Quote:
Originally Posted by funkychinaman
I think there may be philosophical differences between swearing to risk your life as a soldier and swearing obedience until death. To me, one is "I'll risk my life for this job while I have it," and the other is "I'm yours to do with until I die." One is for x number of years, and the other is for life. Then again, that's just the way I'm reading it. Why not just take identical oaths then?
It's interesting that the SA didn't swear their oath to Hitler himself, even when he was the undisputed head of the NS movement. But then again, I guess they only changed it after getting rid of the SA.
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Pretty much. The oath was changed (for the Heer at least) from swearing allegiance to the state to swearing it to the Fuhrer after the death of President Hindenburg on August 2nd 1934, with the Heer as a whole taking the new oath on August 8th, over a month after the Night of the Long Knives.