Erich Otto Volkmann (November 23, 1879,

Freistadt Freistadt (, literally "Freetown") is a small Austrian town in the state of Upper Austria in the region Mühlviertel. With a population of approximately 7,500 residents, it is a trade centre for local villages. Freistadt is the economic centre of ...

– December 1938,

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

) was a German military career officer, archivist and author of military writings during the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...

and the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

period. Volkmann began his military career in 1898. In 1900 he became an officer and was appointed as a

General Staff officer A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military un ...

at the beginning of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. After the war, from 1919 he joined the border service at the East Prussian Volunteer Corps in East Prussia. He retired as a major in 1920 and then joined archival council at the Reich Archives in

. In 1935 he was promoted to the Upper Archival Council (Oberregierungsrat) there. He is noted for his research into German morale in the last days of the First World War, and reproduced evidence of mass disaffection from the

German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

. He was sympathetic to the army, and aimed to diffuse criticisms by people hostile to the military.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Volkmann, Erich Otto 1879 births 1938 deaths German Army personnel of World War I German archivists