Oaths to Hitler

Various organisations in Nazi Germany required their members to swear oaths to Adolf Hitler by name, rather than to the German state or an officeholder. Such oaths were intended to increase personal loyalty to Hitler and prevent dissent. The Hitler oath, introduced for all members of the Wehrmacht and civil servants in 1934, was one such oath. Others were sworn by members of organisations such as the Schutzstaffel (SS), whose oath may have inspired the Hitler oath, and by the Hitler Youth.

The most famous of the oaths to Hitler was the Hitler oath introduced to the Wehrmacht and civil service by Hitler in August 1934. Those swearing the oath promised their loyalty to Hitler in person, rather than the state or its offices, and it was intended to increase loyalty to Hitler and to prevent dissidence. Other oaths, with similar aims, were sworn by other organisations. The oath sworn to Hitler by members of the Schutzstaffel (SS) predated that of the 1934 Wehrmacht oath and may have served as an inspiration or model for it.

Members of the SS, founded by the Nazi Party in 1925, swore the following oath:

Ich schwöre Dir, Adolf Hitler, als Führer und Kanzler des Deutschen Reiches Treue und Tapferkeit. Wir geloben Dir und den von Dir bestimmten Vorgesetzten Gehorsam bis in den Tod. So wahr mir Gott helfe.

I swear to you, Adolf Hitler, as Führer and Chancellor of the German Reich, that I will be loyal and brave. I pledge obedience unto death to you and those you appoint to lead. So help me God.

The oath was renewed publicly at an annual ceremony. After 30 January 1941, foreign-born members of the SS swore to Hitler only as Führer, not as "Führer and Chancellor"; Volksdeutsche members of the SS continued to swear the original oath. SS-Gruppenführers swore a supplementary oath to adhere to Heinrich Himmler's specifications for recruits even if "it means rejecting my own children or the children of my clan... I swear by Adolf Hitler and by the honour of my ancestors — so help me God."

After gaining power and appointing himself head of state Hitler altered the traditional oath sworn by Wehrmacht servicemen to the state or supreme commander. The new wording of the oath, which came to be known as the Hitler oath, was to Hitler personally and was ordered to be taken by all members of the Wehrmacht. The oath was a change to that of the previous oaths which swore loyalty to the state, and not any individual, and had been sworn only by new recruits. There are some similarities between the oath and those sworn to the monarch in British and Commonwealth armies but the Nazi oath was granted more ceremony and German soldiers placed more significance upon a strict adherence to it.

The oath functioned as intended, forming a moral obstacle for any considering disobeying Hitler's orders or offering resistance to his regime. Former German officers used the oath as evidence in war crime trials after the war as part of their superior orders defence.

Members of the Hitler Youth swore the following oath: