Strategisches Denken für Hitler?

Abstract This article deals with the establishment and activities of the Wehrmacht Academy in the years 1935–38, during which selected general staff officers were trained in strategic thinking in courses lasting a year. After completing the course, the officers were intended for employment in a joint general staff, which is why the existence of the academy should be considered as part of the debate on the creation of the higher command structure of the German armed forces. After reflecting on the topic in the context of Prussian-German general staff training, and the »scientification« of war in the Weimar Republic, the connection to Nazi ideology and the transfer of knowledge that some course participants generated when drawing up regulations, or postwar studies for the Historical Division, and in military journalism, are discussed. The article concludes with an explanation of the background to the closure of the Wehrmacht Academy in 1938.