Führer

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"Fuhrer" redirects here. For the Australian mycologist, see Bruce A. Fuhrer.
For the Czech composer, see Robert Führer.
For the Austrian statesman known by the title "Führer", see Adolf Hitler.
The title of this article contains the character ü. Where it is unavailable or not desired, the name may be represented as Fuehrer.

De-fuehrer.ogg Führer (help·info) is "leader" or "guide" in the German language, derived from the verb führen 'to lead'. In standard German it is pronounced [ˈfyːʁɐ], but in English it is usually pronounced /ˈfjʊərɚ/. It can be spelled Fuehrer or Fuhrer in languages where the ü-umlaut is not used. In German only Fuehrer may serve as a substitute in cases where no umlauts are available.

The word is mainly (in other languages almost exclusively) used as the term for Nazi Germany's ruler Adolf Hitler and was part of the title of many positions in the various paramilitary (particularly the SS) organizations and governmental institutions of Hitler's Germany. The word Führer in the sense of guide remains common in German, but comes with some stigma attached when used in the meaning of leader. The word Leiter is used instead.

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[edit] State & Party Leader Hitler

Führer was the title granted by Chancellor Hitler to himself, by the Enabling Law which gave him supreme power in the German Reichstag (Parliament), as part of the process of Gleichschaltung, following the death of the last Reichspräsident of the Weimar Republic (Germany after the Hohenzollern empire), Paul von Hindenburg, on March 23, 1933. The new position, fully styled Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Chancellor of the (Third) Reich),

Nazi Germany cultivated the Führerprinzip (leader principle), and Hitler was generally known as just der Führer ("the Leader"). One of the Nazis' most-repeated political slogans was Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer' - 'One People, One Empire, One Leader'.

For military matters, Hitler used the style Führer und Oberster Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht ('Leader and Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht'), until that addition was dropped in May 1942 by decree of the Führer. The style of the Head of State for use in foreign affairs was Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and National Chancellor) until July 28, 1942, when it was changed to Führer des Großdeutschen Reichs ('Leader of the Greater German Nation').

[edit] Military usage of the word Führer

Führer has been used as a military title (compare Latin Dux) in Germany since at least the 18th century. Ironically, given the usage of the word to refer to Adolf Hitler as supreme ruler of Germany, usage of the term "Führer" in the context of a company-sized military subunit in the German Army referred to a commander lacking the qualifications for permanent command. For example, the commanding officer of a company was titled "Kompaniechef" (literally, Company Chief), but if he did not have the requisite rank or experience, or was only temporarily assigned to command, he was officially titled "Kompanieführer." Thus operational commands of various military echelons were typically referred to by their formation title followed by the title Führer, in connection with mission-type tactics used by the German military forces. The term Führer was also used at lower levels, regardless of experience or rank; for example, a Gruppenführer was the leader of a squad of infantry (9 or 10 men). Aside from this generic meaning, "Gruppenführer" was also an official rank title for a specific grade of general in the Waffen SS. The word Truppenführer was also a generic word referring to any commander or leader of troops, and could be applied to NCOs or officers at many different levels of command.

Under the Nazis, the title Führer was also used in paramilitary titles (see Freikorps). Almost every Nazi paramilitary organization, in particular the SS and SA, had Nazi party paramilitary ranks incorporating the title of Führer.

[edit] Equivalent historic titles

[edit] Contemporaries

 Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (December 2008)

Hitler's choice for this political title was unprecedented in German. Like much of the early symbolism of Nazi Germany, it was modelled after Benito Mussolini's Italian Fascism. Mussolini's chosen nickname il Duce ("the Leader") was widely used, though unlike Hitler he never made it his official title. Note that the Italian word duce (unlike the German word Führer) is no longer used as a generic term for a leader, but almost always refers to Mussolini himself.

Disparate authoritarian political leaders in various official positions assumed, formally or not, similar titles suggesting the power to speak for the nation itself

Such titles used by nationalist heads of state and/or government during the Second World War include:

Other 'leaders' of contemporary nationalist political groups who never achieved power:

In areas occupied by the Axis powers, some states or ethnic-cultural communities aspiring to national self-determination found they were not handed real power by their victorious German allies as they had hoped. Their nationalist leaders, too weak to gain control independently, were simply used as pawns.

Such Nazi collaborators include De Leider "leader" Staf De Clercq of the VNV (Flemish National League) in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking northern majority of Belgium), who had dreamed of a 'Diets' nation uniting Flanders, the Netherlands and Frans-Vlaanderen (the French part of historic Flanders, united with Belgium into one military occupation zone and Reichskommissariat). Even when the Germans decided in December 1944, after the allied breakthrough, to carve up Belgium, leaving only bicultural capital Brussels under the Reichskommissar, the post of Landsleider van het Vlaamsche Volk ('Land leader of the Flemish people') of the new Reichsgau (integral 'Germanic' part of the Reich, in this case merely on paper) (Flandern, Vlaanderen in Dutch; capital Anwerp) went to another collaborating party, Devlag, in the person of Jef Van de Wiele (1902 - 1979), 15 December 1944 - 1945, in exile in Germany as the Allied controlled all Belgium since September 1944; meanwhile in the Francophone south of Belgium, partially reconquered by German troops (December 1944 - January 1945), the equivalent post of Chef du Peuple Wallon ('Leader of the Walloon People'), at the head of the Reichsgau Wallonien, went to Léon Degrelle (in exile in Germany) of the Belgicist Rex Party.

[edit] Later parallels

The use of the expression "leader" to denote a position of absolute political power was not invented by the Nazis, and it did not end with their defeat in World War II. Some political leaders have used such titles as part of maintaining a personality cult, such as Başbuğ (commander) Alparslan Türkeş of the Turkish Nationalistic Front.

The same style was sometimes followed by leaders with nationalist[citation needed] inclinations elsewhere in the political spectrum, not in the least rulers of Communist 'dictatures of the proletariat'; thus Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il of North Korea, who are both historically and geographically far removed from any European influence, have used the titles Great Leader and Dear Leader, respectively.

In Romania, Communist Party leader and president Nicolae Ceauşescu even had the same title, Conducător (Romanian for leader), as earlier dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu.

Muammar al-Gaddafi, the Libyan dictator, uses the titles "Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya" and "Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution".

Saparmurat Niyazov, the late president for life of the Republic of Turkmenistan, and former leader of the Turkmen communist party and later of the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan (the country's only political party), assumed from 22 October 1993 the unique, paternalistic national title Turkmenbashi (Türkmenbaşy in Turkmen), which means "Head of (all) the Turkmens".

Such official titles must not be confused with informal or even ironical epithets bestowed by others, such as "El Máximo Líder" and El Comandante ("commander") were commonly used for Cuban Communist Party leader and 'revolutionary' President Fidel Castro of Cuba.

[edit] Modern German Usage

Due to its intimate connection with Nazi institutions, and Hitler personally, in Germany, the isolated term Führer is usually avoided.

However, führer is used as a part of many compound words that have no readily replaceable synonyms in German. Examples include, Bergführer (mountain guide), Fremdenführer (tourist guide), Geschäftsführer (CEO, literally business leader), Führerschein (driver's license), Führerstand or Führerhaus (driver's cab), Lok(omotiv)führer (train engineer), Reiseführer (travel guide book), Spielführer (team captain), as well as others.

To replace Führer, some of the following terms are currently used, Chef (a borrowing from the French, as is the English "chief", e.g. Chef des Bundeskanzleramtes), Leader, a loanword from English, cognate with Leiter, often in composites like Amtsleiter, Projektleiter, Referatsleiter (which has replaced Führer in the Boy Scouts).

[edit] Further reading

[edit] References

  1. ^ Keegan, John. The Second World War, page 280. London: Penguin Books 1989. ISBN-10: 0143035738 ISBN-13: 978-0143035732

[edit] Sources and References

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