The Oberkommando des Heeres was the high command of the Army of Nazi Germany. It was founded in 1935 as part of Adolf Hitler's rearmament of Germany. OKH was de facto the most important unit within the German war planning until the defeat at Moscow in December 1941.
The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht was the supreme military command and control office of Nazi Germany during World War II. Created in 1938, the OKW replaced the Reich Ministry of War and had oversight over the individual high commands of the country's armed forces: the army, navy, and air force.
The German General Staff, originally the Prussian General Staff and officially the Great General Staff, was a full-time body at the head of the Prussian Army and later, the German Army, responsible for the continuous study of all aspects of war, and for drawing up and reviewing plans for mobilization or campaign. It existed unofficially from 1806, and was formally established by law in 1814, the first general staff in existence. It was distinguished by the formal selection of its officers by intelligence and proven merit rather than patronage or wealth, and by the exhaustive and rigorously structured training which its staff officers undertook.
This is a list of words, terms, concepts, and slogans that have been or are used by the German military. Ranks and translations of nicknames for vehicles are included. Also included are some general terms from the German language found frequently in military jargon. Some terms are from the general German cultural background, others are given to show a change that was made before or after the Nazi era. Some factories that were the primary producers of military equipment, especially tanks, are also given.
Between 1933 and 1945, the organization of the Luftwaffe underwent several changes. Originally, the German military high command, for their air warfare forces, decided to use an organizational structure similar to the army and navy, treating the aviation branch as a strategic weapon of war. Later on, during the period of rapid rearmament, the Luftwaffe was organized more in a geographical fashion.
The Oberkommando der Luftwaffe was the high command of the air force of Nazi Germany.
Friedrich Karl Albert Dollmann was a German general during World War II who commanded the 7th Army during the Invasion of France and the early phases of the Allied invasion of Normandy until his death in June 1944.
Wilhelm Emanuel Burgdorf was a German general during World War II who served as a commander of the 529th Infantry Regiment and staff officer in the German Army. In October 1944, Burgdorf assumed the role of the chief of the Army Personnel Office and chief adjutant to Adolf Hitler. In this capacity, he played a key role in the forced suicide of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Burgdorf committed suicide inside the Führerbunker on 2 May 1945 at the conclusion of the Battle of Berlin.
Hans Jeschonnek was a German military aviator in the Luftstreitkräfte during World War I, a general staff officer in the Reichswehr in the inter–war period and Generaloberst (Colonel-General) and a Chief of the General Staff in the Luftwaffe, the aerial warfare branch of the Wehrmacht during World War II.
Gustav Anton von Wietersheim was a German general during World War II. He led the XIV Motorized Corps from its creation in 1938 until 14 September 1942 during the Battle of Stalingrad.
German code breaking in World War II achieved some notable successes cracking British naval ciphers until well into the fourth year of the war, using the extensive German radio intelligence operations during World War II. Cryptanalysis also suffered from a problem typical of the German armed forces of the time: numerous branches and institutions maintained their own cryptographic departments, working on their own without collaboration or sharing results or methods. This led to duplicated effort, a fragmentation of potential, and lower efficiency than might have been achieved. There was no central German cryptography agency comparable to Britain’s Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), based at Bletchley Park.
The Abwehr was the German military-intelligence service for the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht from 1920 to 1945. Although the 1919 Treaty of Versailles prohibited the Weimar Republic from establishing an intelligence organization of their own, they formed an espionage group in 1920 within the Ministry of Defence, calling it the Abwehr. The initial purpose of the Abwehr was defence against foreign espionage: an organizational role which later evolved considerably. Under General Kurt von Schleicher the individual military services' intelligence units were combined and, in 1929, centralized under Schleicher's Ministeramt within the Ministry of Defence, forming the foundation for the more commonly understood manifestation of the Abwehr.
Hans-Georg von Seidel was a German military leader who served in the German Army during World War I and in the Luftwaffe during World War II. Seidel was promoted to the rank of General der Flieger.
Foreign Armies East, operated as a military-intelligence organization of the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) - the Supreme High Command of the German Army before and during World War II. It focused on analyzing the Soviet Union and other East European countries before and during the war.
The Führersonderzug was Adolf Hitler's personal train. It was named Führersonderzug "Amerika" in 1940, and in January 1943, was renamed the Führersonderzug "Brandenburg". The train served as a headquarters until the Balkans Campaign. Afterwards, the train was not used as Führer Headquarters (Führerhauptquartier), however Hitler continued to travel on it throughout the war between Berlin, Berchtesgaden, the Wolfsschanze and his other military headquarters.
Cipher Department of the High Command of the Luftwaffe was the signals intelligence and cryptanalytic agency of the German Air Ministry before and during World War II. In 1945, the unit was known as the Luftnachrichten Abteilung 350, abbreviated as OKL/Ln Abt 350 and formerly called the. It was the successor in November 1944 of the unit formerly named as the Chi-Stelle Ob.d.L., which was often abbreviated to Chi-Stelle/ObdL.
