How you ended in the WH

[Angel Farré]

I always consider that only two ways to enlisted in the WH, but I found a third one in a Wehrpass, so I want to show you the two common ones and the third I only have seen once.

First as a volunter, Freiwilliger, from theWehrpass of Leutnant Robert Meier, enlisted on October 30th, 1.935, killed in an accident on February 17th, 1.941, awarded the EK II for action during the French campaign.

Angel

[Angel Farré]

Second one, conscripted, Dienstpflichtiger, from Wehrpass of Obergefreiter Heinrich Schlapp, enroled on October 17th, 1.940 and KIA on July 28th, 1.944 in Berezovka, holder of the EK II, IAB in silver and Ostmedaille.

Angel

[Angel Farré]

Third one and the one that quiz me:

Wehrpflichtiger, ?, from the Wehrpass of Obergefreiter Willi Funk, enter the Heer on September 28th, 1.939, released on January 10th, 1.941, reentry on May 18th, 1.942 and finally released on February 13th, 1.945. Holder of the EK II, IAB in silver and WB inbalck and silver.

Any help is apreciated.

Angel

[Kai-Steffen M.]

wehrpflichtiger and dienstpflichtiger are the same as far as i can say...

Gruß,
KSM

[Angel Farré]

At the beginning I also thought that were the same, but as all Wehrpass under this place give only two options and this was neither of both I wonder if a specialterm was used to call some type of men. Here you can be volunteer, enlisted or an special order can be done to enlist men that can not be conscripted and I wonder if this was some king of this special order.

Angel

[Kai-Steffen M.]

im not the absolute expert but i dont think so- the Dienstpflichtiger term means literally that you are conscripted to do a service (this could be Wehrmacht, RAD or Zivilschutz) the term Wehrpflichtiger means that you are conscripted to do service in the Wehrmacht- so the word in itself does not mean any special purpose draft or similar...

Gruß,
KSM

[Angel Farré]

Thanks Kai, this solved my doubt.

Angel

[Frosch]

Dienstpflicht and Wehrpflicht

Hi,

Among other things, the generic term Dienstpflicht can also be used to cover obligatory service with the RAD (6 months) which was introduced on 26 June 1935. The official decree of 27 June 1935 referred to "§ 3 des Reichsarbeitsdienstgesetzes vom 26. Juni 1935 (Reichsgesetzbl. I S. 769)" and stated:

Die Dienstzeit im Reichsarbeitsdienst beträgt bis auf weiteres ein halbes Jahr.
Der Reichsminister des Innern ist ermächtigt, im Einvernehmen mit dem Reichskriegsminister für die Übergangszeit bestimmte Gruppen von Wehrpflichtigen ganz oder teilweise von der Arbeitsdienstpflicht zu befreien.

To confuse matters, the term Dienstpflicht was also used in the context of the Wehrgesetz.

The Wehrpflicht was introduced on 16 March 1935 and initially stipulated 1 year of service with a branch of the Wehrmacht, as laid down in "Paragraph 8 des Wehrgesetzes vom 21. Mai 1935 (Reichsgesetzbl. I S. 609)":

Die Dauer der aktiven Dienstpflicht bei den drei Wehrmachtsteilen wird einheitlich auf ein Jahr festgesetzt.

This was extended to 2 years as of 1936.

A larger collection of Wehrpass documents should be checked to see if Dienstpflicht is used more often in cases where the 6 months of service with the RAD is entered, as opposed to Wehrpflicht for people that skipped RAD service and entered military service straight away.

I'll have a look at some of my documents to see if there is any consistency in use of the stamps.

ttfn,

David



Sources used:

Reichsgesetzblatt 1935 I, S. 375
Erlaß des Führers und Reichskanzlers über die Dauer der Dienstzeit und die Stärke des Reichsarbeitsdienstes

[Kai-Steffen M.]

ok, thanks david- that was the explicit version of what i tried to say - thanks also for the sources.

Gruß,
KSM