Figure 1.--

"I swear by God this holy oath that I shall render unconditional obedience to the Leader of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler, supreme commander of the armed forces, and that as a brave soldier I shall at all times be prepared to give my life for this oath."

--Oath of loyalty taken by German military adopted, August 2, 1934

German soldiers and sailos like soldierrs in other cpcountries take an oath of loyalty upon entering the military. During the Weimar era (1919-33), the oath of allegiance, sworn by the Reichswehr, required men to swear loyalty to the Reich Constitution and its lawful institutions. Following Hitler's appointment as Chancellor (January 1933), the military loyalty oath was changed, the men began wearing loyalty to the people and country. On the day President Paul von Hindenburg died, the oath was changed again (AShgiut 2, 1934). It would be psart of the Nazification of Germany, akhough ininiated by the militry tself. Yhe oath was shifted from allegiance to the Constitution or the country and the people. It became one of binding loyalty to Hitler personally. It is generally believed that Hitler himself drafted the oath and imposed it on the military. Actually the oath was changed on the initiative of Reichswehr Minister General Werner von Blomberg and General Walter von Reichenau, the chief of the Ministerial Office. Blomberg and Reichenau sought to create a personal bond between Hitler and the mlitary. The wanted to forge a tight bond wih Hitler in an effort to weaken Hitler's connction with the NAZI Party. In he end, Hitler would remove Blomberg from office. He later admitted that he did not thought through the potential implications of the new oath. 【Kershaw, p. 525】 In exchange for Hitler dealing with the Röem and the SA threat, the Reichwehr, waiting until President Hindenburg died, swore a personal oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler (August 2). The oath was not to the German nation, but was a personal oath to Hitler himself. Although the German military had earlier swore a similar oath to the Republic, the new oath to Hitler took place with no difficulty. Major elements of the military had never been committed to the Republic. There was strong monarchist sentiment within the military. As well as some NAZI support. Key NAZI policies, especially the ultra-nationlism and criticism of the Versailles Treaty were shared by much of the military. Offers of rearmament and expanded military spending appealed to many in the military that were not NAZIs. After the disasterous war and with German cities reduced to mounds of smoldeing rubble, the officers tried to excuse themselves for supporting a criminal regime, saying that hey had taken Hitler's loyalty oath. You heard that from countless officers. And even before the the NAZIs fell, Wehrmachct officers like Field Marshal Gerd von Ruenstedt oversaw the purges that followed the failed July Bomb Plot (July 1944). In fact most Germns thought well into the 1950s that the Bomb Plot consirators as traitors. Historians for years tended to agree. Some seemed to agree that the personal oath of loyalty had a psychological element leading to honmorble men obeying orders to commit involving war crimes, atrocities, and genocide. 【Cogen, p. 187.】 Left unsaid was the fact that the military had also taken a loyalty oath to the Weimar Republic, but had no pyvchologoicl trama ovrr breaking that oath. And no one at the time seemed to believe that their primary loyalty was to the Geman people who would pay the uiltimate price.

Sources

Kershaw, Ian. Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris (W.W. Norton: 2000).-

Created: 5:02 AM 1/3/2026
Last updated: 5:02 AM 1/3/2026