George Soldan

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Hans Georg August George Soldan (born March 28, 1878 in Bremerhaven ; † May 31, 1945 ) was a German officer and military scientist . He played a key role in the redesign of official German military historiography after the First World War . From 1919 he headed the department or later the Folk Writings Department in the Reichsarchiv and was responsible for the overall editing of the series Battles of the World War and the memorial pages of German regiments . His work Man and the Battle of the Future , published in 1925 , in which he developed the idea that future wars would be decided by a highly mobile, small army of professional soldiers , was controversial . After leaving the Reichsarchiv in 1931, he took over the editing of the military magazine Deutsche Wehr . In the Second World War he was reactivated as a war correspondent and is believed to have been lost in Soviet captivity .

life and work

officer

Soldan was a grandson of the Bremerhaven entrepreneur Melchior Schwoon . His father August Soldan (1836-1897) was chief physician at the Bremerhaven hospital.

George Soldan embarked on a career as an officer in the Prussian Army . Coming from the cadet corps, he was transferred in mid-October 1898 as a lieutenant to the infantry regiment "Kaiser Wilhelm" (2nd Grand Ducal Hessian) No. 116 . From 1908 he emerged with military science work, around 1912 with The leadership in coalition wars . During the First World War , he initially took part as a company commander and battalion commander in the 4th Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 72 . From May 1915 to June 1918 he served as captain of the III. Battalion of the No. 184 Infantry Regiment on the Western Front . On April 22, 1918, he was awarded the Pour le Mérite order for his work in the context of the “ Michael Offensive ” . In 1918 he was posted to the General Staff , where he worked in War History Department IV under Colonel Theodor Jochim .

History politician and archivist

In May 1919 Soldan submitted a 41-page memorandum entitled The German Historiography of the World War. A national task that his superior Jochim presented to the quartermaster of war history in the Great General Staff, Hermann Ritter Mertz von Quirnheim . In it Soldan drafted a detailed plan for the implementation of historical-political goals. After complaining about failures in the propaganda war from 1914 to 1918 , he described the three tasks of the historiography of the war with regard to the German defeat:

“[...] raise up a collapsed people, restore their faith in themselves, let the happiness and unhappiness endured together grow into a German national feeling, which, shining through the darkest present, shows the way to a new rise; exploiting the great educational value of history in order to lead a politically thinking and feeling people to maturity.
These are national tasks, the solution of which is in the interests of the future of the state. There are points of view that have to be consciously put into the writing of history, but which have to be subconsciously engraved in the reader. "

- George Soldan : The German historiography of the world war. A National Task (May 1919)

The historian Markus Pöhlmann sees the manuscript as the most significant statement for the further course of the military history of the First World War. On the one hand, the memorandum was clearly biologistic and ethnic , and Soldan, with reference to Arthur Moeller van den Bruck's work The Law of Young Peoples, constructed a new ideological pattern for justifying military history. On the other hand, Soldan openly called for a military history as a domestic political propaganda instrument and called for a decidedly manipulative and popular historiography. Mertz von Quirnheim commissioned Soldan in July 1919 to design a department for popular historiography. In 1920 Soldan also publicly presented his conceptual considerations in the Deutsches Officierblatt . In the memory culture struggle of the Weimar Republic, historiography should counter the war experience with positive meaning and glorification.

After the dissolution of the Great General Staff Soldan came as Major  a. D. 1919 with the war history department in the newly established Reichsarchiv. There he became archivist and headed the initially independent department G (“Volkstümliche Schriften”), which in 1924 was attached as a section to department B (“war history department”), but retained extensive independence. His employees were exclusively former officers, only one of whom had an academic education. Soldan was responsible for the overall editing of the popular series Battles of the World War (36 volumes) published by the Oldenburger Stalling-Verlag as well as the editing of the regimental stories series of memorial sheets for German regiments . The Battles of World War series was designed specifically for mass sales. Members of the Reichsarchiv wrote nine volumes themselves and played a key role in 14 others. With Werner Beumelburg , who was to contribute four volumes, Soldan won one of the most popular authors of nationalist war novels for his series. The later, official war historiography was based on the preparatory work of Section G. With its comprehensive presentation of the events, the Reichsarchiv achieved a hegemonic position in popular historiography from the late 1920s, also because the war was not openly glorified. Soldan was responding not only to the bitterness with which veterans looked back on their war experience, but also to their rejection of the euphemistic war propaganda.

Soldan also recognized the propagandistic, military journalistic and commercial potential of war photography, which he viewed as the “more realistic” and therefore “more authentic” medium. Not least in relation to the pacifist photo documentation War on War , whose “sense of unreality” he wanted to combat, Soldan used the holdings of the Image and Film Office to publish the two-volume work The World War in Pictures . The horror of the war itself was not excluded from the selection of images, but German war victims were hardly depicted. The two-part documentary The World War (1927/28), whose screenplay Soldan wrote together with Erich Otto Volkmann for Universum Film AG , was also intended to convey authenticity . The idea for the three-part film came up in government circles around 1923. The project was closely coordinated with the Foreign Office under Minister Gustav Stresemann . In addition to carefully selected original recordings, battle scenes were also re-enacted under the direction of Leo Lasko . Contemporary critics noted that images of horror as we know them from George Grosz , Otto Dix or Ernst Friedrich did not appear in the film.

Military writer

As an author, Soldan published mainly in military science magazines, but also in the Stahlhelm magazine Die Standarte published by Ernst Jünger . In addition to Jünger, Soldan, who also has national revolutionary tendencies, was influenced by Werner Beumelburg. With Man and the Battle of the Future , Soldan published one of the most controversial military publications of the time in 1925. In it he described his personal "front-line combatant experience" and concluded that the mass armies of conscripts had had their day. In the future, shock troops are carriers of the fight. As a war of the future, Soldan expected a trench warfare that would be decided by a small, highly mobile army of professional soldiers. These theses met with sharp criticism in parts of the officer corps.

Editor and war correspondent

Soldan left the Reich Archives in 1929. Two years later, after the battles of World War II series was also discontinued, he became chief editor of the magazine Deutsche Wehr , which was also published by Stalling. He held this position until 1943. He had already acted as co-editor from 1925. For Stalling Soldan also published the contemporary history in word and image (1931–1934) illustrated with photos from the Image and Film Office in three volumes. In 1936 he became a member of the NSDAP .

With the beginning of the Second World War Soldan became a military employee of the Völkischer Beobachter . His reports were rejected by Hitler and the military censors. Soldan's successor was Kurt Hesse . Soldan also gave lectures for the German People's Education Center of the German Labor Front . With the rank of lieutenant colonel , Soldan belonged to the staff of Army Group Center as a "higher reporter" . His reports appeared in three national newspapers, including the Völkischer Beobachter . Soldan is believed to have been lost in Soviet captivity and was declared dead on May 31, 1945.

Fonts

  • The strategic importance of the battle of Dresden. A reply to the eponymous writing by Dr. phil. F. Lüdtke; At the same time a contribution to clarification d. Intentions d. Great headquarters. Bath, Berlin 1908.
  • The leadership in coalition wars. Lecture given ... on November 6, 1912. Mittler, Berlin 1912.
  • Field Marshal Furst Carl zu Schwarzenberg. A. Bath, Berlin 1913.
  • The opening of the autumn campaign of 1813 by the main allied army. An archival strategic study. , Berlin 1914.
  • The Infantry Regiment No. 184. After d. edit official war diaries Stalling, Oldenbg, Berlin 1920.
  • with Albert Hiß: Kaiser Wilhelm Infantry Regiment (2nd Grand Ducal Hessian) No. 116. According to official documents and reports from fellow combatants; Enclosed: 24 plates with 96 pictures, 8 maps, 23 sketches and 6 annexes. G. Stalling, Oldenburg, Berlin 1924.
  • Man and the battle of the future. Stalling, Oldenburg 1925.
  • (Ed.): The world war in the picture. Original recordings of the War Image and Film Office from the modern material battle. National Archive, Berlin 1930.
  • et al. : The Royal Prussian 4th Door Infantry Regiment No. 72 in the World War. Gerh. Stalling, Oldenburg i. O. 1930.
  • Contemporary history in words and pictures. National Archives, Munich 1931, 1932, 1934.
  • Preface to Sebastiano Visconti-Prasca and Adolf Caspary: The decisive war. 1st edition. Stalling, Oldenburg 1935.
  • Introduction to Rolf Bathe: To the last breath. Military studies 1914–1918. 2nd Edition. Protte, Potsdam 1936.
  • Preface to Friedrich Wilhelm Borgman: The attack of the Soviet Union on Finland in 1939/40. Stalling, Oldenburg 1943.

literature

Web links

  • The worldwar. A historical film . Germany 1933 (length: 123.03 min). = Abridged version of the two-part Ufa film The World War: The People's Heldengang and The World War: The People's Not from 1927 on filmportal.de (last review: July 21, 2016.)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Declared dead. Hartmut Bickelmann (ed.): Bremerhaven personalities from four centuries. A biographical lexicon. 2nd Edition. Stadtarchiv, Bremerhaven 2003, ISBN 3-923851-25-1 , p. 331.
  2. ↑ Bernd Ulrich, Benjamin Ziemann (ed.): War in peace. The contested memory of the First World War. Sources and documents. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verl., Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-596-13277-0 , p. 66.
  3. ^ Markus Pöhlmann: War history and history policy: The First World War. The official German military historiography 1914–1956. Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 978-3-506-74481-4 , pp. 66-68; see. also Benjamin Ziemann: Contested Commemorations. Republican War Veterans and Weimar Political Culture. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge 2013, ISBN 978-1-107-02889-0 , pp. 221-223; Bernd Ulrich: "Raising a collapsed people" or: how military capabilities were restored in the Weimar Republic. In: Science & Peace. January 1990. Retrieved July 16, 2016 .
  4. ^ Markus Pöhlmann: War history and history policy: The First World War. The official German military historiography 1914–1956. Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 978-3-506-74481-4 , p. 196.
  5. ^ Markus Pöhlmann: War history and history policy: The First World War. The official German military historiography 1914–1956. Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 978-3-506-74481-4 , p. 129.
  6. ^ Markus Pöhlmann: War history and history policy: The First World War. The official German military historiography 1914–1956. Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 978-3-506-74481-4 , pp. 195-198.
  7. ^ Benjamin Ziemann: Contested Commemorations. Republican War Veterans and Weimar Political Culture. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge 2013, ISBN 978-1-107-02889-0 , p. 224.
  8. ^ Markus Pöhlmann: War history and history policy: The First World War. The official German military historiography 1914–1956. Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 978-3-506-74481-4 , p. 200.
  9. ^ Benjamin Ziemann: Contested Commemorations. Republican War Veterans and Weimar Political Culture. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge 2013, ISBN 978-1-107-02889-0 , p. 223.
  10. ^ Markus Pöhlmann: War history and history policy: The First World War. The official German military historiography 1914–1956. Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 978-3-506-74481-4 , pp. 232-233; Bernd Ulrich and Benjamin Ziemann (eds.): War in peace. The contested memory of the First World War. Sources and documents. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verl., Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-596-13277-0 , p. 143; Bernd Ulrich: "Raising a collapsed people" or: how military capabilities were restored in the Weimar Republic. In: Science & Peace. January 1990. Retrieved July 16, 2016 .
  11. ^ Markus Pöhlmann: War history and history policy: The First World War. The official German military historiography 1914–1956. Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 978-3-506-74481-4 , p. 233.
  12. ^ Bernadette Kester: Film Front Weimar: Representations of the First World War in German Films of the Weimar Period (1919–1933) . Amsterdam UP, Amsterdam 2003, pp. 90-105; Markus Pöhlmann: War history and history politics: The First World War. The official German military historiography 1914–1956. Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 978-3-506-74481-4 , pp. 241-244; Bernd Ulrich: "Raising a collapsed people" or: how military capabilities were restored in the Weimar Republic. In: Science & Peace. January 1990. Retrieved July 16, 2016 .
  13. ^ Markus Pöhlmann: War history and history policy: The First World War. The official German military historiography 1914–1956. Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 978-3-506-74481-4 , p. 68.
  14. ^ Markus Pöhlmann: War history and history policy: The First World War. The official German military historiography 1914–1956. Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 978-3-506-74481-4 , p. 230.
  15. ^ Markus Pöhlmann: From Versailles to Armageddon. Totalization experience and war experience in German military magazines. In: Stig Förster (ed.). On the threshold of total war. The Military Debate on the War of the Future 1919–1939. Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 3-506-74482-8 ( War in History . 13), pp. 323-391; Bernd Ulrich and Benjamin Ziemann (eds.): War in peace. The contested memory of the First World War. Sources and documents. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verl., Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-596-13277-0 , pp. 181-184.
  16. ↑ Oron J. Hale : Press in the Straitjacket, 1933-1945. Droste, Düsseldorf 1965, p. 319.
  17. ↑ Veit Veltzke: Art and Propaganda in the Wehrmacht. Paintings and graphics from the Russian War. Kerber, Bielefeld 2005, p. 24.
personal data
SURNAME Soldan, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Soldan, Hans Georg August (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer and military scientist
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremerhaven
DATE OF DEATH May 31, 1945