The (“Leaders

Reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US ...

” or "Reserve for Leaders") was set up in the German Armed Forces during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in 1939 as a pool of temporarily unoccupied high-ranking military

officers An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fr ...

awaiting new assignments. The various military branches and army groups each had their own pools that they could use as they saw fit. The officers were required to remain at their assigned stations and be available to their superiors but could not exercise any command function, which was in effect equivalent to a temporary retirement while retaining their previous active income. Especially in the second half of the war, more and more politically problematic, troublesome, or militarily incompetent officers were assigned to the .

Etymology

The name does not allude to

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...

. The first compound, , refers in plural to the members themselves as an officer (the leaders) reserve. in this case is not used possessively to indicate that this was Hitler’s reserve.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuhrerreserve Wehrmacht 1939 establishments in Germany