Political Commissar - German Military

German Military

Since December 1943 the German armed forces created a network of political instructors to maintain national-socialist indoctrination of the Wehrmacht. The officers, called NS Führungsoffizier (NSFO), drawn from convinced officers and selected by the Nazi Party Chancellor Martin Bormann were to instil ideological conviction and reinforce combat morale through training lessons and teaching. They had no direct influence on combat decisions as had the political commissar in the Soviet Army. At the end of 1944 more than 1,100 full-time and about 47,000 part-time instructors had been trained, under the control of General Hermann Reinecke, commander of the National Socialist leadership staff at the OKW.