Video: How soldiers were allowed to wear long hair and what came of it
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
In most countries, the army is associated not only with discipline in behavior, but also with the unification of the appearance of soldiers. Joining the ranks of the army, young people seem to lose their individuality, changing their clothes for uniforms, their sense of style for army standards, and their hairstyle for a simple short haircut. However, this was not always the case, and even in conservative Europe they once decided to relax in these rules.
Short hairstyles are really partly aimed at preventing the soldier from feeling his individuality, and his belonging to the group - to be exactly the same as the rest of the soldiers, helps to feel like a part of the brotherhood and in times of danger to act together. But the main reason is still much less romantic - it's hygiene. Still, any army is created with the thoughts of a possible war, and in war there is often no opportunity to properly monitor cleanliness, and various lice, fleas and other small insects can easily begin to annoy the soldier, distracting him from the tasks assigned to him. In short hair, insects do not start.
This was not always the case, of course. For example, many Greek heroes are depicted with long hair. And the ancient Roman historian Tacitus, describing the warriors of the Germanic tribes, said that their soldiers were allowed to cut their hair only after they managed to kill the enemy. Until the 19th century, there were no special rules for unifying the appearance of soldiers, except for their uniforms. Later came the fashion for long mustaches, beards and sideburns. Today, soldiers are forced to not only cut their hair short, but also shave their heads, all for the same reasons, but in the 1800s, the intricacy of the mustache was a kind of indicator of wealth and sense of style. During the Crimean War, soldiers of the British army were supposed to have beards, but judging by the photographs that remained from those times, not everyone followed these requirements.
The German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, also had their own rules - the hair of the soldiers had to be short so that they did not cover their eyes or ears. Hair should not touch the uniform of the soldiers or even the collar of the shirt. Women in the military can keep their hair long, provided they braid it in a tight bun or braid.
In 1967, a young man named Albrecht Schmassner arrived at the Bundeswehr's admissions office with long hair. Albrecht was ordered, like everyone else, to cut his hair short, but the guy insisted that growing his hair was his constitutional right. To prove his innocence, he pointed out that the military regulations only say that the hair must be looked after and it must be in order, but there was not a word about the maximum length of the hair.
Albrecht was the only soldier with long hair at that time. They mocked him, mocked him, and at some point, the officers unequivocally threatened him that if he continued to disobey, he would be formally charged with insubordination. Albrecht surrendered to the hairdresser after 45 days of his riot.
This could have been an imperceptible episode, but it got publicity and the upper ranks of the Bundeswehr began to discuss the possibility of changing the charter. After all, the fashion of the time meant long hair for both girls and boys, and everyone around - including Elvis Presley and the Beatles, who sang from all the screens, wore hairstyles that were clearly longer than the military ones. On February 8, 1971, then German Defense Minister Helmut Schmidt issued a decree allowing soldiers to wear long hair, provided it was clean and well-groomed. If the hairstyle interfered with their duties, the soldiers had to put on a hairnet, as is usually done by fast food workers.
This decision became a real scandal. Veterans of the war, which had ended quite recently by that time, were outraged by such a "frivolous" interpretation of army discipline. All over the world people began to make fun of Germany, calling their army "German hair forces".
This decision entailed problems not only with the international image, but also - quite expectedly - with hygiene. It seemed wrong and unhealthy for soldiers to wear hairnets. The Bundeswehr has assembled a medical commission to investigate this issue. The commission confirmed that the nets do not threaten health, but long hair - a surprise - provoked skin diseases, infections and parasites. In its conclusion, the commission clearly indicated that in a wartime condition, caring for long hair and maintaining hygiene would be “problematic,” if not impossible.
The situation was even worse with hair on the face. Under the conditions of a clear daily routine, the soldiers did not have the opportunity to visit the toilet on time, which is why they often suffered from skin rashes. Any mustache and beard only exacerbated this problem.
As if that weren't enough, the commission also noted that long hair, in addition to the aspects already mentioned, also requires more water to wash, which entails increased water bills, water and sewer pipe maintenance, and subject to the use of hairdryers - more. and for electricity. And all this, of course, will be reflected accordingly in the army's budget.
Permission to wear long hair and beards lasted 15 months in the Bundeswehr. In 1972, the rule that a soldier's hair should be short and not touch either his eyes or ears, returned to the charter, and has not been revised since.
About what was the "hazing" in the tsarist, imperial and Soviet armies, read in our articlededicated to this topic.
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