Violence in Defeat
The Wehrmacht on German Soil, 1944–1945

Explores how the Wehrmacht's defensive conduct contributed to the radicalisation of behavioural patterns in Germany during the war's final months.

Bastiaan Willems (Author)

9781108479721, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 18 February 2021

366 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.5 cm, 0.65 kg

'… original, analytically rigorous, and engagingly written.' Ben H. Shepherd, WIH

In the final year of the Second World War, as bitter defensive fighting moved to German soil, a wave of intra-ethnic violence engulfed the country. Bastiaan Willems offers the first study into the impact and behaviour of the Wehrmacht on its own territory, focusing on the German units fighting in East Prussia and its capital Königsberg. He shows that the Wehrmacht's retreat into Germany, after three years of brutal fighting on the Eastern Front, contributed significantly to the spike of violence which occurred throughout the country immediately prior to defeat. Soldiers arriving with an ingrained barbarised mindset, developed on the Eastern Front, shaped the immediate environment of the area of operations, and of Nazi Germany as a whole. Willems establishes how the norms of the Wehrmacht as a retreating army impacted behavioural patterns on the home front, arguing that its presence increased the propensity to carry out violence in Germany.

List of Figures
List of Maps
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Chronology
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Regionality and Total War in East Prussia
2. Eastern Front Battles on German Soil
3. The City as a Fortress-Community
4. Redefining Königsberg: Historical Continuity in Practice
5. The Evacuation of East Prussia
6. Königsberg as a Community of Violence
Conclusion
Appendices
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Second World War [HBWQ], Military history [HBW], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]