"Landser" is a Wehrmacht Grunt

Spanky · August 30, 2001, 13:13

Henrik, as a native German-speaker (though not a German), I share your impression of "Landser" being a colloquial term used for the basic foot soldier - probably similar to "grunt" or maybe "G.I." in the US.

In fact, from what I've gathered from the recent public controversy in Germany, surrounding the Wehrmacht's role in the genocide of WWII, the discussion sometimes revolved around whether the ordinary "Landser" bore any responsibility for the murders, as opposed to just the members of the SS.

Prometeus · August 30, 2001, 15:47

...Prom from Italy. I have to break a spear in German's army bless... once, near Anzio, a SS lieautenant ordered a massive italian hostages' execution. German soldiers preferred to execute him, and then surrend to american.

I live in Pomezia, and i visited German war cemetery a lot of times. No "Landser" term was used on graves, only "soldat"...

PS Personally, I don't know a word of German language, but assuming english "land" = german "land", i think german "Landser" is equipollent of american "recruit" or maybe " national guard", italian "nuove leve, "riservista" or something like that. A newlyborn term, IMHO...

Spanky · August 31, 2001, 06:11

Hey Prom!

Thanks for your interest. I'm feeling a bit sheepish here, since I didn't actually mean to start a new thread for this, but accidentally clicked the wrong button when I replied to Field Marshal Klesh's "Map Request" thread...

But hey, what the heck. I checked up on the term in Langenscheidt's large German to English dictionary, which should be pretty authoritative. Accordingly, "Landser" is roughly the equivalent of the American term "G.I.", denoting an ordinary soldier (so, not just the infantry variety, as I had assumed).

Maybe you're thinking of "Landwehr", which used to be sort of a rural militia?

Wish you best of luck with your current Scenario, by the way. Hopefully, my own "The Road to Empire" will also cater somewhat to those wanting the chance to play history from an Asian perspective.

Prometeus · August 31, 2001, 08:31

ahw ahw...

BTW... never counted on APOLYTON Babelfish service... too fuzzy and superficial...

(A tip for Mark and Ming... check out your Altavista services if you want to have some fun...

)

German nowadays Army is different form Italian one...

Italian Army has a national non-federal recruit system ( Italian Navy and Airforce also- * we italians use timed-enlist organized recruits... let me explain in a few words ie first four months recrutis of the year goes to Army, II four months of the year goes to Airforce, IIIrd four months of the year goes to Navy - me included, but luckily i escaped from military service....

) , unlike volunteer US Army system - the italian so-called "Riserva" ( everyone that served into Italian Army is For Italian Laws is seized as a second level soldier, like USD National Guard ).

Quote:

Originally posted by Spanky
Maybe you're thinking of "Landwehr", which used to be sort of a rural militia?

Germany is a limited federal nation, unlike US, and states are named Lander, and even if training system is on national basis; reserve system is based on Lander basis, so reserve men are Landwehr... Definitely, you are right...

PS Since you are right about my scarce German knowledges, I'm rellay interested about that German to English dictionary URL... just in order to please my brother's wishes ( he studies German language, you have to understand

...

). Can you post it here ( Warvoid positively accourding, of course?

) or maybe post it to me? Thanks...

BTW Gok blue development is on the way... several playtesting troubles convinced me to modify tech tree... believe me, I feel honoured if you want to playtest my scen...

Spanky · September 1, 2001, 07:22

Well, I'm sorry I can't help you out with that dictionary, since as far as I know, it only exists in paper form!

It doesn't state where the term "Landser" comes from, though - it could have something to do with the Landwehr, which is a traditional institution no longer used today, as far as I know.

Also, thanks for the playtesting offer - the honour is mine - but sadly, I hardly have enough time to devote to my own scenario at the moment,

and I think I've got some major ass-whooping coming at me if I don't finish that one soon!

Stefan Härtel · September 2, 2001, 06:05

I'm not a WW2 freak, but I do know a bit more than the basics, and I swear I have never heard the term "Landser" ever before. It does sound a bit like from a south German dialect, perhaps the Bavarians, Swabonians or Austrians referred to themselves as that, or perhaps the Silesians or Pommeranians (I'm not familiar with those dialects". One thing for sure is that it's not North or Central German...

BeBro · September 2, 2001, 07:00

Well, it is - or better it was - a generell expression for "normal" infantery soldiers in WWII. As far as I know it is not used anymore, especially not for the Bundeswehr soldiers.

Henrik · September 2, 2001, 09:32

This thread was a mistakenly posted response to this thread
The debate was about wether german ww2 infantry units should be named Landser instead of Wermacht (which I believe was a name for all of nazi germanys armed forces).
In fact the whole thing was a misunderstanding, as nobody in the old thread actually where saying that the name was false.
This thread exists becouse Spanky pressed the "new thread" button instead of the reply button.