Re: Common Sense against nonsense: the recent debate on ranks

Walter Amos (amos@sedl.org)
Tue, 22 Oct 1996 17:19:56 -0500 (CDT)

> I was looking at my copy of Schindler's List, in the back of which there
> is an appendix on German army ranks. There is indeed a rank between
> Colonel and Brigidier General called "Oberfuhrer" which has no equivalent
> in other armies. If we tried to make up an equivalent, the logical choice
> would be "Colonel-General." So this would seem to confirm
> Reinhard-Siegfried's observation.

*Schindler's List* has an appendix on German ranks?! Gee that's the last
place I'd expect to see something like that...

> However, there is no mention of Field Marshal. Could it be that Field
> Marshal is simply a bad translation, caused by the Colonel-General rank
> being mistranslated to Brigidier General, causing the higher ranks to
> move up one grade, or am I just too ill right now to think clearly?

I doubt that greatly. I know for certain that Herrmann Goring, Gerd von
Rundstedt, Erwin Rommel, and others all held the rank of Feldmarschall
(evidenced by the cool little batons they get to carry.) Possibly it is not
mentioned because no army Field Marshals appeared in the movie?

> I agree. It would make sense for the German ranks to be copied.

Me too.

==============================================================================
"Zu jeder Zeit, an jeder (sic) Ort, bleibt das Tun | Walter Amos
der Menschen das gleiche..." - Galactic Heroes II | amos@sedl.org