Wehrmachtbeamter
The Wehrmachtbeamter or plural Wehrmachtbeamte (Wehrmacht official; also Wehrmachtsbeamte) as well Militärverwaltungsbeamte der deutschen Wehrmacht (military administration officers of the German Wehrmacht) were a special form of civil servants in the German Reich since the end of 1934, which differed in many ways from the civilian civil servants (Beamte) of the time with ranks equivalent to those of the German Armed Forces from NCOs to generals. The Kriegsmarine, as in the Imperial German Navy, also had civil servants. Analogous to the Wehrmacht civil servant with the rank of general, there were “naval Marinebeamten with the rank of admiral.”
History
National Socialist Germany had adopted the separation between military officials and civilian officials of the army administration from the Reichswehr, which had been demanded by the victorious powers of the First World War through the so-called Inter-Allied Military Control Commission. This separation was abolished by the decree of the Führer and Reich Chancellor on rank and service relationships and uniforms of Wehrmacht officials ("Verordnung des Führers und Reichskanzlers über Rang- und Dienstverhältnisse sowie Uniform der Wehrmachtsbeamten") of the Heer from 22 December 1934. Wehrmachtbeamte (army) was from then on the name for all officials of the army administration. Similar decrees were issued for the German Air Force and German Navy in March 1935.
- One often encounters statements on military forums and websites that the Wehrmachtbeamten were "civilians". In my opinion this is a gross over-simplification. The Wehrmacht officials had a dual status as both members of the armed forces and as Reich civil servants. They were combatants. A great many carried out functions that in most Western armies were the remit of commissioned officers; Quartermaster, logistics, finance, military law, fortress engineering, vehicle and equipment maintenance, military survey etc., etc. Indeed, during the course of the war, many had their status converted to that of commissioned officers; the most well known being those officials transferred into the special Troop Service from May 1944 onward. In fact, even as early as 1939, about 370 engineering officials were commissioned as active officers in the rank range Oberst to Hauptmann in the newly formed engineer officers' career. From the mid war period onward, hundreds of technical officials were converted to active or reserve officers as Offiziere (W) or ordnance officers and into the Kraftfahrparktruppe (motor maintenance troops). Even as early as 1941, artillery survey officials were commissioned as artillery officers. In late 1944, numerous administrative branch officers of the TSD (former Zahlmeister officials) were transferred for the most part into the infantry![1]
External links
- Administrative Officials (Beamten)
- Shoulder boards of the Wehrmachtbeamte (Heer)
- boards and collar tabs of the Wehrmachtbeamte (Luftwaffe)
- Rank overview of naval officials (Marinebeamten)
- Sonderführer (Sdf or Sf for special commander with military command authority)
