (the West-German army) survived and became the military arm of the expanded German state.
Rautenberg, Hans-Jürgen / Wiggershaus, Norbert
Die "Himmeroder Denkschrift" vom Oktober 1950
Politische und militärische Überlegungen für einen Beitrag der Bundesrepublik Deutschland zur westeuropäischen Verteidigung
in: Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen, 1/1977, S. 135-206
Matthias Küntzel
Bonn und die Bombe
Deutsche Atomwaffenpolitik von Adenauer bis Brandt
Frankfurt/Main; New York : Campus-Verl., 1992
ISBN 3-593-34654-0
DM 48,-
1989-2002
Upon the end of negotiations for a peace treaty (the "2 +4 treaty") German troops moved forward to the western boundary of Poland (1990). The Germany military was still prohibited from the manufacture, possession or use of biological, chemical or atomic weapons, and the size of the Bundeswehr was limited (to a maximum of 345 000 persons). These restrictions did not, however, prevent military leaders from formulating far-reaching visions. With the issue of the "political guidelines for defence" in 1992, the Bundeswehr left its earlier role as a "defensive force" and laid claim to the role of the world-wide representative of a reunified, economically expanding Germany. According to the "guidelines", military means are a necessity in order to expand the "room for political action and the vigour with which German interests can be brought to bear internationally".
In the framework of bilateral military agreements, the Bundeswehr began the training of eastern European officer candidates and the stationing of operative units in neighbouring states dependent on German military technology (Poland, the Baltic republics). In this effort the German military made use of the structures of the National Peoples Army of the GDR which they had taken over. In south-eastern Europe the first combat actions of the Bundeswehr on foreign territory took place, culminating in the air bombardment of civilian targets in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1999). The successful completion of this use of military force without appreciable opposition encouraged Berlin to further steps. The Bundeswehr was provided with a more hierarchical command structure, unified in the "combat leadership command". The new German general staff now controls an intervention-force with continually modernised high-tech weaponry and special units (KSK). It is subject to secrecy. The wars in Yugoslavia, Macedonia and Afghanistan (including the engagement of the German navy off the coast of Africa in 2002) were test runs for the inner state of the Bundeswehr under conditions of battle. The German forces have risen to the point of rivalling the leading armies of Europe.
Bundesminsterium der Verteidigung
Verteidigungspolitische Richtlinien
Bonn, 26. November 1992
Wolfgang Michal
Deutschland und der nächste Krieg
Berlin: Rowohlt Berlin Verlag, 1995
ISBN 3-87134-233-5
29,80,- DM
Jürgen Grässlin
Lizenz zum Töten?
Wie die Bundeswehr zur internationalen Eingreiftruppe gemacht wird
München: Droemer Knaur Verlag, 1997
ISBN 3-426-80081-0
DM 16,90
Tobias Pflüger
Die neue Bundeswehr
Mit neuer Strategie, Struktur und Bewaffnung in den Krieg?
Köln: ISP Verlag, 1997
ISBN 3-929008-63-7
DM 14,80
Klaus Naumann
Der nächste Konflikt wird kommen
Erfahrungen aus dem Kosovo-Einsatz
Europäische Sicherheit 11/1999
Klaus Naumann
Der Krieg gegen Serbien war ein Erfolg
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 1.10.1999
(gekürzte Fassung)
Karl Feldmeyer
Klärungsbedarf bei der Bundeswehr
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 9.1.2001, S. 1
Wilfried A. Herrmann
Das Kaspische Meer - Krisenregion der Zukunft?
Europäische Sicherheit 11/1999
Ulrich Sander
Szenen einer Nähe
Vom großen RechtsUm bei der Bundeswehr
Bonn: Pahl-Rugenstein Verlag, 1998
ISBN 3-89144-258-0
DM 19,90
Johannes Klotz (Hg.)
Vorbild Wehrmacht?
Wehrmachtsverbrechen, Rechtsextremismus und Bundeswehr
Köln: PapyRossa-Verlag, 1998
ISBN 3-89438-162-0
DM 24,80
Lorenz Knorr
Rechtsextremismus in der Bundeswehr
Deutsches Militär - von Massenmördern geprägt?
Frankfurt (Main): Verlag für Akademische Schriften, 1998
ISBN 3-88864-265-5
DM 29,50
Ralph Giordano
Die Traditionslüge
Vom Kriegerkult in der Bundeswehr
Köln: Verlag Kiepenheuer && Witsch 2000
ISBN 3-462-02921-5
DM 45,-
Wolfgang Schneider (Hg.)
Bei Andruck Mord
Die deutsche Propaganda und der Balkankrieg
Hamburg: KVV Konkret, 1997
ISBN 3-930786-09-5
DM 19,80
Ralph Hartmann
"Die ehrlichen Makler"
Die deutsche Außenpolitik und der Bürgerkrieg in Jugoslawien
Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 1999
ISBN 3-320-01958-9
DM 24,90
Jürgen Elsässer (Hg.)
Nie wieder Krieg ohne uns
Das Kosovo und die neue deutsche Geopolitik
Hamburg: KVV Konkret, 1999
ISBN 3-930786-23-0
DM 22,80
Klaus Bittermann / Thomas Deichmann (Hg.)
Wie Dr. Joseph Fischer lernte, die Bombe zu lieben
Die SPD, die Grünen, die Nato und der Krieg auf dem Balkan
Berlin: Edition TIAMAT, 1999
ISBN 3-89320-025-8
DM 30,-
Karam Khella (Hg.)
Der Fall Jugoslawien
Hamburg: Theorie und Praxis Verlag, 1999
ISBN 3-921866-71-5
DM 36,-
Matthias Küntzel
Der Weg in den Krieg
Deutschland, die Nato und das Kosovo
Berlin: Elefanten Press Verlag, 2000
ISBN 3-88520-771-0
DM 29,90
Heinz Loquai
Der Kosovo-Konflikt
Wege in einen vermeidbaren Krieg
Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlag, 2000
DM 39,-
Jürgen Elsässer
Kriegsverbrechen
Die tödlichen Lügen der Bundesregierung und ihre Opfer im Kosovo-Konflikt
Hamburg: Konkret Verlag, 2000
ISBN
26.80 DM
Hans-Rüdiger Minow / Stephan Eggerdinger
Der Terror des Krieges
Der Überfall auf Jugoslawien und die Eroberung Südosteuropas
München: Verlag zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung, 2000
ISBN 3-00-005809-5
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