The Rise and Fall of Comradeship: Hitler's Soldiers, Male Bonding and Mass Violence in the Twentieth Century by Thomas Kühne (review)

Soldierly comradeship has long been recognized as a primary source of combat motivation among soldiers in the field. The desire to look after and earn the approval of the men with whom one serves has sustained soldiers through generations of armed conflict, and comradeship is often associated with the positive virtues of selflessness and sacrifice. In this revised, expanded, and updated translation of Kameradschaft: Die Soldaten des nationalsozialistischen Krieges und das 20. Jahrhundert (2006), Thomas Kühne explores the more sinister dimensions of comradeship. The pervasive longing for community, he argues, not only emboldened German soldiers of World War II to fight on against incredible odds, it likewise influenced their willingness to participate in or tolerate crimes committed in the name of the Volksgemeinschaft.

In the first of the book's three parts, Kühne chronicles the growth of the "myth of comradeship" during World War I. The comradeship myth bridged the gaps of social and religious difference for combatants from many of the war's armies. Defeated Germans, though, saw the comradeship myth as a remedy for postwar society's political and social wounds. The exaltation of comradeship shaped veterans' movements across the political spectrum. Conservatives celebrated comradeship among officers and soldiers while leftist veterans recalled that distrust of the officer class united common soldiers against their superiors. Regardless of the version with which they identified, veterans attempted to recapture the mythical comradeship of the trenches. By making comradeship a focal point, Hitler's movement thus tapped into a familiar longing. Kühne contends that comradeship relied upon both militant and softer versions of masculinity. Men who cared for their comrades could expect the same, but those who failed to conform faced exclusion. Evoking the sacrifices made in the trenches, the Nazis sought to create men who understood that the term comrade was reserved for those who "served as a willing and efficient small cog in the machine of the Volksgemeinschaft" (88).

The book's second and most significant part examines how the bonds of comradeship motivated German soldiers of World War II to participate in genocidal warfare. Wehrmacht soldiers fought for their comrades, the men beside them, but Kühne explains that nationalistic secondary symbols guided the actions of the primary group. Comradeship required the creation of an external "other" and internal outsiders against whom group members could define themselves. The fear of being ostracized as an outsider or unmanly encouraged even hesitant soldiers to conform. Elation over the Wehrmacht's early victories erased the doubts of unenthusiastic soldiers and stimulated sensations of solidarity. Avenging the deaths and perceived atrocities against one's brothers in arms became a "moral duty" (148), and the scope of the Wehrmacht's activities provided soldiers with ample opportunities to participate in antipartisan or genocidal campaigns. Although comradeship was strained when the tide turned against the Wehrmacht, the desire to prove oneself to his peers persisted even after defeat became certain. According to Kühne, "death fueled comradeship" (167). Soldiers continued to fight to honor fallen comrades, but also because they feared retribution from their enemies and their sense of morality demanded that they hang on.

Comradeship's decline is the subject of the book's final part. The veterans' movement that reemerged after 1949 focused on commemorating sacrifice while successfully distancing itself from war crimes. Still, only a small percentage of German veterans showed interest in postwar associations. Those who participated embraced their memories of comradeship and the notion that their "suffering and sacrifices cleansed [them] from their guilt of being complicit in genocide" (241). Kühne points out that veterans preferred the term comrade over veteran and touted comradeship's egalitarian and democratic qualities. Veterans' associations found political relevance amid Cold War tensions, particularly when conscription exposed young Germans to service in the Bundeswehr...