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Prussian Officer Class

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by Elkstone (U3836042) on Friday, 17th April 2009

  The said officer class of the Wehrmacht and WW1 are well documented. Were they the product of the German Aristocracy, since most of the officers have aristocratic 'Von' surname? Is there a British equivalent? Would the Guards come closest?
  
  Finally did the Prussian Officer class as it was, end after the WW2? The post war constitution, forbid the continuation of ancient military corps/ units. I heard they had to change their names every ten years or so, to break ties with the nazi past like the Waffen SS. One other thing, is the word 'Werhmacht' banned from use for describing the current German military, because of its Nazi associations?

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Stoggler (U1647829) on Friday, 17th April 2009

  I don't know about the Prussian officer class, but the Wehrmacht ceased to exist after the war and most units had been disbanded by August 1945.
  
  The term Wehrmacht by the way referred to all armed forces (apart from the Waffen-SS), so included the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe.
  
  I don't know if the term Wehrmacht is banned in Germany, but West Germany adopted the name Bundeswehr for their armed forces and East Germany had the Nationale Volksarmee (National Peoples' Army) - the unified Germany has a Bundeswehr.

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  Posted by cloudyj (U1773646) on Friday, 17th April 2009

  The said officer class of the Wehrmacht and WW1 are well documented. Were they the product of the German Aristocracy, since most of the officers have aristocratic 'Von' surname?Β 
  
  It's also regularly over-stated. The proportion of officers drawn from the aristocracy in East Prussia/Brandenburg (which is what is usually meant by the class) went into steep decline in the middle of the nineteenth century. As Prussia took over german states in the West, officers were increasingly recruited from the eductaed middle classes there rather than the old fashioned Prussian Junkers.

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  Posted by Steelers708 (U1831340) on Friday, 17th April 2009

  From What I've found out a 1967 survey showed that 49.7% of all Bundeswehr officers were of Prussian origin, including 61.2% of lieutenants! Although there were differences in the tradtional military aristocracy, in the imperial army 70% of generals had aristocratic origins, in 1967 it was less than 10% and only 2.7% of the entire officer corps.

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• Message 5

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  Posted by PaulRyckier (U1753522) on Friday, 17th April 2009

  Re: Message 4.
  
  Steelers,
  
  Prussia was a big country from the Netherlands till Russia (after WWI till the Baltic states, Lituania) read somewhere that it's population was at some time two thirds of the later German Empire.
  
  population 1939 41,915,040 inhabitants
  If you can believe the Swedish Γ–rjan Martinsson:
  
  69.5 million within the borders of 1937
  also:
  
  
  Warm regards,
  
  Paul.

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