Every once in a while, German media report on a swastika adorned flag in an official setting, for instance this one at the German army officer school. In this case, the explanation provided was that the flag was borrowed from the state domestic spy folks and was for training purposes.
Our story today is about flags from the German infantry training collection, more commonly called Infanteriemusem (infantry museum).
What is so special about their flag collection?
Dating before the end of World War II, almost all of the flags sported small swastikas in the metal flag points. Large swastikas on the cloth were later replaced with oak leaf decorations. You can see the type of metal tip of on the leftmost flag in the image. It gives you an appreciation of the potential size of a swastika. We are talking a few centimeters, maybe two inches across.
Having the same color as the body of the tips, black on black, those swastikas are not easy to see from more than a maybe five or six yards away.
On 31 October 1986, a camp on the training area adjoining the German infantry school in Hammelburg, Germany, was officially dedicated to former General Heusinger.
Present at the event were approximately one thousand soldiers and guests, including personnel from other NATO forces, the local press, Germany defense department personnel and photographers.
Both the local press and the German defense department published photos of the event which show the presence of "traditional" flags.
Flags from the museum.
Of the four or five flags from the museum, most* had the swastika tip at the time. We do not know if their swastikas have been removed since.
Were there any consequences?
We do not know, nor care. The Germans have a long tradition of promoting higher ranking problem officers to a certain category of desk jobs where they can do no further damage, as they with the colonel responsible for the atrocious Kunduz air strike.
* Our source was quite adamant that all of them had the swastikas. While we think that even one is one too many, we decided to make a "recollection allowance" in case anybody other than bots reads this post and dislikes it.
Historical context: The 1980s were a strange time in the West German armed forces. The very last handful of World War II veterans retired. When a full colonel wearing the name tag "von Stauffenberg" walked by, some officers would go "oh, he made colonel only because he is a Stauffenberg" - slander that was patently untrue. Some officials were keen to draw on the wisdom of supposed military hero General Rommel. The booklet introducing the German army infantry school was gussied up with a quote from from Rommel's book as a preface. The proof-reading copy of the booklet and a small initial run still had his rank of 938, Lieutenant Colonel, but the production copy dropped the rank - for easily understood reasons.
Editor's Note: Elaborating on Hogan's Heroes in this context would be a distraction. And yes, the information in this post is provided by someone who was there at the time and was intimately familiar with the museum exhibits.
[Update 17 August] Inquiries by researchers will be accepted. Encrypted email only, please.
No comments:
Post a Comment