Isabel V. Hull

Written by a general historian of Wilhelmine Germany, this work examines the cultural foundations of the German army's tendency to adopt extreme solutions to military problems at the earliest possible moment. Beginning with the notorious campaign in German Southwest Africa, where the drive for a pure military victory led to a near genocidal outcome, Hull downplays the influence of ideology and plays up how standard operating procedures and unexamined cultural values came to substitute for strategy; a matter not helped by the degree to which the German military leadership was insulated from outside criticism.

Hull then extends this analysis of German military conduct into the Great War, where the German military high command reached the point where they were prepared to sacrifice the country for the sake of their personal image; an outcome staved off to a large degree because there was finally the political leadership prepared to bring to heel a military machine that can be described as autistic. It might also be noted that Hull is very careful to remind her readers that whatever the excesses of the German armed forces, they were still not outside the pale of contemporary practice; just at the edge of the acceptable.

As for the inheritance that was passed on to the Third Reich, the author describes the Nazi "cult of violence" as mostly being the Imperial German Army's military culture turned into an ideology, but decoupled from even those faint limits on "military necessity" that had existed.… (meer)