Wernitz, Frank Rivalen oder Kampfgemeinschaft in Feldgrau? Ein Diskussionsbeitrag zu den Beziehungen zwischen Wehrmacht und bewaffneter SS 1933-1945

The relationship between the Wehrmacht and the "armed SS" still plays a central role in historiography on the National Socialist dictatorship, and not only in studies of military history. The tenor of current research is that the "Reichsführer SS" Heinrich Himmler strove to compete with the Wehrmacht with his party army in order to eventually counter the army with an SS army of equal rank or even to one day be able to replace the Wehrmacht with the Waffen-SS.

However, the build-up of standing and armed SS units took place in parallel with the transition of the armed forces from a professional army to a conscript army. At the same time, the Nazi leadership was determined to permanently eliminate the conservative forces in the Wehrmacht and gradually transform the military into a "National Socialist People's Army". Rearmament, general conscription and political indoctrination initiated a transformation in which the soldierly self-image and the traditional role of the armed forces began to dissolve. According to the National Socialists' ideas of a renewed, self-contained and defensive "Volksgemeinschaft", the formerly strict separation between the military and civilian spheres had to be abolished. This work therefore illuminates the relationship between the armed SS and the military, emphasising the National Socialist claim to change, and comes to hitherto unknown conclusions.