The German Army was the land forces component of the Wehrmacht, the regular armed forces of Nazi Germany, from 1935 until it effectively ceased to exist in 1945 and then was formally dissolved in August 1946. During World War II, a total of about 13.6 million soldiers served in the German Army. Army personnel were made up of volunteers and conscripts.
Adolf Hitler with Wilhelm Keitel, Friedrich Paulus, and Walther von Brauchitsch, October 1941
German soldiers in Greece, April 1941
Soldiers of the Großdeutschland Division during Operation Barbarossa, 1941
"Above All Stands the German Infantry" — Nazi propaganda poster
The Wehrmacht were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer (army), the Kriegsmarine (navy) and the Luftwaffe. The designation "Wehrmacht" replaced the previously used term Reichswehr and was the manifestation of the Nazi regime's efforts to rearm Germany to a greater extent than the Treaty of Versailles permitted.
Reichswehr soldiers swearing the Hitler oath in August 1934
Inspection of German conscripts
An Afro-Arab soldier of the Free Arabian Legion
Wehrmachthelferinnen in occupied Paris, 1940