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The German term "Wehrmacht" stems from the compound word of German: wehren, "to defend" and Macht, "power, force". [c] It has been used to describe any nation's armed forces; for example, Britische Wehrmacht meaning "British Armed Forces".
The comparative ranks of Nazi Germany contrasts the ranks of the Wehrmacht to a number of national-socialist organisations in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 in a synoptic table. Nazi organisations used a hierarchical structure, according to the so-called Führerprinzip (leader principle), and were oriented in line with the rank order system of ...
Wehrmacht – German armed forces under the Third Reich consisting of three branches: the Heer (Army), the Luftwaffe (Air Force), and the Kriegsmarine (Navy). The Waffen-SS was a separate organization, although SS combat units were usually placed under the operational control of Army High Command (OKH) or Wehrmacht High Command (OKW).
A First World War Canadian electoral campaign poster. Hun (or The Hun) is a term that originally refers to the nomadic Huns of the Migration Period.Beginning in World War I it became an often used pejorative seen on war posters by Western Allied powers and the basis for a criminal characterization of the Germans as barbarians with no respect for civilization and humanitarian values having ...
By removing the institutional social restrictions on who could become an officer, Hitler instead made rank dependent upon combat ability and élan, thus encouraging soldiers to fight even harder to earn the prospect of a swift rise through the ranks. The Wehrmacht thus became a "soldier's community" fused by shared ambition, fanaticism, and ...
The German armed forces kept the name Reichswehr until Adolf Hitler's 1935 proclamation of the "restoration of military sovereignty", at which point it became part of the new Wehrmacht. Although ostensibly apolitical, the Reichswehr acted as a state within a state, and its leadership was an important political power factor in the Weimar Republic.
These ranks and insignia were specific to the Heer and in special cases to senior Wehrmacht officers in the independent services; the uniforms and rank systems of the other branches of the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe (Air Force) and Kriegsmarine (Navy), were different, as were those of the SS which was a Party organization outside the Wehrmacht.
Reichswehr soldiers swearing the Hitler oath in 1934, with hands raised in the traditional schwurhand gesture. The Hitler Oath (German: Führereid or Führer Oath)—also referred in English as the Soldier's Oath [1] —refers to the oaths of allegiance sworn by officers and soldiers of the Wehrmacht and civil servants of Nazi Germany between the years 1934 and 1945.