Herr Today . . .

First went the goose step, then the imposing steel helmet, then the snappy clicking of heels, a casualty of the West German Bundeswehr's switch from steel-capped heels to all-rubber ones. Last week the Defense Ministry proposed that yet another remnant of the old Wehrmacht be eliminated. Next to go will be "Herr"--the respectful title with which German officers have been addressed ever since Frederick William I forged a powerful officer corps from the Prussian nobility more than 200 years ago. Today's officers may lose their Herr (meaning Mr.) as a result of a 1968 protest by a group of German noncoms who complained that such pompous jawbreakers as "Jawohl, Herr Oberstleutnant" were undemocratic. The proposed form of address ("Jawohl, Oberstleutnant") is hardly casual, but it has caused grumbling among some traditionalists. The brass generally regard it as a good idea. Nor is it unprecedented. Hitler long ago banned Herr in his infamous SS corps, not out of a sense of egalitarianism but elitism--to set it apart from the rest of the German forces.

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