New Revised Paperback Edition "This book will benefit any person carrying out serious research into Hitler's failure to subjugate Russia." . Crown Imperial "This serious study is a must for all interested in the history of World War Two." . British East-West Review ..". one of the best jobs of integrating Russian, German, American and British writing on the subject ... most students wishing to write a paper would find everything they need in the way of bibliographical materials by referring to this book." . Slavic Review This volume provides a guide to the extensive literature on the war in the East, including largely unknown Soviet writing on the subject. Indispensable for military historians, but also for all scholars who approach this crucial period in world history from a socio-economic or cultural perspective. Contents: Introduction: "Lebensraum in the East" - Germany's War of Aggression against the Soviet Union - Part A: Policy and Strategy - Part B: The Military War - Part C: The Ideologically Motivated War of Annihilation in the East - Part D: The Occupation - Part E: The Results of the War and Coming to Terms With Them - Conclusion: From Historical Memories to "Bridges of Understanding" and Reconciliation. Rolf-Dieter Muller is Senior Research Fellow at the Militargeschichtliches Forschungsamt, Potsdam. Gerd Ueberschar is Senior Research Fellow at the Military Archives and University of Freiburg.

Since the end of World War II, Germans have struggled with the legacy of the Wehrmacht -- the unified armed forces mobilized by Adolf Hitler in 1935 to ensure the domination of the Third Reich in perpetuity. Historians have vigorously debated whether the Wehrmacht's atrocities represented a break with the past or a continuation of Germany's military traditions. Now available for the first time in English, this meticulously researched yet accessible overview by eminent historian Rolf-Dieter Muller provides the most comprehensive analysis of the organization to date, illuminating its role in a complex, horrific era. Muller examines the Wehrmacht's leadership principles, organization, equipment, and training, as well as the front-line experiences of soldiers, airmen, Waffen SS, foreign legionnaires, and volunteers. He skillfully demonstrates how state-directed propaganda and terror influenced the extent to which the militarized Volksgemeinschaft (national community) was transformed under the pressure of total mobilization. Finally, he evaluates the army's conduct of the war, from blitzkrieg to the final surrender and charges of war crimes. Brief acts of resistance, such as an officers' "rebellion of conscience" in July 1944, embody the repressed, principled humanity of Germany's soldiers, but ultimately, Muller concludes, the Wehrmacht became the "steel guarantor" of the criminal Nazi regime.

Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, led to one of the most brutal campaigns of World War II: of the estimated 70 million people who died in World War II, over 30 million died on the Eastern Front. Although it has previously been argued that the campaign was a pre-emptive strike, in fact, Hitler had been planning a war of intervention against the USSR ever since he came to power in 1933. Using previously unseen sources, acclaimed military historian Rolf-Dieter Muller shows that Hitler and the Wehrmacht had begun to negotiate with Poland and had even considered an alliance with Japan soon after taking power. Despite the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, at the declaration of war in September 1939, military engagement with the Red Army was still a very real and imminent possibility. In this book, Muller takes us behind the scenes of the Wehrmacht High Command, providing a fascinating insight into an unknown story of World War II.

Die kurze Episode der "Wehrmacht" hat zu einer ungeheuren militarischen Kraftentfaltung des Deutschen Reiches gefuhrt, zu uberwaltigenden Siegen und katastrophalen Niederlagen, zugleich zur Mitverantwortung fur eine verbrecherische Kriegfuhrung, wie sie in der deutschen Geschichte ohne Beispiel ist. Der Band bietet zunachst einen Uberblick uber die Wehrmacht im Dritten Reich, ihre Fuhrungsprinzipien, Gliederung, Ausrustung, Ausbildung und Fronterfahrung. Im zweiten Teil wird erkennbar, wie sich die militarisierte "Volksgemeinschaft" der Deutschen im Zweiten Weltkrieg unter dem Druck der totalen Mobilmachung veranderte. Der dritte Teil analysiert die militarische Kriegfuhrung vom "Blitzkrieg bis zum Untergang von Reich und Wehrmacht. Der Ausblick auf den Umgang mit diesem schwierigen Erbe in der Bundesrepublik zeigt, wie tief der Bruch in der deutschen Militargeschichte gewesen ist."