The Wehrmacht was a crucial part of Hitler’s Reich. In the course of the war it grew to 19 million members, which meant that in the end every fourth German was part of it. From the beginning on, the Wehrmacht was involved in war crimes and brutal murders. However, after the war ended, many former members of the Wehrmacht tried to spread the image of a “clean” Wehrmacht, in order to clear their consciousness and save themselves from severe punishment. This myth included the image of the Wehrmacht being just a normal soldier unit, who acted according to the international law of war and did not participate in war crimes. Furthermore, trials against former members of the Wehrmacht were not wanted in German politics under Chancellor Adenauer. Therefore, a public rejection of this myth never took place in the first years after the war.
The first reprocessing of the actions of the Wehrmacht happened in 1969 when the historians Manfred Messerschmidt and Klaus Jürgen Müller started the first critical research of the role of the Wehrmacht. But this was met with strong opposition from the lobby of former Wehrmacht members, as well as from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so that it took until the 90s that the broad public started dealing with the topic. This change was caused by a controversial exhibition about the involvement of the Wehrmacht in the “Vernichtungskrieg” (war of extermination). Since then the picture of a chivalrous Wehrmacht is mostly erased, however, this is still a topic that is often overlooked in education and media, especially in regard to the role the Wehrmacht played in Greece.
- neuer Post, mehr philosophisch