STRICT MARRIAGE RULES

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22355, 19 March 1938, Page 21

STRICT MARRIAGE RULES

THE uproar in Germany caused by the marriage of Field-Mar-shal Werner von Blomberg to

Erika Grunn, the daughter of a carpenter, emphasises the rigid rules of the German army.

The rules are partly based on tradition, going back to Frederick the Great, who was in the habit of selecting wives for officers of his acquaintance. a favour that was considered a distinction.

Such regulations were more strictly executed under the reign of the last Hohenzollern. Wilhelm II held the right to approve the marriage of every commissioned officer. After thorough investigation into the prospective bride’s social standing, conducted by an officers’ commission, the commander of the regiment concerned submitted his re-

Traditional Exclusiveness of German Army

port to the Military Cabinet of the Kaiser. Although it is doubtful that the Emperor gave his personal consent, the permission to marry was granted in his name. The permission, which had the force of an imperial decree, read as follows: “The Imperial Military Cabinet, in the name of His Majesty the Emperor and King, who most graciously granted his consent, has

given permission, etc., . . .*’ The decree was then published *in the Army Gazette. Less rigid, yet executed with the same thoroughness, were the rules for the marriage of a non-commis-sioned officer. He had to apply to the commander of his regiment. An investigation into the bride’s family was made, and the commander gave his approval in the name of the regiment and its officers. The procedure in the cases of commissioned and non-commissioned officers indicates clearly the outspoken class consciousness which, especially in Prussia, has always marhgd the social life of the ruling class, especially in the army and in the vastly expanded civil service. The Junkers predominated in the Prussian army. The nobility served in the diplomatic service and in the highest posts in the bureaucratic machinery. Every regiment had its social standing. The Garde du Corps, stationed in Berlin, was composed of crack regiments. Only titled persons were its officers. The, further away from the capital, where the court life centred, the less distinguished were the corps and their regiments. An officer who was punished for having offended the code of honour was transferred to the “line” and served with an obscure regiment near the French or Russian border unless his offence was so severe that he had to quit active service or preferred to continue with coloured troops in the German colonies. It is doubtful whether Field-Mar-

shal Hermann Goering. who married an actress, Emmy Sonnemarm,

would have received permission to do so under the monarchy. The theatre was considered below the army’s social standard. Some officers had to resign because of intimacy with actresses. It was also the rule that any woman who had to work for a living was not eligible as an officer’s wife. The only work a woman could do that was not suspect in army circles was voluntary social or relief work.

Although the Nazi regime, boasting its achievements as a political labour party, also claims to have restored the woman’s place in the reshaping of the nation. Marshal von Blomberg’s resignation resulted from his marriage to a woman of the working class. The conflict also appears to be contradictory to the assurance of the regime that it has abolished class distinction-