German Hair Force

50 years ago: The Bundeswehr's hairnet decree causes outrage 30. Jan 2021

From:  Meik Woyke

Foreign countries ridiculed the "German Hair Force", and the German Defence Commissioner worried about a decline in morals and discipline. High-ranking Bundeswehr officers complained: "The troops are sloppy and dirty" - a hairy affair for Federal Defence Minister Helmut Schmidt. With the hairnet decree of 5 February 1971, he responded to the fashions of the time and intended to convey the image of a liberal army. The long mane was seen as non-conformist and progressive by the generation of 1968. However, one year later, Schmidt began to retreat. Of the almost 740,000 hairnets that the Bundeswehr had procured to tame the soldiers' hair, the majority were mothballed.

From the Beatle hairstyle to the hairnet

In 1967, Bundeswehr soldiers were still "not permitted to wear a shoulder-length or otherwise feminine hairstyle (e.g. Beatle hairstyle)". However, those doing their basic military service in particular were often reluctant to give up their familiar and cherished hairstyle for their limited time in the Bundeswehr. As Defence Minister (1969-1972) of the new social-liberal coalition under Chancellor Willy Brandt, Schmidt also wanted to "dare more democracy" in the Bundeswehr. This included taking the soldiers' right to free development of their personality seriously. Schmidt ushered in modern times with the hairnet decree. In detail, the decree stipulated that hair and beards had to be well-groomed and that a hairnet had to be worn on duty if the long hair hindered the soldier in his duties. Under no circumstances was excessive beard growth allowed to impair the sealing function of the NBC protective mask.

The Bundeswehr then promptly procured the necessary hairnets in two instalments for more than 350,000 Deutschmarks - and caused a storm of indignation among both the long-haired soldiers and their superiors for months. "Rolled ham, wrapped in olive green", "crap thing, [...] the hair starts to bite", were the judgements of the soldiers, who felt constricted by the hairnet and ran to the troop doctor with alleged headaches to be released from duty. Meanwhile, a brigadier general in the German army was outraged: "A soldier's neglect of his uniform and behaviour is proof of poor discipline for everyone. But the deterrent value and thus the peacekeeping contribution of the troops stands and falls with it." In March 1972, Der Spiegel reported that other officers even thought that the increasingly longer hair was encouraging their team to be rebellious.

There is no doubt that the topic not only occupied the regulars' tables of the republic, but was also gratefully taken up by the press: the Bavarian newspaper Bayernkurier, published by the CSU, made good use of the steep template by mocking the fact that Schmidt's hairnet decree had earned him "inestimable merit for the spread of head lice". In the Süddeutsche Zeitung, a worried mother had her say, describing her son Holger as always tidy and hard-working: "Now he has to join the army. I'm so scared that he'll go to rack and ruin." There was also talk of the "Haar-Höhe", a slang term for the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Defence on Bonn's Hardthöhe.

"Merits for the spread of head lice"?

Helmut Schmidt's play on words that he was more interested in what could be found under the skullcap than what grew on people's heads infuriated Defence Commissioner Fritz-Rudolf Schultz. "Unfortunately, it is part of the classic legacy of European soldiering that the external image was considered more important than the inner core," Schmidt stated - and finally cancelled the decree in May 1972. His Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Defence and close friend Willi Berkhan justified the change by stating that there had been an increase in "absences due to colds caused by wet hair" in the troops. In addition, an internal Bundeswehr report commissioned by Schmidt had expressed serious hygiene concerns. Dirt and lard in the hair, on the collar and on the pillow favoured the occurrence of skin diseases, especially infections and parasite infestations. Another argument against the current system is the high consumption of water and electricity for the time-consuming hair washing and drying process. Under no circumstances should the Bundeswehr's budget be unduly burdened. As a result, a new decree regulated the length of the troops' hair. The following now applied: not over the collar, not over the eyes and not over the ears.

Nevertheless, in June 1972, Berkhan could not avoid answering the questions of CDU MP Jürgen Wohlrabe at length before the German Bundestag. The CDU politician was one of the most prominent opponents of the student movement in Berlin and had enquired about the quality and significantly increased costs of purchasing the hairnets during a parliamentary question and answer session.

Helmut Schmidt, whose own hair was always neatly parted, was even awarded a medal for the hairnet decree on 8 February 1972 in Aachen - the carnival medal "Against Animal Seriousness", which Berkhan accepted on his behalf, presumably for political reasons.

Citizen in uniform

The stories about the hairnet decree, the ridicule and the malice, ultimately remained just anecdotes. For Schmidt, the reform of the Bundeswehr took centre stage, true to his model of the "citizen in uniform" and the principle of "internal leadership". During his time in office as Federal Minister of Defence, he advocated the modernisation of the parliamentary army. As an important instrument for the Bundeswehr reform, Schmidt had two white papers published on the state of the armed forces. The number of troops, their equipment and defence capabilities, the quality of training and the promotion backlog within the Bundeswehr were meticulously recorded. Furthermore, improving the fairness of military service was one of Schmidt's central concerns. The constantly growing number of conscientious objectors was a thorn in his side.

All of this is vividly presented in the exhibition "Schmidt! Living Democracy" exhibition. An original hairnet can also be admired - unfortunately only virtually at the moment, because private hairdressing salons are not the only ones that have closed due to the coronavirus, both in public and in the barracks, as Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer recently had cause to clarify in her role as Federal Minister of Defence.

Incidentally, a central service regulation now governs "The external appearance of soldiers in the Bundeswehr". There is hardly anything that is not specified in it: Just as for hair and beard styles and the colouring of the same, specifications are made for jewellery, nail polish as well as tattoos and other "body modifications and paintings". In case of doubt, the freedom of individual expression of personality must take a back seat to integration into the military community because the Bundeswehr represents the state. Helmut Schmidt would also have agreed with this, even though many of the phenomena meticulously described in the regulation only occurred after his time.

For further reading and as proof for the quotes:

Portrait Meik Woyke
© BKHS/Zapf

Author

Dr. Meik WoykeChairman of the Executive Board and Managing Director