War Studies Seminar Series

Given the sheer volume of historical literature about Germany and the Second World War, it would be easy to gain the impression that German military history ceased on 8 May 1945. In this War Studies Seminar, two historians from the German Armed Forces – the Bundeswehr – present on their current research and demonstrate that the Nazi defeat in 1945 ushered in a new period of German military history during which the Bundeswehr emerged from the shadow of Nazi militarism to eventually become a core component of the NATO alliance.

‘From Hitler to Democracy: The Army Generals of the Early Bundeswehr 1955-1970’

‘I believe that NATO would not accept 18-year-old generals’ was how the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Konrad Adenauer, answered the question whether Hitler's former generals would also serve in the new Bundeswehr. With these words, Adenauer emphasised that the raising of the armed forces in West Germany in 1955 would not be possible without professional expertise. Consequently, the Bundeswehr inevitably had to resort to Wehrmacht personnel. A total of 828 generals and admirals of the Bundeswehr had once sworn an oath to Hitler but later served West German democracy. Who were these men? What attitude did they have towards national-socialism and later to democracy? What role did they play in the German war of annihilation, especially in the Soviet Union? Were they involved in war crimes? What criteria were set for the selection of military personnel for the Bundeswehr? How did the military elite integrate into the democracy of the Federal Republic of Germany? How does all this compare to other West German elites with a Nazi past? Focusing on the first fifteen years of the Bundeswehr history, this paper aims to answer these questions.

‘The Bundeswehr Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation: Kabul, August 2021’

During the Kabul airlift of 17 to 26 August 2021, German forces evacuated 5,347 civilians from Hamid Karzai International Airport. This operation concluded 20 years of German military presence in Afghanistan. The diplomatic and military events between the Doha agreement of 2020 and the chaotic fall of Kabul became the subject of a parliamentary enquiry commission in Germany. The report acknowledged the conduct of the operation itself but criticised the lack of intelligence forecasts and of contingency planning for Afghan local staff. With the escalation of the war in Ukraine and Germany’s strategic shift from International Crisis Management to continental defence on NATO’s Eastern flank, the events in Kabul soon seemed forgotten. As part of its current history program, ZMSBw is preparing a publication on the Kabul airlift. This paper provides an insight into the ongoing project. It introduces the operation and the political and military debate. It discusses the challenges with regard to still-classified sources and potential ways to compensate for these limitations.

Speakers

Dr Peter Lieb is Senior Researcher and project coordinator in the department ‘Military History after 1945’ at the Centre for Military History and Social Sciences of the German Armed Forces (ZMSBw) in Potsdam. He holds a PhD from the University of Munich with a thesis on the radicalisation of warfare in France in 1944. Between 2005 and 2015 Lieb was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (UK) and subsequently joined the ZMSBw in 2015. From 2022 and 2024 he was a desk officer in the German MoD and in charge of military history and military tradition. Lieb’s areas of expertise and fields of publication are the two World Wars and the Cold War with an emphasis on German military history.

Dr Markus Pöhlmann is Senior Researcher and Head of Department ‘Expeditionary Operations’ at the Centre for Military History and Social Sciences of the German Armed Forces (ZMSBw) in Potsdam. He holds a PhD from the University of Berne with a thesis on the German Official History of 1914-18. His second book is on the history of German armoured warfare between 1890-1945. Pöhlmann’s areas of expertise and fields of publication are 19th to 21st century military history, intelligence history, and military and the media.

Additional information:

Registration is required for this event. If you require accessibility accommodations or a visitor Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan please email bell.marketing@anu.edu.au. Accessible parking spaces are available around campus should you require them.

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