Party members in Wehrmacht

[beinbruch]

Was it normal for soldiers and officers in the Wehrmacht to be member of the party?

[Phil Nix]

I may be wrong but i think that members of the military were not allowed to be Party members
Phil Nix

[beinbruch]

I think you are right. Did anyone leave the party to sign up for Wehrmacht?

[California]

first i found this:

Military membership
Nazi members with military ambitions were encouraged to join the Waffen-SS, but a great number enlisted in the Wehrmacht and even more were drafted for service after World War II began. Early regulations required that all Wehrmacht members be non-political, and therefore any Nazi member joining in the 1930s was required to resign from the Nazi Party.
This regulation was soon waived, however, and there is ample evidence that full Nazi Party members served in the Wehrmacht in particular after the outbreak of World War II. The Wehrmacht Reserves also saw a high number of senior Nazis enlisting, with Reinhard Heydrich and Fritz Todt joining the Luftwaffe, and Major Ronald von Brysonstofen of the Waffen-SS, as well as Karl Hanke who served in the Army.

but I can't find anything about the law it describes. Does anyone have a description of it or the law itself?

[Dieter Zinke]

http://kai-derdeutschebeobachter.blogsp ... ruhte.html

Im Dritten Reich ruhte die Mitgliedschaft zur NSDAP sobald ein Parteimitglied in die deutsche Wehrmacht oder zur Waffen-SS eintrat

In the Third Reich the membership in the NSDAP had to be suspended while serving in the Wehrmacht or Waffen-SS.

____________

source: http://www.forum-der-wehrmacht.de/print ... c55f292a55

Bis 24.9.1944 konnte kein Soldat Mitglied der NSDAP werden. Bei Parteimitgliedern, die zur Wehrmacht eingezogen wurden, ruhte die Mitgliedschaft während der Wehrmachtszugehörigkeit.
Danach (unter dem Eindruck des 20.7.1944) konnte jeder Soldat der Wehrmacht Parteimitglied werden.

Since 24.09.1944 the membership in the party was now allowed - this was the effect of the 20.07.1944 - plot


Dieter Z.

[Erich S]

Hermann Fobke was another example. One of Hitler's earliest followers, he was an enlisted man in the Army in Russia where he died of a heart attack.

[California]

thank you very much for this info, it makes sense now you mention the plot.

[aquarya]

Does anyone have any clear primary source documentation on this "ruhen" of party membership in the Wehrmacht - i.e. regulations, orders, memos or laws?

All I have at the moment is this from Texas A&M history professor Arnold Krammer’s book: Nazi Prisoners of War in America (the “bible” on US POW’s), p. 148:

“The relationship between the Army and the regime remained an uncomfortable truce. The General Staff greeted all additional efforts to Nazify the military with quiet resistance and a measure of ridicule.1 Until the very beginning of the war, in fact, members of the German military were generally prohibited by their High Command from membership in the Nazi party, and those recruits who entered as party members were made to understand that their affiliation lapsed during military service.2”

l. For an exceptional view of the military, and all other segments of the Third Reich at the grass roots, see Richard Grunberger, The 12-Year Reich: A Social History of Nazi Germany, 1933-1945 (New York: Ballantine Books, 1971), pp. 149-66. See also: Alan Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (New York: Bantam Books, 1967), pp. 599-600, 676-78; and Herman Mau, "Die zweite Revolution," Vierteljahrshefte fùr Zeitgeschichte, l (1953), p. 136.
2. Helen Peak "Some Psychological Problems in the Re-Education of Germany," Journal of Social Issues (August, 1946): pp. 26-38

[GregSingh]

You have to confirm this, but I think in January 1932 NSDAP members were permitted to join Reichswehr, but KPD members were forbidden.


According to Wehrgesetz from May 21, 1935:

§ 26 Politics in the Wehrmacht.
(1) The soldiers are not allowed to be politically active. Membership in the NSDAP or one of its branches or in one of its affiliated associations is suspended for the duration of active military service.
(2) The soldiers have the right to vote or to take part in elections in the Reich.
(3) The soldiers require the permission of their superiors to acquire membership in all kinds of associations and to form associations within and outside the armed forces.
(4) The Reich Minister of War can subject Wehrmacht officials and civilians employed in the Wehrmacht to the provisions of (1) and (2) if this is necessary for military purposes.

21-May-35.jpg (71.61 KiB) Viewed 617 times

Nevertheless to say there was no lack of officers in the Heer, who were NSDAP members well before 1933.

In Wehrgesetz from September 24,1944 paragraph 26 was changed.

[AETIUS 1980]

Hello, failing to know the regulations of party executives within the Wehrmacht, here is the course of one of them;
Rittmeister d.R Karl Ludwig SCHLEICH.
Born on April 3, 1899 in West Prussia in Schönsee (Piontkowo, currently in Poland), he joined in 1914 the cadet school of Bensberg and Gross Lichterfelde. Fähnrich from February 1918, he switched to Pi.Btl.26, being engaged on the western front. Captured by the British on August 8, 1918, he did not regain his freedom until November 1919. Abandoning the profession of arms, SCHLEICH nevertheless assiduously followed politics and very quickly joined the NSDAP. In 1925, he was SA.Führer, then in charge of SA-Standarte J.10 in Goslar from February 1, 1932. This ascent resulted in promotion to the rank of SA.Oberführer on April 20, 1934. On May 1 1935, we find him leader of the SA Brigade 69 in Hagen. The following year (1936), he returned to the Reichstag as a member of the NSDAP (elected representative of Westphalia), a post he held in parallel until his death. On July 1, 1937, SCHLEICH took over as head of the SA.Brigade.30 “Berlin. West ”. Upon mobilization, he was recalled as Leutnant der Reserve within the Aufkl.Rgt.6. Killed near Ryes (south-east of Arromanches) on June 6 at the head of the I./Grenadier.Regiment.916 (352.Inf.Div), he is currently buried in the English cemetery of Bazenville.
Regards
AETIUS

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi beinbruch,

They can't have been a majority, but statistically it is highly likely that by 1945 millions of the 8.5 million NSDAP membership, which was heavily male, passed through the ranks of the Wehrmacht, which had approaching 20 million members.

At least one future Field Marshall, von Reichenau, became a party member in 1932, but I suspect he was something of an exception in the regular officer corps. On the other hand, one or two prominent Waffen-SS men did not join the party until it was pointed out that they had not enrolled.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Br. James]

I obviously have far too much spare time on my hands(!), but I took the very last DAL -- the November 9, 1944 edition of the "Dienstaltersliste der Schutzstafffel der NSDAP" covering the highest-ranking SS officers (SS-Oberst-Gruppenführfer -- SS-Standartenführer) and I discovered the surprising number of SS officers among those ranks with no NSDAP Membership Numbers next to their names:
SS-Obergruppenführer -- 2
SS-Gruppenführer -- 2
SS-Brigadeführer -- 5
SS-Oberführer -- 9
SS-Standartenführer -- 14

Yes, it's true that a lot of those who held high SS ranks were honorary members, but I would assume that Himmler himself looked through these DALs and noticed the absence of Party Membership among those ranks. He would have been embarrassed by this fact and, IMHO, he would have gotten after those individuals and "encouraged them" to join the Party!

Br. James