Stephen Fritz - Frontsoldaten

As Guy Sajer suggested, the extraordinary resilience of the German soldier demanded the celebration of a positive ideal. But where Bartov referred to home, family, and country as the rather generic ideals for which they fought, with perhaps a vague propagandistic sense of defending German and European culture, many Landsers in fact demonstrated a very acute sense of defending another ideal. What many “knew and cherished,” what they regarded as essential to save, was precisely that new society—evidently under construction in the 1930s—for which so many had yearned after World War I, a society that would redeem Germany socially, economically, and nationally. The notion of Volksgemeinschaft, that seductive idea of a harmonious society which would eliminate class conflict and integrate the individual into the life of the community, holds the key to unlocking the attraction National Socialism asserted for many Landsers. Although the importance of the Volksgemeinschaft ideal as an agent of social integration within the Third Reich has long been overlooked, denied, or downplayed, it contributed greatly to Nazi success in achieving power and in creating a sense that a new society was in the offing. Especially among the young, the belief in this national community represented a rallying point, an idea that supplied the vital principle around which a new German society was to be organized.

In order to understand the motivational power of Volksgemeinschaft for the German soldier in World War II, one must again go back to World War I, at least in its mythical dimension. The outbreak of the Great War illustrated the intoxicating power of the idea of Volksgemeinschaft. With the so-called Burgfrieden (domestic truce) of 1914, Germany seemed to have overcome class division and internal disunity, as people from every segment of society came together in a profound wave of national enthusiasm. This promise of unity dazzled many Germans for whom the war seemed the birth pangs of, as Thomas Mann put it, a “spiritual revolution” wherein a new world and new society beckoned. Writing to the Svenska Dagbladet in May 1915, Mann neatly encapsulated this notion: “Why did Germany recognize and welcome [the war] when it broke upon us? Because she recognized in it the herald of her Third Reich. What is her Third Reich then? It is the synthesis of might and mind, of might and spirit; it is her dream and her demand, her highest war aim.” 36

In August 1914 many Germans believed that they had achieved just such a synthesis, as an unprecedented wave of unity swept away class divisions in a euphoric millenarian outpouring of emotion. Here, finally, was something to be worshiped. “A god at last,” wrote Rainer Maria Rilke in the heady first week of war, later referring to the magical feeling of spiritual unity and idealism as “a new creature invigorated by death.” Similarly, Stefan Zweig noted, “Thousands and thousands felt what they should have felt in peacetime, that they belonged together.” The war, for many Germans, merged personal duty with communal demands to create a powerful sense of shared destiny. This mood deeply affected Adolf Hitler, the ultimate outsider at this point in his life; he claimed later that World War I made “the greatest of all impressions” by demonstrating that “individual interest… could be subordinated to the common interest.” The trenches of the Great War thus proved a breeding ground for a new idea, the notion that the front experience had forged a community of men in which all social and material distinctions disappeared. 37The memory of this unity, especially in its mythical dimensions, ensured that the spirit of 1914, when a new society beckoned, would remain a potent political force in Germany.

How disillusioning the postwar period must have been for those Germans imbued with the spirit of 1914, with its political paralysis, social fragmentation, economic dislocation, interest-group squabbling, and national humiliation. What had once been tangible, the great accomplishment of the war, appeared lost, and a mood of crisis was palpable. But perhaps worst of all was the sense of spiritual malaise. The war kindled in Germans a restlessness, a desire for a restored sense of community to replace the lost unity of the war. “It is not freedom [Germans] are out to find,” Hugo von Hofmannsthal claimed in 1927, “but communal bonds.” The secret of Nazi popularity lay in understanding this and reviving the passions of 1914. National Socialism as an organizing idea owed its existence to the war, to the model of “trench socialism” that Hitler held so dear. As Walter von Brauchitsch, commander-in-chief of the army, noted in 1938, Hitler simply “recast the great lessons of the front-line soldier in the form of National Socialist philosophy…. Above and beyond all classes, a new unique fellowship of the nation has been created.” The Nazis thus promised a new beginning, a national community that would restore the lost sense of belonging and camaraderie. In this respect, Nazism was idealistic, even if its idealism was based on a sense of crisis. It was a call to the national spirit, a promise of salvation on many levels. It marked a plunge into the future, but the promise of deliverance was beguiling. As Gottfried Benn remarked, “We were not all opportunists.” 38

The basis of this myth of renewal was the community of comrades forged at the front; it would serve as the cell from which a better Germany, one based on national unity and equality, would grow. The purpose, belonging, sacrifice, and meaning found in the war would be restored to a life based on values. Hitler thus proposed to transform the German Volk into a group of comrades, equal in status if not in function, under the strong leadership of the new man just back from the front. This National Socialist idea resonated all the more powerfully in that it appealed to many who believed it had already been realized in the trenches of World War I. “The German revolution began in the August days of 1914,” exulted Robert Ley, head of the Labor Front in the Third Reich. “The people were reunited in the trenches…. The grenades and mines did not ask whether one was high- or low-born, if one was rich or poor, or what religion or social group one belonged to. Rather this was a great, powerful example of the meaning and spirit of community.” 39

Once in power, Hitler did not hesitate, to promote both the symbol and, to a lesser extent, the substance of Volksgemeinschaft. Although debate rages as to how far he succeeded in recasting German society, less mystery surrounds his efforts to reshape the army. 40Even before 1933 the Wehrmacht was intrigued by the notion of Volksgemeinschaft, seeing in it a way to promote a more cohesive and effective military force. Any future war was bound to be a total war that would require the complete mobilization of German society, so military leaders pursued the Volksgemeinschaft idea as a means to create an effective national unity. Both Hitler and the army leaders thus shared a vision in which the revered Frontgemeinschaft of World War I would be transformed into a permanent state of affairs.

Nor was this mere rhetoric. According to David Schoenbaum, even in the army the Nazis promoted “a quiet social revolution… [on the] premise of careers open to talent…. The Wehrmacht officer corps was en route to becoming the least snobbish in German history… [with a] general sympathy for the idea of Volksgemeinschaft.” Hitler himself welcomed and championed this process. “When you look at the promotion of our younger officers,” he said in a speech in September 1942, “the penetration of our National Socialist Volksgemeinschaft has already begun here in its full extent. There is no privilege given to a birth certificate, to a previous position in life, there is no conception of wealth, no so-called origins…, there is only a sole evaluation: That is the assessment of the brave, courageous, loyal man who is suited to be the leader of our people. An old world is truly being brought to a collapse. Out of this war will emerge a Volksgemeinschaft established through blood, much stronger even than we National Socialists through our faith could convey to the nation after the World War.” 41The twin pillars of this new Volksgemeinschaft would thus be the party and the army, as the Hitler Youth, Labor Service, and Wehrmacht worked to create and reinforce specific values important to the Nazis: camaraderie, sacrifice, loyalty, duty, endurance, courage, obedience.