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Historian Thomas Kuehne and student Brian Libby examined the impact of war and violence on gender identity in Nazi Germany. |
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Comradeship: camouflaging the violence of war
Professor Thomas Kuehne's research
In World War II Germany, the truly masculine male was one who was emotionally tough and fulfilled the role of soldier with courage, zeal, and endurance. But how could any human being endure the horrific violence, physical discomfort, and death that surrounded him in combat? Drawing upon battlefield diaries and letters, as well as propaganda from the period, historian Thomas Kuehne argues that a "myth of comradeship" was embraced as an acceptably masculine way for soldiers to provide each other with the emotional support normally considered the province of women.
Kuehne explains how comradeship, a noble and altruistic bond that united soldiers in a community of mutual support, had its roots in a mythical German past and was reinforced by the Christian virtue of self-sacrifice, folk-myths like the Nibelungenlied, and even popular songs. Comradely behavior might be as understated as the sharing of cigarettes, or as risky as the rescue of a wounded soldier under fire. Ideally, ties of comradeship were supposed to unite soldiers of all ranks and economic classes. The opportunity to participate in a comradely community was held up as an important benefit of participation in military service.
A belief in the comradely ideal served several important functions, both on the battlefield and in civilian society. First, comradeship made the soldier's existence more bearable by serving as a counterweight to the violence that each soldier was expected to commit and experience. Comradeship was the feminine virtues of affection, empathy, and caring transformed into an acceptably masculine behavior. In a culture where gender roles and behaviors had traditionally been clearly defined and mutually exclusive, comradeship allowed men to provide each other with emotional outlets and support, without compromising their identity as heterosexual, 'masculine' males. Even men disaffected by war or who recognized that, in practice, comradeship frequently fell short of the ideal, testified to its importance in their wartime lives.
In fact, the ability to be a good comrade could actually affirm a man's masculinity. By showing that he could endure harsh conditions and risk death for the sake of his comrades, a man proved his ability to be emotionally tough. The practice of comradeship required that a man accept the fate of the group as his own.
The comradely ideal helped the soldier regard the military as family, and as such provided him with a sense of security and being "at home." His unit commander and sergeant were father and mother, respectively, and his peers were as brothers. Wartime living quarters became "home" and were decorated with pictures of family and flowers.
In addition to providing soldiers with emotional support, the comradely ideal served the goals of Hitler's National-Socialist state. Military leaders recognized that discipline and obedience were not enough to forge a cohesive fighting force; a feeling of comradeship was critical to make soldiers pull together in a common cause. The ideal of comradeship transformed aggressive violence into morally acceptable behavior: the comradely man didn't so much fight against the enemy as to protect his comrades.
Third, a shared and broadened concept of comradeship helped bridge the gap between the warfront and the homefront, by fostering a feeling that all Germans, women as well as men, the young and the old, were in the National-Socialist struggle together. The practice of comradeship was not to be limited to soldiers, or even to men. Comradeship could exist between women, and between women and men. The promotion of women "at home" as comrades to their men at the front brought women out of their traditional domestic sphere and formalized for them a more public role as supporters of men and the war effort. The exercise of comradely behavior among themselves reassured Germans that they were still humane, despite the genocide they were conducting against "alien" peoples.
Might the reliance on written memoirs skew the interpretation of comradeship-were people who wrote about it more thoughtful, better educated, more sensitive?
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Additional Resources
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Comradeship was expected
to cut across class lines.
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The poster declares that comrades at the front were comrades for life.
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These materials are courtesy of Dr. Randall Bytwerk of Calvin College and his German Propaganda Archive.
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