1. Leonhard, Hans, Wieviel Leid erträgt ein Mensch? Aufzeichnungen eines Kriegspfarrers über die Jahre 1939 bis 1945 (Amberg: Buch & Kunstverlag Oberpfalz, 1994), 41–42. All translations from the German are mine unless otherwise specified.Google Scholar

2. Rosenberg, , Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts: Line Wertung der seelisch-geistigen Gestaltenkämpfe unserer Zeit (Munich: Hoheneichen Verlag, 1935), 614.Google Scholar

3. In November 1933, Reinhold Krause, a Berlin high school teacher of religion and “German Christian,” gave a speech in the Berlin Sports Palace. Before twenty thousand cheering people, Krause demanded “liberation from the Old Testament with its cheap Jewish morality of exchange and its stories of cattle traders and pimps.” Krause, “Rede des Gauobmannes der Glaubensbewegung ‘Deutsche Christen’ im GroG-Berlin, gehalten im Sportpalast am 13 November 1933 (nach doppelten Stenographischen Bericht),” 6–7, Landeskirchenarchiv Bielefeld (hereafter LKA Bielefeld) 5, 1/289,2.Google Scholar

4. Leonhard, 42.Google Scholar

5. Published diaries and memoirs of chaplains include: Alberti, Rüdiger, Als Kriegspfarrer in Polen: Erlebnisse und Begegnungen in Kriegslazaretten (Dresden/Leipzig: C. Ludwig Ungelenk, 1940);Google ScholarSchabel, Wilhelm, Herr, in Deine Hände: Seelsorge im Krieg (Bern: Alfred Scherz, 1963);Google ScholarPerau, Josef, Priester im Heere Hitlers: Erinnerungen 1940–1945 (Essen: Ludgerus-Verlag, 1963);Google ScholarSchübel, Albrecht, 300 Jahre Evangelische Soldatenseelsorge (Munich: Evangelischer Presseverband für Bayern, 1964);Google ScholarBaedeker, Dietrich, Das Volk das im Finsternis wandelt: Stationen eines Militärpfarrers, 1933–1946 (Hanover: Lutherisches Verlagshaus, 1987);Google Scholarand Leonhard, Wieviet Leid. Also see Brandt, Hans Jürgen, ed., Priester in Uniform: Seelsorger, Ordensleute und Theologen als Soldaten im Zweiten Weltkrieg (Augsburg: Pattloch Verlag, 1994).Google ScholarThe most extensive collection of personal papers of a German World War II chaplain that I have found is the Nachlaβ Bernhard Bauerle, held at the Landeskirchliches Museum, in Ludwigsburg (hereafter LKM Ludwigsburg). Thanks goes to Eberhard Gutekunst and Andrea Kittel for permission to see these papers. There are relevant materials in the papers of Pastors Hans Stempel and Ludwig Diehl in Zentralarchiv der Evangelischen Kirche der Pfalz, Speyer (hereafter ZASP Speyer). A valuable source is chaplains' activity reports prepared at the division and army levels. Many of these are held at the Bundesarchiv-Militaerarchiv in Freiburg/Br. (hereafter BA-MA Freiburg); many are also on microfilm at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., in the Captured German Documents, series T-312, Records of German Field Commands: Armies; and T-315, Records of German Field Commands: Armies (hereafter T-series/roll/frame). Also see Reich Church Ministry files, especially regarding appointments of chaplains, in the Bundesarchiv Potsdam (hereafter BA Potsdam), 51.01/23846 and 23847. Some materials on Catholic chaplains are at the Archiv des Katholischen Militärbischofsamts (hereafter AKM Bonn).Google Scholar

6. The estimation of 1000 chaplains total is based on a figure of 480 Protestants who served throughout the war and an assumption that about equal numbers of Catholics held positions in the chaplaincy. See “Zusammenstellung der eingesetzten Pfarrer,” [1941] BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/281, 35; “Kriegsdienst der evang. Geistlichen Deutschlands, nach den statistischen Angaben der Deutsch-Evangelischen Kirchenkanzlei Berlin, Stand 1.10.1941,” in Landeskirchenarchiv Nürnberg (hereafter LKA Nuremberg), Kreisdekan Nürnberg/121; and “Aufstellung der Soil- und Iststärke an Evangelischen Kriegspfarrern nach dem Stande vom 25.11.1944,” BA-MA Freiburg, N282/8.Google Scholar

7. In August 1940, Protestant Military Bishop Franz Dohrmann prepared a “Bericht über die Wehrmachtseelsorge im Kriege.” He gathered information from fourteen divisions; all but one division, which did not answer the question, reported that attendance of worship services was good to very good, ranging from 60 to 90 percent in most cases; one divisional chaplain recorded participation of 100 percent after battles. BA-MA Freiburg, N282/vol. 7. A postwar account by former chaplain Schubring [first name not given] indicates that the winters in the Soviet Union led to an increasing demand for pastoral care; as many as 80 percent of troops participated, and surprisingly many took communion. Schubring, “Die Arbeit der Feldseelsorge im Kriege,” BA-MA Freiburg, N282/vol. 4.Google Scholar On the basis of interviews with former chaplains, Bleese, Jörn makes similar observations in Die Militärseeisorge und die Trennung von Staat und Kirche (Ph.D. diss.: University of Hamburg, 1969), 190.Google Scholar

8. On German chaplains as witnesses to massacres of civilians in Greece, see Mazower, Mark, “Militärische Gewalt und nationalsozialistische Werte: Die Wehrmacht in Griechenland 1941 bis 1944,” trans, from Past and Present 134 (1992) in Vernichtungskrieg: Verbrechen der Wehrmacht, 1941–1944, eds. Heer, Hannes and Naumann, Klaus (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition HIS Verlag, 1995), 157–90.Google Scholar For a case of chaplains seeing Nazi brutality up close in Ukraine, see reminiscences of former Tewes, Catholic Chaplain Ernst, “Seelsorger bei den Soldaten 1940–1945. Aufzeichnungen und Erinnerungen,” in Das Erzbistum München und Freising in der Zeit der nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft, ed. Schwaiger, Georg (Munich: Verlag Schnell & Steiner, 1984), 2: 244–87;Google Scholaralso Boll, Bernd and Safrian, Hans, “Auf dem Weg nach Stalingrad: Die 6. Armee 1941/42,” in Heer and Naumann, 260–96.Google Scholar

9. See discussion in Weinberg, , “Propaganda for Peace and Preparation for War,” in Germany, Hitler, and World War II (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 68–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10. See, for example, the death announcement of the military chaplain Albert, Franz, born in 1876 and a decorated veteran of World War I, who had spent thirty-eight of his forty-four years as a priest ministering to soldiers.Google Scholar Catholic Military Bishop's Verordnungsblatt 4 (3 05 1944): 13, in AKM Bonn.Google Scholar

11. A detailed description of the Great War as a model of supraconfessionality appears in Roth, Armin, Wehrmacht und Weltanschauung: Grundfragen für die Erziehungsarbeit in der Wehrmacht, foreword by Göring, Hermann (Berlin: E.S. Mittler & Sohn, 1940), 19.Google Scholar

12. A scathing denunciation of religious complicity in the Great War appears in Benda, Julien, The Betrayal of the Intellectuals, trans. Aldington, Richard (Boston: Beacon, 1955), chap. 3, “The ‘Clerks’—the Great Betrayal,” especially 65–73, 101, 109–11.Google Scholar

13. Fussell, Paul, “The Fate of Chivalry and the Assault upon Mother,” in Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays, ed. Fussell, Paul (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988), 221–48. Fussell notes the intimate connection between “mother” and piety.Google Scholar

14. “‘Die Soldatenpredigt im Kriege,’ Leitgedanken aus einem Vortrag bei einem Frontlehrgang im Osten von Wehrmachtdekan Schackla,” in Mitteilungsblatt des Evangelischen Feldbischofs 4 (10 10 1942): 6, in BA-MA Freiburg, RW 12 I/12.Google Scholar

15. Müller, “Vierteljahres (Seelsorge)-Bericht des ev. Divisions-Pfarrers der 7. Pz. Division für die Zeit vom 1.10 bis 31.12.41,” 1, in T-315/439/303.Google Scholar

16. Fussell, , “Killing in Verse and Prose,” in Thank God, 131.Google Scholar

17. For an explicit effort to distance World War II chaplains from the supposed stab-in-theback of 1918, see Catholic Military Bishop Rarkowski, Franz Justus, “Heimatgruβ des katholischen Feldbischofs der Wehrmacht,” with instructions to circulate to all Catholic members of Wehrmacht, Verordnungsblatt, no. 2 (1 09t. 1939): 6, AKM Bonn.Google Scholar

18. Jones, James quoted in Fussell, “Killing in Verse and Prose,” in Thank God, 144.Google Scholar

19. For discussion, see Mosse, George, The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).Google Scholar

20. “Anzug der Wehrmachtgeistlichen und Kriegspfarrer a.K.,” in Verordnungsblatt, no. 2 (10 02. 1941): 11, AKM Bonn.Google Scholar

21. See account of Drink, Lambert in Erinnerungen rheinischer Seelsorger aus den Dibözesen Aachen, Köln und Lüttich (1933–1986), ed. Gatz, Erwin (Aachen: Ginhard, 1988), 259.Google Scholar

22. See the accounts by Catholic priests and seminarians serving as orderlies and medics in Brandt, ed., Priester in Uniform.Google Scholar

23. Lasch, acting Protestant district chaplain, District XI Hanover, report on the gathering of base chaplains in District XI on 12 May 1943, 15 May 1943; thirty-three base chaplains and fifty-three hospital chaplains attended. BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/273/119–20.Google Scholar

24. Georg Gründler to Protestant Military Bishop, Münster, 13 December 1940, 2, in BA-MA Freiburg, RW 12 1/6, 128. For a similar case involving a Catholic, see Josef Neubauer to Rarkowski (Budweis, 29 November 1943), BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/272, 83–84.Google Scholar

25. On calls for “manly, powerful, pious, German” music rather than the usual “soft, sweet, sentimental” fare of religious music, see Schieber (Evang. Wehrkreispfarrer V) to Protestant Military Bishop Ludwigsburg, 15 July 1938, in BA-MA Freiburg, RH 53–5/72, 11–13. For a description of how Christmas at the front bound a “childlike sense” with “true manliness,” see “Hirtenbrief,” “Der Katholische Feldbischof der Wehrmacht Franziskus Justus,” Berlin, Advent 1942, 3–4, in BA-MA Freiburg, RW 12 II/4.Google Scholar

26. “‘Die Soldatenpredigt im Kriege,’ Leitgedanken aus einem Vortrag bei einem Frontlehrgang im Osten von Wehrmachtdekan Schackla,” in Mitteilungsblatt des Ev. Feldbsichofs 4 (10 10. 1942): 2, in BA-MA Freiburg, RW 12 1/12.Google Scholar

27. “Standortpfarrerversammlung im Wehrkreis XI, 12.5.43,” report signed Lasch, stellv. Ev. Wehrkreispfarrer XI, Hanover, 15 May 1943, to Army High Command via Protestant Military Bishop, in BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/273, 119–20.Google Scholar

28. “Wesen und Aufgabe der Feldseelsorge,” signed Edelmann, [1941], 5, in BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/282, 26.Google Scholar

29. Bauerle, , “Gruβ zum 12. Sonntag nach Trinitatis,” 23 08 1942, 1, NL Bauerle, in LKM Ludwigsburg, materials labeled “Sonntagsgruβ.”Google Scholar

30. Satzger, Kriegspfarrer, “Bericht über Kampfhandlungen,” 9 01 1942, T-312/419/ 7995355–56.Google Scholar

31. Death notice for Gerritschen, Anton, chaplain with an infantry division, 6 04 1941, in Verordnungsblatt, no. 4 (21 April 1941): 21, AKM Bonn.Google Scholar

32. Obituary for Grois, Anton, Wehrmachtpfarrer, and Divisionspfarrer, , Verordnungsblatt, no. 4 (15 04 1942): 21, AKM Bonn.Google Scholar

33. Rarkowski, Franziskus Justus, “Heimatgruβ an alle katholischen Wehrmachtangehörigen” Verordnungsblatt, no. 3 (18 10 1939): 10, AKM Bonn.Google Scholar

34. Kaufmann, Günther, (editor in chief of Wille und Macht, leadership organ of the National Socialist youth), in Feldzeitung der Moselarmee, reproduced in Mann und Kirche, no. 9 (1940): 64, one of attachments to letter from chancellery of the German Protestant Church to Hitler, 28 October 1940, in binder labeled ”Haltung der kirchlichen Zeitschriften im gegenwärtigen Kriege,“ 49, BA Potsdam, 51.01/23740.Google Scholar

35. Graf, report of activity with the 8th Jäg-Div., France, 15 February 1942, T-315/465/1031.Google Scholar

36. See remarks in appendix to report by Stellv, . Ev. Wehrkreispfarrer IX, Karig, “Müglichkeiten und Schwierigkeiten der Truppenseelsorge,” for meeting of base chaplains in Kassel, 17 02 1943, 4, in BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/273, 15.Google Scholar

37. There seems to have been considerable confusion as to whether chaplains could be decorated, if so which chaplains, with what, by whom, and under what conditions. See correspondence regarding the Iron Cross, second class, without swords, and lists of proposed names; for example: Bunke, Stellvertretender Ev. Wehrkreispfarrer III, “Vorschlagsliste 1 für die Verleihung des K.V.K. II. Kl. o. Schw.,” Berlin-Spandau, 18 April 1944, in BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/272, 123. On the question of whether base chaplains and chaplains in military hospitals could be decorated, see Army High Command to military bishops, 21 March 1944, BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/272, 104. For a case where several Iron Crosses were withdrawn from base and military hospital chaplains, see Army High Command, 30 January 1945, BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/270, 13; the same file contains a great deal of related correspondence.Google Scholar

38. See circular from Laasch, stellv. Ev. Wehrkreispfarrer XI, “An alle Ev. Standort- und Reservelazarettpfarrer im Wehrkreis XI,” Hanover, 28 June 1944, 2, in BA-MA Freiburg, RH 53–11/71.Google Scholar

39. Laasch, stellv. Ev. Wehrkreispfarrer XI, “An alle Ev. Standort- und Reservelazarettpfarrer im Wehrkreis XI,” Hanover, 28 June 1944, 2, in BA-MA Freiburg, RH 53–11/71.Google Scholar

40. Even members of the “German Christian” movement complained about anti-Christian attitudes in the SA, SS, and army. See, for example, Walter Schultz to Hitler, 30 April 1941, and attached, untitled report, relevant sections entitled “Bekämpfung und Verächtlichmachung des Christentums und der Kirche,” and “Angriffe auf Geistliche,” 4–5, Bundesarchiv Koblenz (hereafter BA Koblenz) R 43 II/172/fiche 1, 3–6. These materials have been relocated within the German federal archive system since I used them.Google Scholar On German Christians in the chaplaincy, see Bergen, Doris L., “‘Germany Is Our Mission—Christ Is Our Strength!’: The Wehrmacht Chaplaincy and the ‘German Christian’ Movement,” Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture 66 (1997): 522–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

41. On Hitler's belief in the stab-in-the-back myth and its impact on his behavior during World War II, see Weinberg, , “Propaganda for Peace and Preparation for War,” in Germany, Hitler, and World War II, 73–76.Google Scholar

42. On Nazi measures against the Wehrmacht chaplains, see Manfred Messerschmidt, “Aspekte der Militärseelsorgepolitik in nationalsozialistischer Zeit,” Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen 1/1968, and Messerschmidt, “Zur Militärseelsorgepolitik im Zweiten Weltkrieg,” Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen 1/1969. See also postwar manuscript by Schubring, “Die Arbeit der Feldseelsorge im Kriege,” in BA-MA Freiburg, N282/vol. 4.Google Scholar

43. On absence of chaplains in the Luftwaffe, see guidelines prepared by Group S (Seelsorge) of Army High Command, signed Edelmann, “Wesen und Aufgabe der Feldseelsorge” [1941], 7, BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/282, 28. For examples of chaplains nevertheless ministering to members of the Luftwaffe or being requested to do so, see the following: Protestant Kriegspfarrer Albrecht, 2nd Mountain Division, “Bericht über die seelsorgerliche Tätigkeit des evangelischen Kreigspfarrers bei der 2. Gebirgs-Division vom Juni 1940–28.2.1941,” Norway, 4, T-315/99/594; Catholic Military Bishop Rarkowski to Army High Command, 9 July 1943, 3, BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/280, 121; SS-Main Personnel Office to Supreme Command, Berlin-Charlottenburg, 14 September 1944, BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/272, 263.Google Scholar

44. Dohrmann's notes provide a figure of 455, BA-MA Freiburg, N282/1, 163.Google Scholar

45. OKH (Army High Command), signed Jüttner, 23 December 1933, BA-MA Freiburg, N282/3. For complaints about the failure to maintain adequate numbers of chaplains or fill vacant positions, see German Protestant Church, Ecclesiastical Chancellery, to Supreme Command, 13 November 1942, Berlin, BA Potsdam, 51.01/23847.Google Scholar

46. Supreme Command, signed Keitel, 15 03 1941, Berlin, “Wehrmachtseelsorge,” BA Potsdam, 51.01/21839, 62–63.Google Scholar

47. “Bestimmungen für besondere Dienstverhältnisse der Kriegspfarrer beim Feldheer,” 18 06 1941, BA-MA Freiburg, N282, vol. 3.Google Scholar

48. See “Bestimmungen für besondere Dienstverhältnisse der Kriegspfarrer beim Feldheer,” 18 06 1941, BA-MA Freiburg, N282, vol. 3; also earlier memo from Supreme Command to Reich Ministry of Church Affairs, Berlin, 1 August 1940, in BA Potsdam 51.01/23158, 254.Google Scholar

49. Army High Command, signed Kauffmann, to military bishops, 26 October 1939, 1, BA-MA Freiburg, RW 12 1/13.Google Scholar

50. Supreme Command, signed Keitel, “Betr.: Richtlinien für die Durchfuhrung der Feldseelsorge,” Berlin, 24 May 1942, 1, BA Potsdam, 51.01/21839, 147.Google Scholar

51. On antagonistic officers, see Tomaschek, Catholic chaplain, 2d Mountain Division, “Tätigkeitsbericht vom 1.11.1940–28.2.1941,” Norway, 1 March 1941, 2, T-315/99/601; on unsympathetic nurses who obstructed the work of the chaplains, see report by Pastor Engelbrecht, Fulda, “Die Seelsorge im Res.-Lazarett,” summarized in Karig, deputy Protestant military chaplain, District IX, to Supreme Command and Protestant Military Bishop Kassel, 13 March 1943, 1, BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/273, 9.Google Scholar

52. Doerne, , “Lazarettseelsorge,” report from the conference of base and military hospital chaplains in military district IV, Dresden, 7 July 1943, in copy of Mitteilungsblatt des Ev. Feldbischofi, no. 3, 15 (10 1943): 5, BA-MA Freiburg, RW 12 1/13, 5.Google Scholar

53. See list of complaints signed Vicar Werthmann, Catholic military bishop to Army High Command, 9 July 1943, 5, BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/280, 123.Google Scholar

54. Stempel, report on “Lazarettseelsorge,” 19 February 1940, Landau, 5, ZASP Speyer, 150.47/2e.Google Scholar

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56. “Tätigkeitsbericht über den Einsatz im Westen vom 10. Mai bis 9. Juli 1940,” Stettin, 1 August 1940, T-315/87/637–38.Google Scholar

57. To see the approval procedure at work, for example, Ministry of Church Affairs to Supreme Command (OKW), 22 May 1944, BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/272, 216–17; Church Affairs to OKW, BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/272, 116; same file, Bunke, “Bericht der Wehrmachtkommandantur Berlin,” 18 December 1943; OKW (Gruppe S) memo to military bishops, 21 March 1944, 113; report of Gestapo Hanover on Pastor Friedrich Voges, in Deputy Chief Command, District XI, to OKH, 17 November 1944, BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/270, 25; and church ministry files re: chaplains, BA Potsdam, 51.01/ 23846 and 23847.Google Scholar

58. Security Service report on Pfarrer Ernst Müller in Roxförde, 28 September 1940, BA Potsdam, 51.01/23847, 35.Google Scholar

59. Schultz, Bishop of Protestant-Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg, to State Secretary Muhs, Reich Ministry for Church Affairs, 28 July 1942, BA Potsdam, 51.01/23846, 298.Google Scholar

60. Karig, Deputy Protestant chaplain for Military District IX, Kassel, “Möglichkeiten und Schwierigkeiten der Truppenseelsorge,” copy of speech, attached to Karig to Supreme Command, report on gatherings of base chaplains in Kassel, Eisenach, and Frankfurt/ M., 13 March 1943, 5, BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/273, 16.Google Scholar

61. Circular from Deputy Protestant Chaplain Laasch, Military District XI, Hanover, Advent 1943, “To Protestant Base and Military Hospital Chaplains of Military District XI,” 1, BA-MA Freiburg, RH 53–11/71.Google Scholar

62. Catholic divisional priest, 7th Tank Division, entry for 3–8 May 1942, in “Tätigkeitsbericht, 1.1.42–12.5.42,” 7, T-315/439/329.Google Scholar

63. Dr. Müller, Protestant divisional chaplain, 7th Tank Division, “Tätigkeitsbericht, 22.6.–30.9.1941,” 4, T-315/439/301.Google Scholar

64. Rarkowski to Army High Command, Berlin-Tempelhof, 5 January 1937, 3, BA-MA Freiburg, RW 12 II/5, 6.Google Scholar

65. Edelmann, “Wesen und Aufgabe der Feldseelsorge,” [1941], 1, BA-MA Freiburg, RH 15/282, 22.Google Scholar

66. On Stangl, see Sereny, Gitta, Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience (New York: Vintage Books, 1983).Google Scholar

67. See Nevermann, Hans Richard, “Warum zog ich nicht die Notbremse? Erinnerungen 40 Jahre nach dem Überfall auf die Sowjetunion,” Junge Kirche 6 (1981): 282–84.Google Scholar

68. Keller, Heinz, “Ob das der Herrgott von uns will?,” in Brandt, Priester in Uniform, 130–31. Keller was with the 2d Medical Corps, 46th Infantry Division in the Crimea and the Caucasus.Google Scholar

69. Keller, 130–31.Google Scholar

70. Verordnungsblätter des katholischen Feldbischof der Wehrmacht 6 (12 08 1944): 30, “Generalabsolution,” signed Rarkowski, .Google Scholar

71. Bartov, Omer, The Eastern Front, 1941–1945: German Troops and the Barbarisation of Warfare (London: St. Martin's, 1985).Google Scholar

72. For additional discussion of women's roles in Nazi warfare, see Koonz, Claudia, Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, the Family and Nazi Politics (London: Jonathan Cape, 1987);Google ScholarZipfel, Gaby, “Wie führen Frauen Krieg?” in Heer and Naumann, 460–74;Google Scholarand Sereny, Into that Darkness, especially 355–62.Google Scholar