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- Title
Sex and the Soldier: The Discourse about the Moral Conduct of Soldiers and Officers Bundeswehr during the Adenauer Era.
- Authors
Brühöfener, Friederike
- Abstract
This article situates the establishment of the Bundeswehr and the implementation of compulsory military service in the 1950s and early 1960s within contemporary efforts to define a "sexual-moral order" for the Federal Republic of Germany. It argues that West Germany's rearmament offered contemporaries an opportunity to stipulate not only acceptable soldierly behavior, but also adequate male behavior in general. In the context of heightened concerns about juvenile delinquents (so-called Halbstarken), female prostitution, homosexuality, and the distribution of pornographic materials, West German citizens became interested in the social and sexual conduct of Bundeswehr soldiers and officers. Whereas some still considered the military to be a "school of the nation" and of proper masculinity, others worried about the armed forces as a possible breeding ground for immorality. Partly sharing these concerns, government representatives, members of the Bundestag, church officials, and military commanders sought to guide soldiers' behavior, emphasizing the ideal of the "complete" (vollkommene) Christian male-breadwinner family.
- Subjects
GERMANY. Bundeswehr; ADENAUER, Konrad, 1876-1967; DRAFT (Military service); MILITARY personnel attitudes; HOMOSEXUALITY; HISTORY
- Publication
Central European History (Cambridge University Press / UK), 2015, Vol 48, Issue 4, p523
- ISSN
0008-9389
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S0008938915000904