Pride versus prejudice

Some thoughts on the attitude towards the military in Britain and Germany

by Marianne Landzettel 20th October 2010

The picture stood in a slim silver frame: My grandfather, the one I had loved most, in uniform, next to his horse, a beautiful sorrel called Roland. Thinking back, that one picture was it as far as uniforms and the army was concerned. Years later, during my last year at school, my classmates had to decide whether to suffer through eighteen months of national service or to go through – as we thought – the deeply upsetting, ruthless and often humiliating interrogations to be accepted as conscientious objectors. No one even mentioned the possibility of joining the army and getting paid for doing a degree course, when the rest of us would finance our way through university with whatever jobs we could get.