Feldgrau portraits

photographs of German soldiers during the World War II (1939-1945)

Abstract

The photographs form part of the documentary heritage of the World War II. This work questioned its possibilities as sources for the study of this conflict. To this end, a collection of two hundred private photographs of Germans who served in the Wehrmacht during the war, gathered by the author over ten years of collecting, was researched. As historical sources, the analyzed portraits suggest a means by which their subjects expressed their connection with the German military culture of the time, manifested by the uniforms they wore and the decorations they displayed, being important forms of self-representation in a context of valuing the military element both by the Nazi regime and by the World War II.