‘Fragt denn da ein junger Mensch nach?’: Would a young person ask that? Growing up in the Reichsarbeitsdienst in 1942

ABSTRACT

This article provides an original analysis of a young man’s diary from his time in the National Socialist Labour Service in 1942. It sheds light on what can be called the identity work of an 18-year-old, who struggled with the purpose of his service in the organization and his life during the Second World War. With an innovative reading focusing on masculinity, religion and youth, the article identifies three very different normative frameworks important in the diary. These are described as a Catholic’s, a soldier’s or a ‘working man’s’ (Arbeitsmanns) paths into adulthood. The analysis discusses how National Socialist imperatives were appropriated or rejected for the young man’s interpretations of these normative frameworks. The paper advances our knowledge of how young Catholics could (self)mobilize for the German war effort and interpret their service in a National Socialist organization by taking up the long-neglected perspective ‘from below’. Rather than attempting to create pure categories, it shows not only how different normative frameworks intersect in the diary, but also how they could be made to align to National Socialist imperatives (while) growing up in the Labour Service on the Eastern Front.

KEYWORDS:

• National Socialism
• diary
• Labour Service
• history ‘from below’
• life writing
• coming of age

1. Introduction

‘Do we know how we will fare? – Would a young person ask that’,¹ Bernhard Tölle, an 18-year-old from Wuppertal in Western Germany noted this in his diary on 30 May 1942 and replied:

I don’t think so. A young person wants to experience new things, would like to spend exciting hours, regardless of a greater danger. And then! Doesn’t he also have the desire to stand up for his fatherland and avert every external danger from it. All personal issues then become less important.²

Two days later and right after the end of his basic training in Germany, his unit of the Labour Service, the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD),³ departed for Russia. Over the next several months many of the meticulous daily entries in his diary displayed many uncertainties. It was now – unlike at the time of his initial response – very much unclear what really was a priority for a young person and what was not. One may note, however, that there might have been a tension to begin with. ‘Would a young person ask that’⁴ can be interpreted two ways: on the one hand, as a rhetorical question with a normative or even imperative connotation and as a genuine deliberation on the other hand. Such questions and deliberations form an integral part of Bernhard Tölle’s diary.

My hypothesis is that Bernhard Tölle’s diary reveals how its author appropriated National Socialist identification imperatives and principles for three distinct normative frameworks or rejected them. Analysing what may best be described as the young man’s identity work, this article shows how he reacted with reluctance to life in the organization. Simultaneously, however, it is argued that the diary reflects Bernhard Tölle’s (self-)mobilization for the regime and the German war effort, despite his reluctance. My paper focuses on the questions what this may tell us about (a) young Catholics (self-)mobilization in the RAD during the Second World War.

The paper interprets the diary entries as testimonies of both life in the Labour Service and of a young man’s attempts at finding his own way into adulthood. The RAD was one of the National Socialist organizations that sought to include all members of the German youth, which in National Socialist thought were fit to form part in a new ‘Volksgemeinschaft’ or ‘people’s community’. Although the purpose of the organization’s camps was to ‘educate’, the term does not reflect what took place. Since the National Socialists believed young people were a key in a new ‘people’s community’, the RAD’s main method was to isolate young adults in closed units in remote camps. There they were forced to work to exhaustion and were rigorously drilled, disciplined and indoctrinated as part of an ideological project that meant to create a new type of man.⁵ These ‘new men’ were to subordinate everything to the needs of the ‘Volksgemeinschaft’ and, if necessary, sacrifice their life for it. When I speak of camp education in this article, I refer to this meaning.

In his diary, Bernhard Tölle had reservations about his life in the Labour Service. This analysis does not consider him purely as a victim of the National Socialist regime and its adult functionaries, however, but also examines entries in the diary in which he approved of his experiences in the RAD. Just as many studies in this special issue, my paper serves to further our knowledge about the life of a member of the rank and file. Bernhard Tölle’s account provides insight into individual interpretations of life in the RAD behind the Eastern front in 1942 and shows similiarities to the writings of many young Catholics who served in the Wehrmacht.⁶ As already recorded by him on the transport to Russia on 1 June 1942, the diary dealt intensively with questions about how a young person had to behave ‘if he wants to become a real man’.⁷ I consider this to be one of the central questions on the basis of which Bernhard Tölle’s interpretations of his service’s purpose can be examined in the diary.

The analysis observes interdependencies between identification imperatives and recurring themes in the diary. These key themes identified through a qualitative content analysis⁸ were religion, youth and masculinity. The diary often ascribed a certain meaning to them or derived what it asserted to be correct behaviour from them. In this paper’s view, they form the central categories of the identity work in Bernhard Tölle’s diary.

To highlight the significance of National Socialist norms for Bernhard Tölle’s reflections on himself, this paper links them to three possible paths of becoming a man. His diary refers to different sets of norms associated with becoming a man. Such norms were linked to life in the Reichsarbeitsdienst, Catholicism or the Wehrmacht. Of course, Bernhard Tölle really took but one path to adulthood and his ability to live his life according to ideals which were not tolerated by the National Socialist leadership was quite limited by the framework created by camp education. When I relate texts in the diary to the path of a ‘working man’ (Arbeitsmann), a Catholic or a soldier, I refer to the young man’s references to and individual interpretations of these normative frames. Analysing three different sets of ideals in the diary allows to demonstrate how different normative frames were important for the interpretations of life in the RAD during the Second World War in his diary.

An important observation in this context is that most passages of Bernhard Tölle’s writing that deal with religion, youth or masculinity also correspond with at least one of the other two categories. In accordance with a basic premise of intersectionality in gender studies, this analysis doesn’t intend ‘to separate historically active power factors during analysis and to create “pure” categories’.⁹ Quite the opposite: it aims to shed light on overlapping and intersecting influences on the identity work of Bernhard Tölle. Although this paper initially separates his writings, norms often affected multiple paths. Dividing identity work into paths in order to better understand interlocking factors also shows how National Socialist ideology was appropriated in different ways in the diary. In this context, the analysis is required to consider content selection. Some topics appear multiple times, but not everything that went on in Bernhard Tölle’s life in the RAD found its way into the diary. Not everything could be put into words and not everything was worth being written down.

To contextualize Bernhard Tölle’s writing in the Labour Service for the reader and to render visible three pathways into adulthood, the paper first presents the young man’s biographical data. It then introduces Bernhard Tölle’s diary and discusses complex and versatile functions of the source. Afterwards it gives a short introduction to the RAD and aspects of camp education that the author of the diary had to endure. While analysing intersections of religion, masculinity and youth in the diary, the analysis searches for connections to the National Socialist ideology. Eventually examining the three pathways raises the question of the limits of a young man’s self-determination in the Labour Service, which are briefly discussed in place of a summary.

2. Bernhard Tölle and his diary

Bernhard Tölle was born in Wuppertal on 18 May 1924 as the first child of six¹⁰ to ‘a Catholic German mother’.¹¹ His mother, coming from a family of miners, and his father, who was a shop owner, lived with him and his siblings on the upper level of a duplex belonging to his grandfather.¹² Starting in 1934, Bernhard Tölle attended a humanist high school (Gymnasium). He was an enthusiastic Catholic St. George Scout until the organization was dissolved in 1938.¹³ He managed to avoid membership in the Hitler Youth and instead devoted his spare time to the parish youth, in which he became a leader. In a reflection on his life, written before his service in the RAD, he mentioned his missionary zeal – something quite pertinent in the diary as well. Consistently, Bernhard Tölle’s original plan was to study theology when he was drafted into the RAD in April 1942. He received six weeks of basic training in Molzen near Uelzen in northwestern Germany before his unit was shipped off to the area at the southern tip of Lake Peipus, approximately 50 kilometres east of today’s border between Estonia and Russia.

Bernhard Tölle’s first diary entries from mid-April 1942 documented difficulties in adjusting. He described the new duties and procedures and seemed homesick. In Russia work on the construction of a military airfield and in a sand pit became focal points of the diary. The young man rarely complained about the harsh working conditions, but for good reason he voiced concerns about getting hurt on the job. He got sick twice, injured once, another man lost a hand, and one comrade was buried alive by sand. Despite this, the former Catholic St. George-Scout kept his chin up in his diary. After being released from the Labour Service in the East at the end of October 1942 he was directly drafted into the Wehrmacht and transferred to a field-training regiment¹⁴ stationed in Polotsk, today Belarus. On 6 January 1944 he was killed in action in the village of Ssimaki near Vitebsk.

The diary consists of six notebooks, two of which cover the young man’s time in the RAD. The regular entries span the time from 30 May 1942 to 19 July 1943 and the surviving notebooks were deposited in Wuppertal before the young man was killed. They survived a fire that heavily damaged his family’s home during an air raid. Bernhard Tölle’s younger brother found the diaries many decades later after the death of their father in his father’s desk and entrusted them along with letters and other documents to the NS-Documentation Centre of Cologne. There they were digitized, transcribed and archived. Bernhard Tölle wrote in pencil or ink, the letters are of regular size and the pages are not ‘crammed’. Combined with the occasionally illegible writing, this hints at a usually sufficient supply of writing materials, yet a lack of time – an impression repeatedly affirmed by respective comments in the diary. On average, the daily entries from the time in the RAD are approximately 150 words in length. There exist only very few notes from the first six weeks of basic training, but from 30 May 1942 onwards every day is accounted for and the entries are kept in meticulous chronological order.

In a recent paper, historian Lisbeth Matzer, who did research on the Hitler Youth in Slovenia and Austria, suggested a differentiation between the non-exclusive functions of documenting, ordering and processing¹⁵ in diaries.¹⁶ This proves helpful, because the ‘true’ intentions of a diarist such as Bernhard Tölle cannot be ascertained. However, the texts did indeed document and order daily events and the young man’s thoughts. When he addressed injustices and hardships repeatedly, one may entertain that this helped him to process them and gave him relief. Matzer’s approach is based primarily on gender historians Christa Hämmerle’s and Li Gerhalter’s deliberations that ‘diverse functions of the I’ (in the sense of ego or self) might hold a key to interpreting diaries.¹⁷ This makes the approach particularly suitable for my analysis. For instance, when Bernhard Tölle reflected on the correct behaviour for a Catholic, he also wrote about a certain ‘I’ as in ‘I as a Catholic should’. When this paper discusses different pathways in his diary, Bernhard Tölle’s processing is considered as a part of his identity work. It seems to have adapted a personal interpretation of a normative frame to the situation at hand. Thus, it related the interpretation to the (ideological) challenges that life in the RAD entailed and sometimes made it compatible to it.

In a publication on the characteristics of the genre, historians Janosch Steuwer and Rüdiger Graf pointed out that diary entries are influenced by the respective occasion and need to be read in light of their communicative context.¹⁸ For the analysis of his identity work, it makes a difference when Bernhard Tölle for example wrote down a positive impression of life as a soldier. A diary entry that was made before the departure of his unit to Russia is to be read differently than a text that drew on the young man’s fresh experiences of incessant drill or exhausting work behind the front line. In turn, these texts were written and are to be interpreted within different contexts than those diary entries the young man made at the end of his service when it was rumoured his unit would be drafted to the Wehrmacht.

Also, the National Socialist regime did use collective camp diaries or model ‘private’ diaries as instruments for propaganda and education.¹⁹ In Bernhard Tölle’s case, it is unlikely that the propaganda apparatus ‘hijacked’ some of his individual self-reflections, e.g. getting him to keep a patriotic war diary and thus psychologically invest himself in the German war effort. The diary’s often critical tone, and the prominent religious aspects, would suggest otherwise. The texts also held back on self-incriminating statements. This could be due to the purpose for which the diary may have been kept or the fear of persecution if the diary were read by the wrong person. However, the texts also suggest that Germany was doing what – according to the author – it had to. Such observations remind us that Bernhard Tölle’s diary certainly was a product of the contexts the young man lived in as well as of various cultural norms and influences.²⁰ When the sources available do not provide definitive answers, the reasons for certain references and interpretations, and why the author adapted his paths to adulthood, must remain a matter of conjecture. Faced with these challenges, my analysis will focus on what identity work took place rather than why.

3. Camp education in the East, 1942

Bernhard Tölle was conscripted in the spring of 1942 to do his Labour Service according to a law from 26 June 1935.²¹ As important research in the last 25 years has accentuated, the organization he was drafted into had changed drastically from the pre-war years. Before the war, the RAD had been an organization that had legitimized its position within the National Socialist power structures by claiming to be the ‘school of the nation’ (Volkserziehungsschule).²² But by 1942, the war in Russia had not ended with a quick German victory and the RAD had long been relegated to an existence in the shadows of the Wehrmacht.²³ The organization no longer just provided camp education in Germany to form young people’s characters and direct their ‘orientation of the soul on the state and its ideological foundations’.²⁴ Instead, fulfilling the requirements of the military became another priority for the Labour Service. There are references to camp education measures in Bernhard Tölle’s records, but they often seem to be a mere shadow of the RAD’s original programme, which claimed to create ‘new men’. The National Socialist vision of ‘new men’ had three constitutive elements: as farmers, the ‘new men’ were to be in touch with nature and their ‘racial determination’; as soldiers they were to be heroic and ready for anything; and as workers they were to be diligent, dutiful and self-renouncing.²⁵ Instead of ‘flourishing’ while doing beneficial work for Germany’s landscape, according to the priciples of blood and soil (Blut und Boden), Bernhard Tölle found himself toiling for the military in Russia.

Even though Bernhard Tölle’s unit performed heavy construction work for the German air force near Pskov in northwestern Russia, the RAD still intended to transform the young men into soldiers and disciplinary drill was a common occurrence:

‘31.7. (…) Ordnungsdienst [Disciplinary drill and formation exercises] with the spade. Back and forth they chase us shortly before bedtime’; ‘1.8. (…) Then it’s back home where we enjoy an hour of Ordnungsdienst and an hour of building-detail’; ‘3.8. (…) After our work at the construction site (…) Ordnungsdienst with helmet, gas mask, and rifle (…). We are chased back and forth until our heads are fuming’; ‘4.8. Guard duty.’; ‘5.8. (…) Grand inspection in the afternoon’; ‘6.8. (…) 1 hour Ordnungsdienst and cleaning rifles’; ‘7.8. Ordnungsdienst’.²⁶

To make the frequency with which the young man wrote about disciplinary drills visible, the quotes above are condensed from a week of Bernhard Tölle’s diary entries. It is rewarding to read such texts focusing on two key points. Gender historian Heidrun Zettelbauer interprets the facilities of the Labour Service not only as a ‘site of indoctrination and disciplinary action’, but also stresses their function as a (symbolic) ‘space in which one committed oneself to the regime’.²⁷ When read in full, the quoted entries in Bernhard Tölle’s diary clearly express his reluctance. However, considering Zettelbauer’s deliberations, to write them down did require the young man to recall the routines and to relive the events of the day. Referring back to the theoretical considerations on the diary, this means that Bernhard Tölle not only documented the events, but at the same time would have ordered and processed his experiences in the Labour Service. Another example of this is the way he recorded a duty roster:

‘7:00 wake-up call – 7:15-8:00 coffee – 8:00 morning roll call – 8:00-9:15 cleaning/mending (uniform and boots) – 9:15 roll call in uniform and boots. 9:45-11:00 spare time – 11:15 lunch – 12:00 departure for construction site – 15:00-15:15 break – 18:00-18:45 dinner – 21:30 leaving the construction site – 23:00 [?] taps.’²⁸

Even during the war in the East, the RAD evidently still relied on inflexible schedules to create a total experience in order to shape young people into functioning parts of a ‘people’s community’.²⁹ In the 1930s, RAD leaders had claimed that no ‘private sphere, no space which could escape the law of the community’³⁰ would be permitted. Camp education thus aimed at deprivation of individuality in favour of the ‘people’s community’.³¹ Essentially, life in the RAD was meant to become ‘the full reality of life for the new man’,³² which the organization planned to create. Since Bernhard Tölle still mentioned measures of camp education in his diary behind the Eastern Front, one may wonder how much they affected the way in which he defined his own role in the community and the war.

After all, even though he had very little spare time left for himself, the 18-year-old documented the routines in his diary; he wrote them down in order and internalized them before, but also through this act. This interpretation is supported by observations in other entries of the diary in which the young man aligned his diary to the formal configurations of camp life by,³³ for instance, drawing a map of the camp or documenting the equipment he received. Those observations do not need to be read as a commitment to the Labour Service or to the regime. He would have had practical reasons for keeping the diary as well and may have intended to keep his own record of items he received. But the text also shows that the the 18-year-old preoccupied himself with camp life and the RAD’s routines even in his few ‘private’ moments. This, I would argue, is an indication that camp education had some success. In theory, the RAD meant to exemplify life in a new ‘people’s community’ to young people like Bernhard Tölle,³⁴ and to train them to live entirely for the community and to be ready to sacrifice everything for it. While the young man did not explicitly state for which potential audience and for what reasons he wrote his diary, these circumstances and the diary entries suggest not to interpret it as a purely ‘private’ source.

4. Paths to adulthood

Whether one considers the diary as a space for privacy for Bernhard Tölle or as a space to relive/imitate the Labour Service’s camp education, one can observe identity work. This identity work was related to the young man’s questions of who he was compared to his descriptions of what a young man should be like. These descriptions frequently addressed aspects of youth, religion and masculinity and referred to normative frameworks, three of which are discussed in this paper: A way of a good Catholic, as a ‘working man’ of the RAD or as a German soldier. For the purpose of this analysis, I discuss these interpretations as possible pathways into adulthood that sometimes were at odds with each other, but could be made compatible to a certain degree. Since this paper is bound by the necessity of presenting an in many ways tangled process in a linear fashion, it can only select pieces of the diary and link them to the three identified pathways. Taking his place amongst the ‘real German men’³⁵ was a key desire voiced in the diary. However, how such men ought to be did not seem to be entirely clear.

4.1. A Catholic?

References to religious traditions and convictions acquired before life in the Labour Service were frequent throughout the diary. They ranged from the continuous counting of Sundays as, e.g. ‘5^th Sunday after Pentecost’³⁶ all the way to deep reflections about God’s will. In general, it can be said that religious aspects remained fairly constant in Bernhard Tölle’s diary over the course of his service, and even gained in importance at times. The ban on openly practising one’s faith may have contributed to this as it turned the diary into one of the very few spaces in which religion could exist in the Labour Service. As a fervent Catholic, Bernhard Tölle recorded his reservations about the anti-religious RAD. Already in April, in the third entry of the diary, the young man addressed the significance of religion for himself and a potential conflict with his new life in the RAD: ‘For us, there is no Sunday’.³⁷ Still, the 18-year-old not only interpreted his service in the East as an act of proving himself as it was described by the National Socialist propaganda (Bewährung),³⁸ but also occasionally framed it as a (personal) test of his own religious fervour and strength.

Early on in June he discussed Germany’s and Christianity’s civilizing potential in the East. When the train transporting him to Russia passed Malbork Castle in Eastern Prussia, he reflected on this ‘monument to German strength and power and the Christian faith’ as well as the Teutonic Knights, who ‘familiarised the eastern space with German culture’.³⁹ While the author first put emphasis on the significance of the Christian faith for Germany, the diary entry from the next day makes it clear that Bernhard Tölle’s notes also contain racist ideas about ‘the East’. On the train ride through Lithuania, he described the inhabitants as ‘dirty and filthy’ and the living conditions as primitive. In contrast, he found ‘Latvia (…) more appealing to a German person’.⁴⁰ Since the author of the diary on several occasions throughout his service reflected on the scourge of either the Russian revolution, Bolshevism, or war, in the diary he seems to have legitimized a good Catholic’s work in Russia as part of a ‘civilizing mission’.

For the first two weeks in Russia, Bernhard Tölle wrote nothing negative about his fellow ‘working men’. However, between June 14 and June 28 on no less than four occasions the young man mentioned their spiritual shortcomings and lack of interest for ‘God and his eternal kingdom’. Already on June 14 he asked: ‘How will all this end one day?’⁴¹ While after this episode criticism of the others was recorded only sporadically, Bernhard Tölle distinguished several times between the norms of the Catholic youth and those German people, whom he counted amongst the ‘blinded brothers and sisters’.⁴² Furthermore, diary entries throughout the month of July (2, 4, 8, 26) referred to the repression by the National Socialist regime to which Catholic youth in Germany were subjected. During his service the young man raised many questions about his personal future and that of all those involved in the war, but he still described the paths for good Catholics like himself quite consistently in his diary:

How great and honourable is the task of the young Catholic Church in the present time. (…) Friends in the Homeland, stand up with a vengeance for our ideals, for all the comrades, who do their honourable duty to the fatherland in the field.⁴³

As recorded by Bernhard Tölle on June 20, a young Catholic man was apparently either to fulfill one’s duty to the fatherland in the field or to invest himself for the Catholic Church, ideals and Catholic community at home. Historical research into personal documents of young Catholics from World War II has accentuated the importance many of them attributed to proving one’s loyalty to Germany. This loyalty had been called into question by the National Socialists.⁴⁴ Moreover, the Catholic youth movement had taught its members the necessity of setting a shining example, especially in an environment that was hostile to religion.⁴⁵ This also appears to have been the case for Bernhard Tölle whose diary also speaks of the desire to set an example and to strive for perfection as a Christian and as a man. While the young man’s entries from August to October 1942 repeatedly indicated he preferred to do his share at home, being drafted to the Labour Service left only the other path open to him. Proving himself in the East was thus linked in his diary to being a ‘real’ Catholic man. This idea may have merged specifically Catholic norms with a notion of proving oneself preached in the RAD. But even without absolute certainty why Bernhard Tölle wrote the texts in his diary, one entry in mid-September is particularly interesting: ‘For everyone who lives his life selflessly deserves to bear the name of Christ. The Lord demands much from his Christians; but whoever wants to be Christ’s disciple must bear a cross’.⁴⁶ Together with three texts written at the end of May, in July and in early October that emphasize the need for individual sacrifice for the fatherland, such quotes fit to those norms conveyed during camp education. In the diary, they give order to and interpret life in the RAD and may be read as a certain adaptation to or appropriation of National Socialist principles.

4.2. A ‘working man’?

It is far more difficult to find references to norms that are particular to the Labour Service than to identify a Catholic path in the diary. For instance, given the camp setting he had to live in, it is certainly not a coincidence that in his diary Bernhard Tölle wrote about his time in another organization: The Catholic St. George-Scouts. He referred to the comradeship he experienced there and characterized the Scouts as an organization in which men were made. By writing this he also emphasized a defining theme of the RAD with its normative take on manhood as goal of its camp education.⁴⁷ As sociologist Pierre Bourdieu argued, principally different experiences often are rearranged in (auto)biographical writing in order to make sense.⁴⁸ This applies to Bernhard Tölle’s diary and may affect the research perspective, which calls for particular caution during analysis. A first diary entry dated June 1, in which the author mentions the similarity of his past experiences in the Catholic youth with life in the Labour Service, doesn’t read negatively. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean the young man interpreted his service in the RAD as a sensible biographical continuation of life in the St. George-Scouts or as anything close to this joyful recollection. It is likely that the text in his diary is shaped at least as much by the new experiences in the Labour Service and its norms as it was a product of his memory. In a second relevant diary entry on July 2, the author complained vehemently that the Scouts had been banned by the National Socialists. But as the text refers to strong nationalist and gender normative imageries in the Catholic organization,⁴⁹ one may wonder whether this common ground still made it easier for the young man to adapt to life in the RAD. The greatest commonality seems to have been Bernhard Tölle’s interpretation of his own service in the respective organizations as a service to God. Writing about the Scouts may just have been as a by-product of the first two months in the East, as well as a result of an individual search for the purpose of life in the RAD.

Just like these references to the Scouts, other texts in the diary also discuss the way youth ought to be and how to apply those norms to the situation at hand. When sick and confined to a bed in the field hospital on August 26, recalling a children’s song, Bernhard Tölle came to a similar result as in the first diary entry quoted in the introduction of this paper:

Only now do I feel how true this verse is. Young people always long to go where life happens; where they can dare to do something; that is where they can be found. If they are prevented from doing so, they are dissatisfied. Because rest isn’t good for them, that’s something for quitters and cowards.⁵⁰

He complemented this normative characterization of youth with an equally normative reference to the fatherland in many entries of the diary. Bernhard Tölle did ask in his diary whether his youth was being stolen from him. But in almost all 29 instances in which he mentioned the fatherland⁵¹ he attributed a patriotic purpose to the service in the RAD and deemed (his) individual fate less important. However, patriotism and recklessness were not exclusive to the path of a ‘working man’ and especially adventurousness could be linked to the young man’s time in the Scouts. In conjunction with the characterization of youth as dutiful, these references are also traceable to either typical nationalist and/or bellicist Catholic discourses of the time.⁵²

Bernhard Tölle made the most concrete references to a normative framework that could be framed as the path of a ‘working man’ in connection with complaints. On June 17, he reflected on a lecture given to him by a superior about the futility of knowledge. He claimed to principally agree with one of the RAD’s originally most important intentions – to teach high school (Gymnasium) graduates like himself the value of practical work.⁵³ However, he maintained that in order to achieve ‘power and greatness’ the German ‘people have use for both, the physical and the intellectual worker’ and was ‘annoyed (…) to have to listen to leaders on a much lower intellectual level’.⁵⁴ Eight days later, he and his comrades had to face a similar situation. As he recorded in his diary, however, they now countered the derisive remarks of the leaders with the central slogan of the RAD, ‘work ennobles’ and then added: ‘We remain bourgeois’.⁵⁵ Then again, three weeks later on 10 July 1942 he did write about himself learning to appreciate and honour carpentry; just as intended by the RAD. My interpretation is that the way the young man ordered these events in his diary – writing about his agreement with some things, disagreement with others – provides insight into his identity work and his efforts to define his individual role in society.

Bernhard Tölle criticized his leaders in other diary entries as well. In his negative assessments he described his leaders as inadequate for the task assigned to them: training and teaching the German youth properly. At least in theory, leadership by example was crucial for camp education in the Labour Service⁵⁶ and a central element of the national socialist leadership principle (Führerprinzip). Bernhard Tölle, who had himself been a leader in the parish youth and repeatedly mentioned his hope of becoming one again as a priest some day, noted a particular discrepancy between theory and practice in his diary at the end of June⁵⁷:

They drank without moderation, they boozed senselessly all night long and therefore we have to suffer all sorts of things today. (…) But no matter how high and lofty the ideals of the RAD may be, with such leaders we are doomed.⁵⁸

In the same entry Bernhard Tölle wrote what reads like an appeal to his ‘beloved German people (German brothers) to prove themselves worthy of being Europe’s leader’.⁵⁹ He continued to emphasize the preservation of ‘religious, moral and ethical purity; for they are the foundations of a healthy Führervolk’ and repeated this racist goal taught in German schools⁶⁰ once again in an entry on July 12–13, 1942. Some National Socialist indoctrination had apparently had its effect.

Some of his criticism seems to have been simply due to regular mistreatment and chicane, as he recorded, for example, one day later, on July 14: ‘Through mud and dirt we have to dig while the leaders above us keep pushing us. Now and again a lump of dirt drops on us, meant to wake us up’.⁶¹ On August 7, 1942 after reading a letter from his teacher, he recalled how he had found it initially difficult ‘to pointlessly obey the commands of the mentally inferior’. The young man went on to state that there was nothing worse than the ‘rule of the inferior’⁶² and in the months that followed his criticism did not completely subside, although he seems to have become more accustomed to the blind obedience demanded in the RAD. His remarks about inferiority most likely refer to Social Darwinist ideas, which were also a pillar of National Socialism. This interpretation is supported by the afore-mentioned ideas about the prerequisites of a healthy Führervolk. Again, Bernhard Tölle’s efforts to document the experiences in the RAD, to order them in his diary – and maybe to process them – provide valuable information on how he (implicitly) positioned himself with regard to the National Socialist aspirations and the war.

4.3. A soldier?

The Wehrmacht was described far more positively in the diary than the service in the RAD and the organization’s leaders. References to the military spanned from some of Bernhard Tölle’s own tasks which were modelled on military examples⁶³ to recurring depictions of an idealizing image of soldiery. After hearing the leaders cheer and booze once again while he was on guard duty in the middle of July, the young man wrote in his diary:

Leaders who are supposed to educate the German youth give in to their cravings, while our comrades in grey coats out there in the face of the enemy risk their lives for our people and fatherland.⁶⁴

The author characterized the service as a soldier free of such hypocrisies, as honourable and as preferable to life in the less professional Labour Service. Even when he was actually transferred to the Wehrmacht months later, at the end of October, he merely noted his uneasiness about the fact that ‘the otherwise so splendid period of military service was about to begin in enemy territory, and in bleak Russia at that’. While the remark could have been intended sarcastically, the following lines and numerous earlier diary entries suggest that he meant exactly what he wrote. Key terms are ‘grey soldier’s uniform’ and ‘duty’.⁶⁵ Using very similar terms, the young had described himself as a soldier several times and in every single one of the past months in Russia:

Will we still be changing our place of work many times, or will it be the last time before we return home … .? – We do not know. That is the fate of a soldier. He doesn’t know what the next day will bring. Silently he performs his duty, which can change day by day without his prior knowledge.⁶⁶

Considering Bernhard Tölle’s high regard for the military and his striving for perfection, the texts in his diary can be read as a kind of equating becoming a soldier with becoming a ‘real’ man. This interpretation is supported by the diary entry from the middle of July mentioned above, in which Bernhard Tölle compared his idea of the Wehrmacht to his assessment of the RAD: On the one hand he wrote of brave men in grey coats who risked their life for the German people and the fatherland, on the other of ‘weaklings’⁶⁷ who partied all night. As he had already recorded at the end of June, such individuals he saw not fit to be called a ‘real guy and true German man’.⁶⁸ Instead, the young man often associated a traditional image of the noble soldier with ‘real’ masculinity in his diary. This was common in large parts of the Catholic German population and qualities attributed to a militant masculinity were prevalent.⁶⁹ Considering Bernhard Tölle’s biography, it seems prudent to interpret these entries as a continuation of the conflict of the late 1920s and 1930s between the Catholic and National Socialist youth. In the confrontations between the two groups questioning the other’s masculinity was a source of contention.⁷⁰ As a former Scout, Bernhard Tölle most likely took part in or at least experienced this confrontation. In this conflict, young Catholics had often drawn upon a model image of the German soldier of the late 1920s as well.⁷¹ Bernhard Tölle’s descriptions of the German soldier was at first glance an example of moral integrity, which was most clearly demonstrated on 27 June 1942 when his unit found the corpse of a Russian soldier, which was then desecrated by Bernhard Tölle’s group leader: ‘A German soldier who has looked death in the face will never be carried away to such viciousness. But our leaders!?!?’⁷² But as the young man, for instance, wrote of the importance of a man becoming tough (hart) on several occasions, one can wonder whether such a pre-war image of soldierly masculinity wasn’t beginning to change. As his experiences in the Labour Service in Russia clearly affected Bernhard Tölle, it is plausible that his normative framework of the ideal soldier began to converge at least partly with the hegemonic image of the extremely tough National Socialist fighter on the Eastern Front.⁷³

Many Catholics – including most German bishops – showed their fundamental approval of the war at least implicitly.⁷⁴ Although Catholics themselves were frequently subjected to repression by the National Socialist regime, many still interpreted service in the German army as service to the people and the fatherland rather than service to the National Socialists. In general, these findings seem to apply to Bernhard Tölle as well. However, there is evidence that the normative image of the soldier created in his diary contained National Socialist interpretations as well. For instance, his diary entry from July 12–13, 1942 combined patriotic and well-known revanchist arguments made by the propaganda: ‘German soldiers want to secure the future of our country, want to help the German people regain honour and respect’.⁷⁵ While this in itself could be read as an expression of conservative or nationalist views of an idealistic young Catholic, the next statements in the diary suggest an ideological alignment with important views of National Socialism. Again, the 18-year-old wrote about the requirements that the German people must fulfill to become the Führervolk, and of the need to be hard on oneself to achieve this. This was complemented by a reflection on the downfall of ancient civilizations that in the young man’s opinion perished when ‘they were religiously, morally and ethically corrupted’. When the diary appealed to parents to raise their children to be good people, it drew on ideas similar to National Socialism’s biologising view of civilization in order to keep the German ‘people healthy and allow them to rule’.⁷⁶

5. Crossing paths: ‘working men’, Catholics and soldiers

I would argue that it is rarely possible to know with certainty why Bernhard Tölle really wrote what he did. But this analysis shows how National Socialist ideology was appropriated for all three normative frames identified in his diary. Becoming a ‘real’ man, behaving like a ‘real’ Catholic or how German youth ‘ought to be’ shaped many interpretations of the norms applicable for Catholics, German soldiers or even ‘working men’ of the Labour Service.

During the analysis, it became evident relatively quickly, that some norms preached by the RAD for the ‘working men’ met with approval in Bernhard Tölle’s diary. In other diary entries he repeatedly justified a clear preference for the military with the moral deficits and harassment of his leaders. German soldiers were, in turn, often depicted highly idealized in the diary. His fellow ‘working men’ also did not come off particularly well. For example, when on June 25 his unit commander gave a speech on behaviour towards the ‘pure, untouched German girl’, which met with Bernhard Tölle’s approval, he doubted that these words would have caught on with his comrades. Compared to ‘the Catholic German youth, which will always have strength of character and purity of heart as their goal and will always commit itself to this ideal’, they cut a poor figure.⁷⁷ It is interesting to note here that the 18-year-old was apparently able to identify with some norms that applied to the ‘working men’, but questioned whether they would be successfully conveyed. However, this prompted him to prove his own willingness to abide by these norms like a good Catholic and thus appears to have a mobilizing effect on men like him after all. Apart from such distinctions, the behaviour of a good ‘working man’, became relevant in Bernhard Tölle’s diary above all when he recorded how the young men fulfilled their duty and were nevertheless insulted and harassed. Although he often wrote of difficulties in fitting in, in such situations he also reported solidarity amongst the comrades against the leaders. This most likely promoted identification with his unit.

While the diary may give the impression that the young man became increasingly militarized throughout his time in the RAD, it is difficult to say to what extent this was due to camp education, events such as his ‘baptism of fire’⁷⁸ during an air raid or simply upcoming rumours that he would have to remain in Russia and join the army. As all paths discussed here are the product of one young man’s writing, it is clear that as the ‘working man’ or soldier Bernhard Tölle became more militarized, so did the Catholic. Focusing, for example, on the employed semantic field of combat/fight, the analysis reveals that a Catholic path could also be described in a rather militant tone. Throughout the diary the young man wondered whether ‘enough was done to make the Catholic youth combat-ready’ (June 7), referred to either the ‘battle of life’ (June 21) or an individual ‘inner struggle for character and posture’ (July 9). On September 6, when he described how he imagined a prayer by his hometown peers for world peace, he also wrote that ‘we, the working men and soldiers, want to storm heaven through prayer. But only in our thoughts can we be with our comrades at home’.⁷⁹ The contrast between the desire for world peace and the militant tone of the quote exemplifies how a Catholic identity could be adapted to life behind the front – more readily so by a former Catholic St. George-Scout.

The interpretations of the fighting in the east in Bernhard Tölle’s diary are another good indicator how a young Catholic could find room within the German war of extermination. Bernhard Tölle did not explicitly question the German rampage in the East in his diary. Even though he recorded sympathy for the plight of the civilians (‘how great is the misery of the Russian people (…), over which a revolution and a war have come’),⁸⁰ he did not blame the Germans: ‘I personally believe that there is so much power left in this humiliated people that it will throw off the Bolshevik yoke’.⁸¹ The latter quote can be considered a prime example for the possibility of Catholics to interpret the war in the east as a crusade against godless Bolshevism. About a month later, on 3 July 1942 the young man again identified his comrades and himself as ‘young lads’ who ‘commit themselves (…) to finishing off Bolshevism and for the future of our beloved people’.⁸² Research has shown that just like Bernhard Tölle many young Catholic men justified their service in the army of a deeply anti-Christian regime with their professed allegiance to the fatherland and ‘considered the war “a fateful test approved by God”’.⁸³ Bernhard Tölle also emphasized the purpose of quickly restoring peace – one of the prerequisites of a ‘just’ war according to St. Thomas Aquinas. Sometimes, aside from the Bolsheviks he considered war itself a basic evil which disregarded God’s will. Even when some of these interpretations overlapped with National Socialist claims, they can only be attributed in part to camp education. However, it seems important to point out that Bernhard Tölle writing of these diary entries, while not necessarily all due to mobilization in the RAD, certainly contributed to his self-mobilization.

Additionally, the way the young man documented and ordered the events near the end of his service in the RAD in his diary, suggests he tried to come to terms with a desperate situation. At the end of May, before actually being transported to Russia, the 18-year-old had recorded in his diary: ‘everyone is glad to go out there soon, out to the Eastern Front, where we shall find our place and prove ourselves’.⁸⁴ It seems questionable whether at the time of writing this the young man had actually been enthusiastic about the chance to prove himself on the Eastern Front. In the next months life in the Labour Service behind the front lines in the East turned out to be anything but a heroic experience. Thus, when faced with the imminent transfer to the Wehrmacht, on 1 October 1942 the 18-year-old documented many worries in his diary. Then suddenly, drawing on discursive tropes from the RAD, he enthusiastically claimed to have come to terms with the order to remain in Russia. After the farewell ceremony on October 16 he looked back at a ‘short time, in which it [the RAD] had turned children into men who know why they give everything in the enemy’s country’.⁸⁵ In all probability, this was a desperate attempt to embrace the inevitable.

6. Self-determination? A conclusion

‘Would a young person ask that’,⁸⁶ Bernhard Tölle wrote in one of the first of his regular entries in his diary. After careful study of his records, this is no longer in question. The young man’s diary contains countless questions, worries and aspirations. Important studies have shown that many of these thoughts occupied other German Catholics in World War II as well.⁸⁷ Drafted into the Labour Service, Bernhard Tölle could not decide for himself how to live his life. Nevertheless, he discussed his (own) ideas of how he wanted to be or thought one should be in his diary. In doing so, some of the National Socialist norms were formative for all paths identified in my analysis and the young man recorded the importance of his own contribution to the German war effort. The unusually high density of his self-reflections makes Bernhard Tölle’s diary an exceptional source. Complementing similar observations by other researchers,⁸⁸ this paper focused on the appropriation of National Socialist ideas in very different normative frames. It is not surprising that Bernhard Tölle was not completely ‘untouched’ by National Socialist ideology. What strikes me particularly important, however, is the way in which these frameworks could be adapted to each other and to life in the Labour Service, while at the same time the young man maintained to belong to a morally superior group of young Catholics. The findings of this case study on a remarkable young man can be seen as exemplary of the way in which even doubtful young Germans could be mobilized for the regime.

A reader can get the impression that the 18-year-old bemoaned his youth as having been stolen from him. Having had envisioned to study theology, the young man had very different aspirations than serving in the RAD. The diary documents his attempts of fitting in and doing his part while at the same time he distinguished between Catholics and other (young) people. In summary, the young man did not pursue a path exclusively shaped by Catholic norms. Proving oneself for the German people, the fatherland or even a ‘people’s community’ went hand in hand with Catholic notions of a test of character. Religion – an element very strange to the Labour Service – made the young man stand out in the RAD, but also allowed for an interpretation of his service as part of a crusade. Likewise, religion and patriotism interoperated closely in the diary, which also underlines the mobilizing capacity of religion already visible in a diary entry from the beginning of June: ‘Should it be possible in our time to lead our fatherland to power and greatness without Christianity? . … . No!!!’⁸⁹

The diary referred to the image of the tough, noble soldier as a ‘real’ man and drew comparisons that turned out unfavourably for the leaders of the RAD. But when Bernhard Tölle identified himself as a soldier several times throughout his time in the Labour Service, he may have done exactly what the organization wanted him to do. ‘I, too, now have to prove my love for the people’s community’, he stressed in early July⁹⁰ 1942 after a similar entry at the end of May, in which he admitted this had been drilled into his head all morning. Camp education may have favoured the young man’s self-identification as a soldier or may not have contributed greatly to it. But in the east the RAD certainly provided a setting, in which a young Catholic recorded to actively invest himself for the German war effort and, if necessary, to sacrifice himself:

The fatherland needs soldiers to protect and defend it. (…) So we too, the youngest armed men of the nation, will bear the disappointments that the difficult war time is going to cause us like men. Because no sacrifice is too great for the fatherland!!!⁹¹

Several weeks after Bernhard Tölle made this diary entry on 1 October 1942, he was discharged from the RAD. When he was transferred to the Wehrmacht and really became a soldier, the questions about how to live right didn’t stop for long. The change of his status from ‘working man’ to soldier did not change his identity and did not suddenly make him a man. How to be a ‘real’ Catholic, a ‘real’ soldier and thus a ‘real’ man remained a prominent topic in his diary. Nineteen years old, Bernhard Tölle was killed in action in Ssimaki near Vitebsk on 6 January 1944. His last diary was lost.

Acknowledgements

For their valuable feedback I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Barnabas Balint, Katharina Seibert and Heidrun Zettelbauer. I also wish to thank the faculty and fellow members of the PhDnet Literary and Cultural Studies, the International PhD Programme and the participants of our workshop Rallying Europe: Intersectional Approaches to Youth in the Mid-Twentieth Century.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gero von Roedern

Gero von Roedern is a historian and a doctoral fellow of the Gerda Henkel Foundation at the Department of Cultural and Gender History at the University of Graz. Gero von Roedern studied history and German philology in Greifswald from 2013–2018. From 2019–2023 he held a position as research assistant at the Centre for Cultural Studies at Karl-Franzens-University Graz. His doctoral research project investigates young people’s private writing in the National Socialist Reichsarbeitsdienst [Labour Service]. It analyses life writing documents, primarily letter-series, in the context of the organizations’s history. Pursuing a binational degree, from 2020–2022 he was a doctoral candidate in the European PhDnet Literary and Cultural Studies (5th cycle) and from 2021–2022 a member of the International PhD Programme Literary and Cultural Studies (Gießen). His research interests include camp-education and indoctrination in the Labour Service, history ‘from below’, life writing, coming of age as well as military history.

Notes

1. The analysed diary forms part of the primary corpus of sources of my doctoral research project which investigates practices of writing of young adults in the context of the Reichsarbeitsdienst [Reich Labour Service]. All quotes from the diary are originally in German and translated into English by the author of the essay. The diary is digitized and completely transcribed and can be accessed on: https://jugend1918-1945.de/katholische-jugend/default.aspx?id=31728.

2. Tölle, Diaries, 30 May 1942: ‘Wissen wir, wie es uns noch einmal ergehen wird? – Fragt denn da ein junger Mensch nach. Ich glaube nicht. Ein junger Mensch möchte etwas erleben, möchte gerne aufregende Stunden verbringen, ungeachtet einer größeren Gefahr. Und dann! – Hat er nicht auch das Verlangen, sich für sein Vaterland einzusetzen und jede äußere Gefahr von ihm abzuwenden. Alle persönlichen Dinge treten dann in den Hintergrund.’

3. The investigated diary stems from a young man’s time in the Labour Service for the male youth (RADmJ). There also existed a counterpart for the female youth (RADwJ). For practical purposes, I only refer to the RAD or Labour Service in this paper. This is, however, not meant as a contribution to the portrayal of the RADmJ and its history as the main history of the organization. For the RADwJ, for instance, see Stephenson, “Women’s Labour Service.”

4. Tölle, 30 May 1942. See note 2.

5. Krieck, Philosophie der Erziehung, 20.

6. See, for instance, Künster, “Das Konzept des ‘Gerechten Krieges’,” 41–42.

7. Diaries Tölle, 1 June 1942: “(…) wenn er ein echter Mann werden will.”

8. Mayring, Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse, 85–90. To be precise, a qualitative content analysis with inductive category formation was performed, supported by the MAXQDA analysis software.

9. Winker and Degele, Intersektionalität, 15.

10. Four girls and an infant brother, born on 8 February 1941.

11. Tölle, Reflections on his Life: ‘eine katholische deutsche Mutter’. Most of the biographical information in this essay is based on a reflection on his life, written by B. Tölle himself – most likely written as a school assignment when 17 years old.

12. For this and other information I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Hermann-Josef Tölle, the younger brother of Bernhard Tölle, who was so kind as to answer my questions in 2021.

13. The St. George-Scouts were seen as a threat to the monopoly of the Hitler Youth. While due to the Concordat of July 1933 they continued to exist longer than most other youth organizations, by 1938 they had already been subject to years of harassment and spying. Cf. Kücking, Das gemeinsame Band, 32–42.

14. 1. Kompanie, Grenadier-Feldausbildungs-Regiment 719.

15. “Verarbeiten.”

16. Matzer, “Aufwachsen als Teil der ‘Volksgemeinschaft’,” 349–350.

17. Gerhalter and Hämmerle, “Tagebuch – Geschlecht – Genre,” 22–23.

18. Cf. Steuwer and Graf, “Selbstkonstitution und Welterzeugung,” 33.

19. For a comprehensive study on private diaries in National Socialist Germany, see Steuwer, Ein Drittes Reich, wie ich es auffasse.

20. Cf. Gerhalter, “Einmal ein ganz ordentliches Tagebuch?” and cf. Gerhalter and Hämmerle, “Tagebuch – Geschlecht – Genre,” 13–15.

21. Reichsministerium des Inneren, “Reichsarbeitsdienstgesetz und Erlaß des Führers und Reichskanzlers.”

22. Hierl, “Grundsätzliches zur Arbeitsdienstpflicht,” 29. This conception assured Hitler’s backing for the RAD. See Patel, Soldiers of Labour, 251–252.

23. Cf. Patel, Soldiers of Labour, 182–183.

24. Seifert, Kulturarbeit im Reichsarbeitsdienst, 174. Also, see pp. 174–176.

25. Cf. Hierl, Ausgewählte Schriften und Reden, 202. For further explanation, also see Seifert, Kulturarbeit im Reichsarbeitsdienst, 375–376.

26. Tölle, Diaries, 31 July, August 1, 3–7, 1942: ‘31.7. (...) Ordnungsdienst mit dem Spaten. Hin und her hetzt man uns noch kurz vor dem Schlafengehen’; ‘1.8. (...) Dann geht es nach Hause, wo wir uns noch eine Stunde am Ordnungsdienst und eine Stunde am Gebäudedienst erfreuen’; ‘3.8. (...) Nach unserer Arbeit auf der Baustelle (...) Ordnungsdienst mit Stahlhelm, Gasmaske und Gewehr (...). Hin und her werden wir gehetzt, daß der Schädel dampft.’; ‘4.8. Wachdienst”; “5.8. (...) Große Besichtigung am Nachmittag.’; ‘6.8. (...) 1 St. Ordnungsdienst u. Gewehrreinigen’; ‘7.8. Ordnungsdienst’. The drills were complementary to the regular daily labour on the construction site of an airfield.

27. Zettelbauer, “Unwanted Desire and Processes of Self-Discipline,” 574.

28. Tölle, Diaries, 20 July 1942: ‘7 Uhr Wecken – 7 ¼ −8 Uhr Kaffeetrinken – 8 Uhr Morgenappel – 8-9 ¼ Putz- und Flickstunde (Drilligzeug und Schaftstiefel) – 9 ¼ Appell in Drilllig und Schaftstiefel. 9 ¾ −11 Uhr Freizeit – 11 ¼ Mittagessen – 12 Uhr Abmarsch zur Baustelle – 15-15.15 Uhr Pause – 18-18 ¾ Uhr Abendessen – 21.30 Abmarsch v. d. Baustelle – 23 Uhr [?] Zapfenstreich.’

29. The frame of reference ‘Volksgemeinschaft’ as well as the ‘people’s community’ as an object of historical research are controversial. A good introduction in English provide: Steber and Gotto, Visions of community.

30. Krüger, “Arbeit und Gemeinschaft,” 99. Also quoted in Seifert 1996.

31. See Hierl, Ausgewählte Schriften und Reden, 229–233.

32. Seifert, Kulturarbeit im Reichsarbeitsdienst, 178. For further information on the importance of the schedules, also see Seifert, “‘Ehrendienst’ und ‘Schule’,” 127–132.

33. For a similar observation cf. Steuwer, “Weltanschauung mit meinem Ich verbinden,” 118.

34. See, for example, a paper by high ranking RAD official and later Hierl’s chief of staff: Decker, “Methoden der Erziehung,” 280–281.

35. Tölle, Diaries, 2 July 1942: ‘echte deutsche Männer (...).’

36. Ibid., 28 June 1942: ‘5. Sonntag nach Pfingsten.’

37. Ibid., 19 April 1942: ‘Für uns aber gibt es keinen Sonntag.’

38. See Möckel, “Die Bewährung der jungen Generation”. As Möckel investigates the manifestation of character tests and of proving onself (Bewährung) in diaries, his research is recommendable for further information on this subject.

39. Tölle, Diaries, 2 June 1942: ‘das Wahrzeichen deutscher Kraft und Stärke und christlichen Glaubens’; ‘den Ostraum mit der deutschen Kultur vertraut machten.’

40. Ibid., 3 June 1942: ‘dreckig und schmutzig’; ‘Lettland (...) kann einem deutschen Menschen schon eher zusagen (...).’

41. Ibid., 14 June 1942: ‘von Herrgott u. seinem ewigen Reiche wissen. Wie wird das alles einmal auslaufen?’

42. Ibid., 20 June 1942: ‘verblendeten Brüder und Schwestern (...).’

43. Ibid., 20 June 1942: ‘Wie groß u. ehrenvoll ist doch die Aufgabe junger katholischer Kirche in der heutigen Zeit. (..) Freunde in der Heimat setzt Euch doppelt für unser Ideal ein, für all die Kameraden mit, die draußen im Felde den Ehrendienst fürs Vaterland erfüllen.’

44. See, e.g. Breuer, “Gehorsam, pflichtbewußt und opferwillig,” 75–76, 81.

45. Cf. Holzapfel, “Das Kreuz der Weltkriege,” 436–441.

46. Tölle, Diaries, 13 September 1942: ‘Denn jeder, der selbstlos sein Leben gestaltet, verdient den Namen Christi zu tragen. Schweres verlangt da der Herr von seinen Christen; Aber wer Christi Jünger sein will, muß ein Kreuz tragen.’

47. Cf. Patel, Soldiers of Labour, 231–232. In essence, this notion of manhood was defensive and demarcated the ‘aryan’ man from Jews and ‘effeminate’ bourgeois as enemies of National Socialism. It also was built upon the resurgence of the image of the ‘traditional’ man post-World War I, directed against the women’s rights movement.

48. See Bourdieu, “The Biographical Illusion.”

49. Cf. Meissner, “Ganze Kerle wollen wir stellen.”

50. Tölle, Diaries, 26 August 1942: ‘Jetzt erst spüre ich, wie wahr dieser Vers ist. Junge Menschen sehnen sich immer dorthin, wo Leben ist; wo sie etwas wagen können; da sind sie zu finden. Hindert man sie daran, so sind sie unzufrieden. Denn Ruhe, die bekommt ihnen nicht, die ist etwas für Drückeberger u. Duckmäuser.’

51. To put this into perspective: the semantic field of family (siblings, parents etc.) figures with 28 counts, but is additionally subject of his letters.

52. Cf. Arning, Die Macht des Heils, 232, 326.

53. See, for instance, Hierl, Ausgewählte Schriften und Reden, 216.

54. Tölle, Diaries, 17 June 1942: ‘Macht und Größe; ‘Unser Volk gebraucht beide, den praktischen und den geistigen Arbeiter.’; ‘Ich ärgere mich nur, daß wir von (…) Führern, die geistig auf viel niederer Stufe stehen als wir, so etwas sagen lassen müssen.’

55. Ibid., 25 June 1942: ‘Arbeit adelt; wir bleiben bürgerlich.’

56. Cf. Hierl, Ausgewählte Schriften und Reden, 269.

57. The experience of leadership in the Scouts, which were strictly organized according to the leader principle as well, may have created grounds for complaint as well. (Cf. Kücking, Das gemeinsame Band, 35)

58. Tölle, Diaries, 26 June 1942: ‘Sie haben maßlos getrunken; sie haben die ganze Nacht hindurch sinnlos gezecht, sodaß wir heute allerhand auszustehen haben. (...) Mögen aber die Ideale des Arbeitsdienstes noch so hoch u. herrlich sein, mit solchen Führern ist kein Staat zu machen.’ From May 30 to October 26 Bernhard Tölle recorded similar complaints about 15 times – almost once a week – and sometimes added his thoughts on proper leadership [Führertum] and toughness.

59. Ibid., 26 June 1942: ‘Drum geliebtes deutsches Volk (deutsche Brüder) beweist, daß Du würdig bist, Europas Führer zu sein’; ‘religiöse, sittliche und moralische Reinheit; denn sie sind die Grundsteine eines gesunden Führervolkes.’

60. Cf. Link, “Erziehung zum Führervolk.”

61. Tölle, Diaries, 14 July 1942: ‘Im Schlamm u. Dreck müssen wir herumbuddeln und oben stehen die Führer u. treiben u. treiben. Ab und zu fliegt ein Dreckklumpen herunter, der uns wieder aufwecken soll.’

62. Ibid., 7 August 1942: ‘sinnlos den Befehlen geistig Minderwertiger zu gehorchen’; ‘Herrschaft der Minderwertigen.’

63. Behind the front in Russia, standing guard and digging trenches may not have been as hollow tasks as in pre-war Germany. Still, these procedures clearly also served militarization.

64. Tölle, Diaries, July 12–13, 1942: ‘Führer, die die deutsche Jugend erziehen sollen, geben so ihren Gelüsten freien Lauf, während unsere Kameraden im grauen Rock draußen vor dem Feinde ihr Leben einsetzen für unser Volk u. Vaterland.’

65. Ibid., Diaries, undated, 1942: ‘die sonst so schöne Wehrdienstzeit. Gleich in Feindesland, dazu noch in dem trostlosen Rußland.’; ‘das graue Soldatenkleid’; ‘Pflichten’.

66. Ibid., Diaries, 10 August 1942: ‘Ob wir noch häufig unsern Arbeitsort wechseln, oder ob es das letzte Mal vor unserer Rückkehr in die Heimat ist ..? – Wir wissen es nicht. Das ist Soldatenlos. Er weiß nichts von Morgen. Stumm erfüllt er seine Pflicht, die sich Tag für Tag ändern kann ohne sie vorheriges Wissen.’

67. Ibid., July 12–13, 1942: ‘Weichlinge’.

68. Ibid., 26 June 1942: ‘ganzer Kerl und echter “deutscher” Mann’.

69. Cf. Schneider, “Auf der Suche nach dem katholischen Mann,” 292–293.

70. For instance, the Katholischer Jungmännerverband [Association of Catholic Young Men] dismissed the National Socialist’s violence, primitivity, empty swagger and hatred. Cf. Meissner, “Ganze Kerle wollen wir stellen,” 261–266.

71. Cf. Missalla, “Die (unbeabsichtigte) Vorbereitung,” 34–36.

72. Tölle, Diaries, 27 June 1942: ‘Ein deutscher Soldat, der dem Tode schon einmal ins Angesicht geschaut hat, wird sich niemals zu solcher Gemeinheit hinreißen lassen. Aber unsere Führer!?!?’

73. Cf. Werner, “Soldatische Männlichkeit im Vernichtungskrieg,” 283–287.

74. Cf., e.g. the recent overview by Mertens, “German Catholics in World War II”.

75. Tölle, Diaries, July 12–13, 1942: ‘Deutsche Soldaten wollen die Zukunft unseres Landes sichern, wollen dem deutschen Volke wieder zu Ehren u. Ansehen verhelfen.’

76. Ibid., July 12–13, 1942: ‘als sie reliös, sittlich und moralisch versumpft waren.’; ‘Nur so wird unser Volk gesund bleiben u. herrschen können.’

77. Ibid., 25 June 1942: ‘reines, unberührtes deutsches Mädel’; ‘Die katholische deutsche Jugend aber wird immer als Ihr Ziel Charakterstärke u. Herzensreinheit vor Augen haben und sich immer für dieses Ideal einsetzen.’

78. Ibid., 4 October 1942: ‘Die Feuertaufe.’

79. Ibid., June 7 and 21, July 9, and 6 September 1942: ‘um Christi Jugend kampfkräftig zu machen.’; ‘Kampf des Lebens’; ‘innerlich seinen Kampf um seinen Charakter und seine Haltung führen’; ‘Den Himmel durch das Gebet mit erstürmen möchten wir Arbeitsmänner und Soldaten. Aber nur in Gedanken können wir bei euch Kameraden in der Heimat sein.’

80. Ibid., 10 June 1942: ‘Wie groß ist doch das Elend in diesem russischen Volke (…), über das eine Revolution u. ein Krieg gekommen ist.’

81. Ibid., 10 June 1942: ‘Ich selbst glaube, daß noch so viel Kraft in diesem erniedrigten Volke steckt, daß es sich des bolschewistischen Jochs entledigt (…).’

82. Ibid., 3 July 1942: ‘wir jungen Kerle setzen uns (..) ein für die Niederkämpfung des Bolschewismus u. für die Zukunft unseres geliebten Volkes.’

83. Mertens, “German Catholics in World War II,” 208.

84. Tölle, Diaries, 30 May 1942: ‘darum ist jeder froh, daß es bald hinaus gehen soll, hinaus an die Ostfront, in die wir uns einreihen u. in der wir uns bewähren wollen.’

85. Ibid., 16 October 1942: ‘in kurzer Zeit aus Kindern Männer gemacht, die wissen, weshalb sie sich im Feindesland voll u. ganz einsetzen.’

86. Ibid., 30 May 1942. See note 2.

87. Cf. Damberg, “Kriegsdeutung und Kriegserfahrung”; cf. Missalla, “Die (unbeabsichtigte) Vorbereitung”; for a recent important analysis see Kücking, Das gemeinsame Band.

88. See, for instance, Steuwer, Ein Drittes Reich, wie ich es auffasse; in respect to Catholics willingness to fight for Germany, see Breuer, “Gehorsam, pflichtbewußt und opferwillig.”

89. Ibid., 2 June 1942: ‘Sollte es denn in unserer Zeit möglich sein, unser Vaterland ohne das Christentum zu Macht und Größe zu führen? … Nein!!!’

90. Ibid., 9 July 1942: ‘Auch ich habe jetzt meine Liebe zur Volksgemeinschaft unter Beweis zu stellen.’

91. Ibid., 1 October 1942: ‘Das Vaterland braucht Soldaten, die es schützen u. verteidigen. (…) So werden auch wir jüngste Waffenträger der Nation männlich die Enttäuschung tragen, welche die schwere Kriegszeit uns bereiten wird. Denn kein Opfer für das Vaterland ist zu groß!!!’