‘Junior Officership in the German Army during the Great War, 1914-1918’

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Watson, Alexander. 2007. ‘Junior Officership in the German Army during the Great War, 1914-1918’. War in History, 14(4), pp. 429-53. [Article]

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This article reassesses German junior officers’ performance in the First World War. Contrary to current historiography, it argues that the peacetime corps’ social elitism was successful in ensuring a militarily effective, naturally paternalistic and conscientious leadership. The infamous wartime Offiziershaß (‘officer hate’) derived not from social segregation between ranks but was rather a form of the ‘front-rear’ tension common to all belligerent armies, aggravated by material shortage. Despite training and organisational difficulties, the successful dissemination of the corps’ aristocratic values to wartime-recruited officers maintained good inter-rank relations within combat units, enabling the army to endure four years of gruelling warfare.

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