Wehrmacht

The **Wehrmacht** (also called the **Defence Forces** or **German Army** or **German Armed Forces** in English) was Nazi Germany's unified military armed forces from 1935 to 1945. The _Wehrmacht_ consisted of the _Heer_ (army), the _Kriegsmarine_ (navy), and the _Luftwaffe_ (air force). Overall command of all these forces was _Oberkommando der Wehrmacht_ (OKW).

The _Waffen-SS_ was not part of the Wehrmacht, but was subject to its Supreme Command. It began as a small armed section of Heinrich Himmler's Allgemeine SS, but during World War II it grew to nearly a million members.

## Origin and use of the terms

Before the rise of the Nazi Party (the NSDAP), the term _Wehrmacht_ was used in a generic sense to describe armed forces of any nation, being utilized as the "home defence" version of the more general _Streitmacht_. For example, the term _Britische Wehrmacht_ would identify the British armed forces.

Article 47 of the Weimar Constitution of 1919 declared _Der Reichspräsident hat den Oberbefehl über die gesamte Wehrmacht des Reiches_ (meaning: "The _Reichspräsident_ holds supreme command of all armed forces of the _Reich_"). To make a distinction, the term _Reichswehr_ was commonly used to identify the German armed forces.

In 1935, the _Reichswehr_ was renamed the _Wehrmacht_. After World War II, under the Allied occupation of Germany, the _Wehrmacht_ was abolished.

Today the term _Wehrmacht_ refers to Germany's armed forces during the Nazi Germany era and World War II, both in German and English. The _Wehrmacht_ was not only the army (_Wehrmacht Heer_). _Wehrmacht_ vehicles used by _Heer_, _Luftwaffe_ or _Kriegsmarine_ had license plates with WH, WL or WM.

### Post-World War I

World War I ended with the armistice (ceasefire) of 11 November 1918. The armed forces were called _Friedensheer_ (peace army) in January 1919. In March 1919, the national assembly passed a law creating a 420,000-member preliminary army as _Vorläufige Reichswehr_.

The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were announced in May and, in June, Germany was forced to sign it. Among other terms, it limited the army to 100,000 men and the navy to 15,000. Tanks and heavy artillery were forbidden and the air force was dissolved. A new post-war military (the Reichswehr) was established on 23 March 1921.

Germany immediately found ways not to keep to these conditions. It began a secret collaboration with the Soviet Union after the Treaty of Rapallo in 1922. Germany helped the Soviet Union with industrialisation and trained Soviet officers. Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union, the Germans were allowed to research and make chemical weapons (among other projects). German tank and air force specialists could practice in the Soviet Union. Around three hundred German pilots received training at _Lipetsk;_ some tank training took place near _Kazan;_ and poison gas was developed at _Saratov_ for the German army.

### Under Hitler

After the death of President Paul von Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, Adolf Hitler became Reichspräsident, and thus became commander-in-chief of the _Wehrmacht_. All officers and soldiers of the German armed forces had to swear a personal oath of loyalty to the _Führer_, as Hitler was now called. By 1935, Germany was openly breaking the military restrictions of the Versailles Treaty, and conscription was reintroduced on 16 March 1935. The conscription law also formalized the name _Wehrmacht_.

The size of the standing army remained at about the 100,000-man limit decreed by the treaty. However, a new group of conscripts equal to this size received training each year.

On 15 October 1935, the Nazis officially announced that the _Wehrmacht_ existed. Their insignia was a simpler version of the Iron Cross (the straight-armed _Balkenkreuz_ or 'beamed cross'). This had been used as an aircraft and tank marking late in World War I.

### Nazi German Army (Wehrmacht Heer)

Throughout World War II, around 90% of the _Wehrmacht's_ army units traveled by foot and used horses to move artillery and supplies. Some units were motorized tanks. They received much attention in the world press in the opening years of the war. Some suggested they were the reason why the Nazis succeeded in their invasions of Poland (September 1939), Norway (April 1940), Denmark, Belgium, France and Netherlands (May 1940), Yugoslavia (April 1941) and the early campaigns in the Soviet Union (June 1941) under Gerd von Rundstedt .

Once the United States entered the war in December 1941, the Wehrmacht’s Army was engaged in ground campaigns against two major industrial powers. At this critical point, Hitler took personal control of the Wehrmacht military high command. His personal failings as a military commander arguably contributed to major defeats in the spring of 1943, at Stalingrad under Friedrich Paulus and Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps in North Africa.

### Nazi German Air Force (Luftwaffe)

The German Air Force (Luftwaffe), led by Hermann Göring, contributed many units of ground forces to the war in Russia as well as the Normandy front. In 1940, the Fallschirmjäger paratroops conquered the Belgian Fort Eben-Emael and took part in the airborne invasion of Norway, but after suffering heavy losses in the Battle of Crete, large scale airdrops were discontinued. Operating as ordinary infantry, the 1st Fallschirmjäger Division took part in the Battle of Monte Cassino.

### Nazi German Navy (Kriegsmarine)

The German Navy (Kriegsmarine) played a major role in the Second World War as control over the commerce routes in the Atlantic was crucial for Germany, Britain and later the Soviet Union. In the Battle of the Atlantic, the initially successful German U-boat fleet arm was eventually defeated due to Allied technological advances like sonar, radar, and the breaking of the Enigma code. Large surface vessels were few in number due to construction limitations by international treaties prior to 1935. The "pocket battleships" Admiral Graf Spee and Admiral Scheer were important as commerce raiders only in the opening year of the war. No aircraft carrier was operational as German leadership lost interest in the Graf Zeppelin which had been launched in 1938. Following the loss of Bismarck in 1941, with Allied air superiority threatening the remaining battlecruisers in French Atlantic harbours, the ships were ordered to go back to German ports.

### Nazi German Armed SS (Waffen-SS)

Although the Waffen-SS (Armed SS) was not technically a part of the Wehrmacht’s Army, they were under the control of the Wehrmacht Military High Command during World War 2. They were considered as elite troops, and suffered heavier losses than the Wehrmacht’s regular army.

### Nazi Military War crimes

The Wehrmacht was used as a tool of state policy in the Second World War, for both military and political aims. There is considerable controversy over the allegations that the Wehrmacht was found to be significantly rather than incidentally involved in the Holocaust, especially because the elements of the SS and Gestapo involved in the Holocaust were not the Waffen-SS and not under the control of the OKW or field commanders.

The Wehrmacht ordered the Army to participated in massacres of civilians for reprisals, executions of prisoners of war, summary executions of Soviet political officers and executions of military and civilian hostages as punishment for partisan activities in occupied territories. However, the oft-repeated claim of breaking the Geneva convention by its treatment of Russian prisoners of war is not correct. Common Clause 2 of the Geneva Convention states that the treatment requirements apply where both parties are signatories of the Conventions. The Germans were signatories, The Russians refused to sign.

## Related pages

- Afrika Korps
- Geheime Feldpolizei
- Waffen-SS
- World War II

## References

- Max Hastings, _Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy 1944_, 1985, reissued 1999, Pan,
- Max Hastings, _Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1945_, 2004, Macmillan,
- Anthony A Evans, _World War II: An Illustrated Miscellany_, 2005, Worth Press,
- Geoffrey P. Megargee, "War of Annihilation. Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front, 1941", 2006, Rowman & Littelefield,
- W.J.K. Davies, _German Army Handbook_, 1973, Ian Allen Ltd., Shepperton, Surrey,
- Fest, Joachim; Plotting Hitler's Death—The Story of the German Resistance, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1996.

## Other websites

- Extensive history and information about German armed forces from 1919 to 1945
- Archives of the German military manuals including secret manuals of Enigma and Cryptography
- The Wehrmacht, the Holocaust, and War Crimes
- The Wehrmacht: A Criminal Organization? A review of Hannes Heer and Klaus Naumann work on the subject