Military obedience
Military obedience denotes the usually legally enshrined right of a military superior to carry out a military order given by him to his subordinates . In democratic states, laws and the principles of internal leadership and commissioning tactics ensure both a high level of indivisible personal moral, legal and professional responsibility on the part of the issuing authority as well as the greatest possible participation and independent execution of those carrying out orders.
Delimitation and origin
Military obedience must be differentiated from cadaver obedience , in which the obedient submits to a foreign will without restriction, like a willless cadaver . In military obedience, the obedient follows a will of others on the one hand based on his own insight and on the other hand on the basis of his free decision. The concept of military obedience does not just refer to external actions, such as the execution of a specific order , but above all to internal attitudes.
Military obedience also applies to leadership by means of " leading by order ", whereby the subordinate is not instructed to proceed and the type of implementation in individual steps as in the case of command management, but rather the order is formulated as a goal to be achieved. In order to achieve this, the subordinate acts in the interests of the commanding officer in order to carry out the task assigned to him.
Definitions
"Military obedience is the fulfillment of an order on the basis of which the commander independently assesses and acts within the applicable ethical and legal framework . “In addition, military obedience is characterized by the fact that it requires the obedient to be able to“ overcome their own subjective inclinations and motivations up to the commitment of their own life and death ” .
“The soldier must obey his superiors. To the best of his ability he must carry out your orders completely, conscientiously and immediately. There is no disobedience if an order is not obeyed, which violates human dignity or which was not given for official purposes ... An order may not be obeyed if this would result in a criminal offense. "
Military obedience is therefore ambivalent and neutral in value. The meaning must be seen in the context of the circumstances. Military obedience can lead to completely different results under the conditions of an inhuman dictatorship and in a democracy .
See also
literature
- Ulrich Bröckling: Discipline: Sociology and history of military obedience production , Fink, Munich 1997. ISBN 978-3-7705-3173-8 .
- Strnad, Christian: Maturity and obedience - a contradiction? Wiener Neustadt, 2004 ( PDF )
- Meurers, Bernhard Josef: Order and obedience in the Austrian Armed Forces as a problem of military education, Vienna, 1999. [1]