(Political education; 02-02; p.3)
Social scientists were not involved directly
in that, i.e. they did not teach. But they either gave recommendations
as members of the advisory committee for Inner Conduct at the
MoD or they worked as experts at the School for Inner Conduct
in Koblenz which was founded in 1956.
Because nowadays one hears arguments for a conscript army against
a professional, some short remarks have to be made. Some argue
that one needs a conscript army in order to guarantee congruence
of a democratic society and the military. Von Baudissin e.g. strongly
favoured that line of reasoning in the 1950s. Keeping in mind
the at that time fresh remembrances of the Wehrmacht and the Reichswehr,
the argument was plausible then. To follow this reasoning up to
the present time however, would mean at least implicitly that
one sees non-democratic attitudes persisting in the Bundeswehr
for almost fifty years. - And by stating this also declaring that
political leaders failed to cope with it. Moreover, a conscript
army might lead to higher permeability between civil and military
attitudes but that does not include automatically the "democratic"
quality of the attitudes shared.
Changes from 1970 onward
Not before the early 1970s a debate and consequently new structuring
of the Bundeswehr's officers' education took place. Three factors
contributed to that: a lack of young personnel, new findings of
sociologists in regard to the soldier's profession, and a socialdemocratic-liberal
coalition in government that was open to renewals.
The numbers of recruits willing to become officers e.g. dropped
in 1969-70 to half of the armed forces' functional needs. Based
on findings of the American military sociologist Martin Janowitz,
German social scientists like Thomas Ellwein and Ralf Zoll in
addition discussed re-structuring of officers' education. Janowitz
found a growing similarity between organisational and decision-finding
processes in both, civil and military institutions. Consequently
the scientists demanded a re-orientation of military towards civil
education. Thus, making military and civil education more compatible,
they hoped to make a temporary career as officer more attractive
to draftees.
(read on here)
