The Rise and Fall of Comradeship
Hitler's Soldiers, Male Bonding and Mass Violence in the Twentieth Century

This book reveals how ideas of comradeship shaped the actions and mindsets of ordinary German soldiers across the twentieth century.

Thomas Kühne (Author)

9781107658288, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 7 February 2017

310 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.45 kg

'An original, comprehensive, and incisive analysis of the concept, myth, reality, and ultimate disintegration of soldiers' comradeship in modern Germany and its profound implications for the manner in which German men imagined war, perpetrated violence, and for long managed to avoid coming to terms with their complicity in the crimes of the Nazi regime. Set within the larger context of European and American ideas and practices of military cohesion, this is an important book that should be read by all students of modern and military history.' Omer Bartov, Brown University, Rhode Island

This is an innovative account of how the concept of comradeship shaped the actions, emotions and ideas of ordinary German soldiers across the two world wars and during the Holocaust. Using individual soldiers' diaries, personal letters and memoirs, Kühne reveals the ways in which soldiers' longing for community, and the practice of male bonding and togetherness, sustained the Third Reich's pursuit of war and genocide. Comradeship fuelled the soldiers' fighting morale. It also propelled these soldiers forward into war crimes and acts of mass murders. Yet, by practising comradeship, the soldiers could maintain the myth that they were morally sacrosanct. Post-1945, the notion of kameradschaft as the epitome of humane and egalitarian solidarity allowed Hitler's soldiers to join the euphoria for peace and democracy in the Federal Republic, finally shaping popular memories of the war through the end of the twentieth century.

Acknowledgements
Introduction: a concept from a different world
Part I. The Myth of Comradeship, 1914–1939: 1. Healing
2. Coalescence
3. Steeling
Part II. The Practice of Comradeship, 1939–1945: 4. Assimilation
5. Megalomania
6. Nemesis
Part III. The Decline of Comradeship: 7. Privatisation
8. Integration
9. Demonisation
Conclusion: protean masculinity and Germany's twentieth century
Index.

Subject Areas: Second World War [HBWQ], First World War [HBWN], The Holocaust [HBTZ1], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]