You often hear of post war Werwolf/Wolverine activities in Germany as examples of current day resistance actions. However, I recently read in Speers' "Inside the Third Reich" that the reports of their activities were pretty much propaganda driven fabrications.
Does anyone have any info about how large the Wolverine movement actually was and for how long the actions continued?
Thanks
Brian
Werwolf groups..real or propaganda?
Moderator: George Lepre
Werwolf groups..real or propaganda?
Last edited by brian_05 on Sun Nov 13, 2005 9:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
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I think you are referring to the Werwolves.
There is an article on this very site that gives you the basic info: http://www.feldgrau.com/werwolf.html
A book on the topic you might find helpful is "Werwolf! The History of the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement 1944-1946" by Perry Biddiscombe.
/Marcus
There is an article on this very site that gives you the basic info: http://www.feldgrau.com/werwolf.html
A book on the topic you might find helpful is "Werwolf! The History of the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement 1944-1946" by Perry Biddiscombe.
/Marcus
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Werwolf
Hello Brian:
You might like to read Stephen G. Fritz's book ENDKAMPF: SOLDIERS, CIVILIANS, AND THE DEATH OF THE THIRD REICH . It starts a little slow, but has some good info on the Werwolf movement and the Alpenfestung. His book has extensive footnotes and bibliography, and he relied on both German and English sources. The book mentioned by Marcus Wendel was one of Fritz's sources. Best wishes.
You might like to read Stephen G. Fritz's book ENDKAMPF: SOLDIERS, CIVILIANS, AND THE DEATH OF THE THIRD REICH . It starts a little slow, but has some good info on the Werwolf movement and the Alpenfestung. His book has extensive footnotes and bibliography, and he relied on both German and English sources. The book mentioned by Marcus Wendel was one of Fritz's sources. Best wishes.
John W. Howard
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Coming to this late; add also Charles Whiting's "Werewolf" about the assasination of the mayor of Aachen after its liberation by the Americans....
There's no choesive history of the Werewolves.....yet, but the last identifiable Werewlof activity was not until 1948! In some areas of the American Zone local commanders had to resort to some VERY heavyhanded tactics to stop Werewolf raids and murders, even to the taking of "hostages"!!! As if they hadnt learned from the French that this didnt work.....
The extent of the resistance movement and its activities has ALWAYS been minimised if not actually kept secret.
phylo
There's no choesive history of the Werewolves.....yet, but the last identifiable Werewlof activity was not until 1948! In some areas of the American Zone local commanders had to resort to some VERY heavyhanded tactics to stop Werewolf raids and murders, even to the taking of "hostages"!!! As if they hadnt learned from the French that this didnt work.....
The extent of the resistance movement and its activities has ALWAYS been minimised if not actually kept secret.
phylo
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Hi Phylo,
One thing is for sure, the fear of the Werewolf movement was much greater than the reality. Its limitations probably came as a welcome surprise to the Allies.
It is difficult to think of a country that was more passive under German occupation than Germany was under Allied occupation.
Cheers,
Sid.
One thing is for sure, the fear of the Werewolf movement was much greater than the reality. Its limitations probably came as a welcome surprise to the Allies.
It is difficult to think of a country that was more passive under German occupation than Germany was under Allied occupation.
Cheers,
Sid.
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Sid....nope! But i don't know enough myself yet! I've contacted the producers of the "1945" series in question, to see if they'd give me a list of their sources. There's no concise records of actual activites after the first immediate postwar months, BUT if you look at military incident reports etc - i.e. come at the problem by seeing how the Occupying Powers had to react - then theres a differnet picture starting to emerge right now! particularly in the American Zone. Dont forget the U.S. HAD its own examples of policing recently-occupied territories - in Cuba and the Philippines - and their tactics there and in Germany were heavy-handed enough to be noticable. Conversely, the British had a fine-tuned sense of how to deal with "occupational problems" and the problem seems VERY noticable by its LACK in the British Sector.
Maybe its because as German Reunification sets in properly, right down now at the social and psychological level, people are willing to talk about this more. I hope someone gets this stuff together before the first-hand verbal records die out, so to speak!
phylo
Maybe its because as German Reunification sets in properly, right down now at the social and psychological level, people are willing to talk about this more. I hope someone gets this stuff together before the first-hand verbal records die out, so to speak!
phylo
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I'll have to chase that one down, Sid. I know the items i saw mentioned that a LOT of the actions were more raids and flag-showing in villages etc, to terrorise the locals into reducing their cooperations with the occupying powers. Hence TRUE terrorism, making the local citizens live in fear of the Werewolves more than they feared the Americans, British or French
phylo
phylo
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Hi Phylo,
I doubt there will be any significant institutional continuity found between Werewolf and Neo-Nazism. Possibly no more than, say, that so far substantiated between Templars and Masons.
Even if all trace and memory of Nazism was expunged from the face of the earth, similar ideologies would still be formulated by some. Because all trace and memory of Nazism wasn't expunged, there remains a label to apply to them.
Ideologies are a permanent part of the human condition, rather like homosexuality, theism, left handedness, dwarfism, etc. Wipe out all their adherents, exponents or sufferers today and tomorrow they will begin to re-emerge amongst "pure" stock in similar proportions. The "pure" stock in this case being post-war West German liberal democracy.
Cheers,
Sid.
I doubt there will be any significant institutional continuity found between Werewolf and Neo-Nazism. Possibly no more than, say, that so far substantiated between Templars and Masons.
Even if all trace and memory of Nazism was expunged from the face of the earth, similar ideologies would still be formulated by some. Because all trace and memory of Nazism wasn't expunged, there remains a label to apply to them.
Ideologies are a permanent part of the human condition, rather like homosexuality, theism, left handedness, dwarfism, etc. Wipe out all their adherents, exponents or sufferers today and tomorrow they will begin to re-emerge amongst "pure" stock in similar proportions. The "pure" stock in this case being post-war West German liberal democracy.
Cheers,
Sid.