Feldgrau.net

Apologies if this question has been asked 1,000 times before, but...

What was the average rate of pay for a regular infantryman in the German Army 1939-45? And what was difference between that of an ordinary infantryman and 'specialised' troops (such as Heer) panzergrenadiers, Waffen-SS panzergrenadiers, Fallschirmjager, Gebirgsjager, etc)?

Cheers,

-SC

Hello

No matter what branch of service the soldier was in he got paid the same according to his rank.

panzergrenadiers, Waffen-SS panzergrenadiers, Fallschirmjager, Gebirgsjager, etc

....were all the same.

http://www.panzerworld.net/saleries.html

\Christoph

Thanks for that Christoph,

-SC

Hi Christoph,

Does it differentiate between regulars, reservists and conscripts?

Cheers,

Sid.

hi Christoph,

and a question, did this pay apply to Foreign volunteers, Ostruppen, etc? thanks.

Kevin

Hello

I have several original manuals about the payment but none mentions any differences between conscripts, regulars, reservists just between (with some ranks) personnel in the field or replacement Army.
All the manuals also do not mention any differences of the Osttruppen. That does not mean that there weren´t any but I did not coma across either the one or the other way.

\Christoph

Tc, what does it matter....in a totalische krieg environment - whatcha gonna buy with it??? food came from the Army, etc - apart from women, to the average soldier what other consumables you goin to buy?

phylo

Hi Phylo,

My concern is not what the troops did with their pay, but what it cost the state.

Regular troops, for example, were under arms as a career and their pay must have been related to some degree with the peacetime civilian scales. With this they had to marry, rent or buy property, bring up chidren, save a pension, etc.. However, conscripts only got a subsistence amount, just sufficient to keep them fed and watered.

It would interest me to find out if such differences were also reflected in wartime pay scales.

Cheers,

Sid.

Sid regarding continuity or non-continuity of pay, are no veterans jumping up and down to answer this?????

phylo

Hi Phylo,

It is possible that they may not know. I, for example don't know what arrangements were made for reservists serving with me in Rhodesia only 27 years ago.

Cheers,

Sid.

Sid, the regulars shud be able to comment, cos reservists volksturm etc werent in it for the money lol - and i spose nor technically were the fulltimers - but they ...."value" it more and certainly grumble about it more, in ANY army ROFLMAO

After all - IHTFP in the Army- doesnt matter what colour the uniform or the cash

phylo

Taylor Collector wrote:Just curious, were they even likely to receive this pay by the later part of the war?

TS Allen

In the book "Berlin, Dance of Death" the author mentions getting paid in Berlin in late April of 1945--he mentions that he got his pay in brand new crisp 20 RM notes.

SW~

i'd guess that since most people were evacuated, not much rent was paid to land lords. my mother was evacuated from western germany, and by that time the economy was pretty well screwed. soldiers are paid in military script, not "reichs marks", so, speaking economically,.....what were they really being paid with?? think back to the civil war,........and think about the confederate armies being paid with bonds, and paper money that was backed by nothing.........but the paper that it is written on. toward the end, the paper money was not even printed on the backs in the confederacy,..........so what were those poor guys paid with?
i know..........i know.............. if you are FROM the south, they still have value,....."the south is going to rise again"............... but for our purposes here, they are "worthless" paper monies....
as germany was being overran, the allies passed out paper money to keep things "alive". still, reichs marks were still in use, but you have to keep in mind...........there are people in the US, waiting for the economy to collapse, and have hoarded silver coins, for "bartering"............who the hell is going to give a @#% about a silver quarter, verses a regular one..........the average guy isnt going to care about that...........
my mother had to use family jewelry to get out of berlin on the train.........the soldiers guarding the trains were not interested in reichsmarks.................as the russians advanced..............
i have somewhere in my mess here, a piece of paper money, from a german city, like notgeld, that is "nazi", from '45, for this city. pretty awesome piece! only one i've seen. not sure how many cities did it even.

in eastern europe, and everywhere the russians invaded...............
everyone who saved reichsmarks,.............were totally screwed. if you had 1000 reichsmarks saved up, in hand, or in the bank..........you were wiped out when they over ran. one time when i was in poland, i was offered, in 100 reichsmark notes, 25000 reichsmarks. the seller said that the family who he had gotten it from, had saved reichsmarks all during the war, and wanted the larger bills, easier to hide, and, for all their saving...........they were totally out of luck once the russians over ran. there was no exchange rate at all.........they had no value.
the "luck" ones, were germans, in western germany, who had saved marks. they converted to the allied money, and to the "new" deutsch mark in 1948.

when east germany combined with west, they were likewise kind of screwed, as they were only allowed to exchange a specific amount of east german marks into west german marks. when you reached your limit.........that was all you were allowed. the rest became "souveniers".