Mail Correspondence with Soldiers at War (“Feldpostbriefe”): The letters of German soldier Adelbert Rühle, 1939 to 1942 – part 1 of 4 (Published on 05/10/2023)
Feldpostbriefe and their significance today
When researching Julius Erasmus, one inevitably comes into contact with letter correspondence between soldiers at war and their families from the time of the Second World War, such correspondence being called “Feldpostbriefe” in German. Be it messages about the death of a soldier, written by his superior to his relatives, which were later sent to Mr Erasmus as a hint for a grave search, or other correspondence between soldiers at war and their families at home. Since then, I have also been dealing more closely with field post letters from that time.
Feldpostbriefe are valuable contemporary documents that unfold their timeless message, especially in times like the present, and convey a vivid impression of what war means to all involved. They are a valuable tool to ward off the very beginnings of a renewed striving for war and perhaps to help prevent history from repeating itself once again and with yet more gruesome consequences for mankind. At present, war, weapons and the killing of people on a large scale are once again being drummed up forcefully, although for decades one could have had the vague hope that mankind had finally learned its lesson to some extent from the painful experiences of two world wars in particular. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case once again.
With this in mind, appropriate letters or letter excerpts from various sources will be published here from time to time in the section “Mail Correspondence with Soldiers at War (Feldpostbriefe)” as a reminder of what war means to man and mankind. To provide food for thought and in the unshakable hope that this may make a difference.
The effects of political indoctrination on children and young people
Among the most harrowing evidence of what political propaganda is capable of are letters written by young German soldiers during World War II, such as those already published on this blog (see, for example, the letter by Franz Krügner). Exposed from childhood to “education” in the sense of the prevailing ideology, they had internalized the latter so deeply that they could often hardly wait to become soldiers and to be allowed to make their contribution to the realization of the goals that were conveyed to them as having no alternative.
The Feldpostbriefe of Adelbert Rühle
Adelbert Rühle, born on 23/09/1923 in Posen, was one of these soldiers. Not even 16 years old, he volunteered for military service in the fall of 1939. He fell on 07/08/1942 as a lieutenant of 6th co./InfRegt 120 (mot.) near Kalach/Russia and was buried at the military cemetery Krassnye Skodowad near Kalach. Beginning as a recruit during his basic training in October 1939 until his death on the Eastern Front in August 1942, he wrote numerous field letters to his family, in which he described his spiritual life and his soldierly motivation with a frankness that is sometimes difficult to bear from today’s perspective.
His letters were published during the war in the booklet “Die Feldpostbriefe des Adelbert-Ottheinreich Rühle 1939 bis 1942” in order to show, according to the propaganda of the time, “the mental development of a German boy into a soldier, into an officer” (according to the preface op. cit., p. 5). A new publication took place in 1979, now containing an admonition for reflection and peace (preface op. cit., p. 6).
Adelbert Rühle’s letters are a timeless warning to be vigilant against totalitarian political systems and their characteristic mechanisms.
They exemplify the consequences of a regime that already took possession of children and young people and educated them through propagandistic indoctrination to become compliant instruments of the ruling ideology, who were as gullible as they were unconditionally committed, in word and deed, to the slogans conveyed to them. The dramatic consequences are well known.
Some of these letters will be reproduced here, spread over several parts. Further published are: Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.
Letter from Adelbert Rühle, who had just turned 16, dated 27/10/1939 from basic training to his mother (source: Brunhild Rühle, “Die Feldpostbriefe des Adelbert-Ottheinreich Rühle 1939 – 1942” (1979) [hereafter abbreviated to “Feldpostbriefe Rühle”], p. 9 ff. [translation from German language]):
“My dear mother,
I was very happy to receive your dear letter and I thank you that I can trust you so much and write everything and that you will understand me completely.
Recruit time is certainly not easy, and it hurts me to realize how little I am still a soldier. I’m sure I’m too sensitive, but it always offends me to burst out so often. My comrades all just come from labor service and are nicely all in drill, while I am the only one just from school. My self-confidence is like a raw egg, and I would have to be hardened in this regard as well.
But I will make an effort to become a full soldier, always taut and happy to do every duty. In a short time, the recruit period will also be over, and when I will be fully a soldier, everything will be different. So far, I have been far too soft, far too much of a lone wolf, and above all, I have rebelled inwardly far too easily against superiors. But if I make an effort myself, I will soon overcome everything.
We have a lot of things to do, and in the bad weather we do daily drills with lying down, gliding etc. Often we are out all day with our gun and carbine, pulling our I. G. [infantry gun] through the terrain. That is tough, but it’s a lot of fun. The soldier’s life and the soldier’s attitude are definitely for me, and it is a nice feeling for me to be involved in the life and the fight of my people, as a soldier to guard and carry on everything that is sacred to us. I get along well with my comrades, and every day brings new joys.
Just now I receive three more letters from you. I was really very pleased. First of all, I thank the little ones for their greetings. I am very happy to learn that my brother is thriving. Greet him, my little friend and brother, with an especially hearty laugh.
What I wrote at the beginning isn’t so bad now. You must not take it the wrong way. My most beautiful wish has come true: I am a soldier, and I am starting my profession that I have chosen, all hopes and ideals are being fulfilled, and I am looking forward to my happy work that I want to do in the future.
Please greet again all the brothers and sisters. I am so grateful to you that I have them.
Many dear and happy greetings – your Addi.”
Letter from Adelbert Rühle to his mother dated 12/11/1939 (source: “Feldpostbriefe Rühle”, p. 11 ff. [translation from German language]):
“Dear Mother,
Today we had a swearing-in ceremony. I was there only as a ‘spectator’ because I am already sworn in. But this swearing-in ceremony was even more beautiful than the one I experienced.
The whole regiment was dressed in steel helmet and coat around the flag; the steel helmets flashed in the sun, the regimental music played. It was really festive! One feels the strength of our troops when one sees the whole regiment marching together and is proud to belong to it and to be a soldier of the German people. As long as there are young, healthy and strong German soldiers, imbued with the consciousness of their own strength and the sacred responsibility that is incumbent upon us, Germany will live.
This attitude must animate every German man and intervene in his whole life. This is certainly not yet always and everywhere the case. But the more I want to make it my task and the more eagerly and joyfully I want to do whatever service is necessary to become more and more of a soldier myself, to learn more and more, to get a grip on me more and more, and finally to be able to educate others myself.
For that I still have to become a completely different guy, dear mother; but I want it myself, and therefore I will joyfully overcome all difficulties. There is no compulsion for me, because I ‘love what I have to do‘.
There are more and more vacations in our company, some are going for the second time. Maybe I can be with the next push. But if not, that can’t shake me either. ‘Christmas’ remains the old watchword. When the many candles burn and the little ones shout with happiness that finally this feast has come, then it is as if they themselves were such little Christ children who came into the world to make everything more beautiful, purer and better! Yes, if we didn’t have the little ones anymore, Christmas would be just a get-together with mutual gift-giving!
And so we are also so much closer to each other because you, like us, have to start anew again and again with many things and are not at the end of your life’s work like many other parents. So, apart from father and mother, you are also always our best friends, because we understand each other like that.
Your Addi”
Letter from Adelbert Rühle to his mother dated 24/11/1939 (source: “Feldpostbriefe Rühle”, p. 11 ff. [translation from German language]):
“Dear Mother,
Yesterday we moved to Camp Linde. When we left, fresh snow covered the camp and the forest for the first time. It was a real Christmas atmosphere. I ate a baked apple, of course, and thought of you and the fact that you will probably soon be celebrating the first Advent, of your Christmas carols and Christmas candles, and above all of the little ones and their anticipation. Christmas is the most beautiful celebration of the year and so German in its nature. We celebrate the redemption from all darkness to everything that was and is always the highest and most beautiful for us German people: to the light, to the pure, new and redeeming. We all feel this somehow in this celebration: and in addition we are gripped by the serious and holy feeling that this pure and light must come, that it is destined for redemption by an almighty God. All this is so German, and there is no German who is not gripped by it when he sees a tree with lights or hears a Christmas carol. We always think of home, mother and children, who are so closely connected with this celebration.
Tomorrow is a regimental exercise. I’m really looking forward to that. But I’ll be most excited when we get to the front. Then I can prove what I’m made of and I have to perform. Then I will have to fulfill the highest task of my life: to defend my fatherland, to lead into a new future and to preserve that for which all our ancestors have always lived and fought and which now lies in me as a sacred obligation: the German essence, our people, our fatherland. Soldier and mother fulfill this highest task of life, and soldier and mother must also be the goal of every German man and woman. You, dear mother, who have sacrificed so much for Germany’s future and who have worked for it so gladly and with so much love throughout your life, will also understand that I also want to live for it and fight in the field and give sacrifice, because ‘Germany must live even if we have to die’.
With many greetings to our ‘little ones’ who are the most important guarantors of this.
Your Addi.”
To be continued. Further published parts of the series: Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.
(Head picture: Adelbert Rühle and his grave,
from: “Die Feldpostbriefe des Adelbert-Ottheinreich Rühle 1939 – 1942”, p. 60, 90)
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