Talk:Percy Ernst Schramm

Latest comment: 4 years ago by A.S. Brown in topic Slightly apologetic?

Slightly apologetic? edit

Perhaps this is me, but this article rather downplays the fact that Schramm was a National Socialist. There was a reason why Hitler selected Schramm to write the official history of the Wehrmacht that was intended to be published once Germany won the war. Yes, it is true that Schramm was a famous and widely respected medievalist, considered to be one of the world's leading authorities on medieval German history, but just being a respected historian does not mean that one cannot be a National Socialist at the same time. The article rather downplays the reasons for post-war controversy about Schramm's writing, namely his barely veiled admiration for Hitler that he was still expressing as late as 1962. Just saying that because he came from an upper-middle class family and Germans who from this sort of Protestant bürgerlich background were easily manipulated by Hitler makes it sound that Schramm was a sort of victim of Hitler rather than his willing follower. It all seems rather apologetic. And the same way this article draws a contrast between the "professionalism" of the Wehrmacht officer corps with Hitler's "irrationality". It repeats a theme of Schramm's writings on World War II-namely that the Second World War was a justified struggle on the part of Germany's part to win "world power status" that unfortunately the Nazis were not as good as waging as they should have been.--A.S. Brown (talk) 22:25, 6 July 2019 (UTC)Reply