>It shattered my cliché view of the german army as first and foremost an organization built on discipline. Discipline is not orthogonal to creative thinking.

>It shattered my cliché view of the german army as first and foremost an organization built on discipline. Discipline is not orthogonal to creative thinking. Wartime activities are not like they read after the fact. As the saying goes, "no plan survives first contact with the enemy". This means that junior officers and NCO's and even soldiers are expected to assess their changing situations and needs in order to satisfy (or retire from) the mission. What kind of discipline is needed to start following the platoon sergeant when the platoon commander is down? It's even more critical at this point. Fielding troops in a fight where they have incomplete knowledge requires empowering them with the authority to act in order to fulfill their potential. Then there are militaries militaries where officers are chosen by some system of prestige (like a watery tart lobbing scimitars). These require absolute adherence to structure so as not to undermine the authority of those with the divine right/political connections. Now, while this is all idealized, there comes a rank, above which promotion tends to be political as well as about success. The German military certainly had their issues with this, where there was a very real fear that went beyond merely not getting promoted.