I thought the Werhmacht didn’t have to take an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler until AFTER the von staffenburg assasination attempt. Did not the Wehrmacht not have the eagle and swastika on the right breastplate until after the the attempted murder? I thought it was the last state institution to succumb to the Nazi totalitarian state???
No, all German soldiers took a PERSONAL oath of loyalty to Hitler (not the army of the country) starting in the 30’s. Many German officers refused to disobey criminal Hitler’s orders because such an oath of honor was almost physically binding to the officer caste. The German Navy resisted Hitler more than any other branch, more out of hidebound tradition than anything else. Raeder and Doenitz refused to dismiss naval officers with Jewish wives.
It was required after the death of President Hindenburg, at which time Hitler abolished the old Weimar office of President, assuming the title of Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor.