# Photos of Pope-elect Ratzinger in his German Army uniform? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 20, 2005, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photos-of-pope-elect-ratzinger-in-his-german-army-uniform/300169 "2005-04-20T01:42:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photos-of-pope-elect-ratzinger-in-his-german-army-uniform/300169/1 "2005-04-20T01:42:45Z")
From what I understand, Cardinal Ratzinger, the new Pope Benedict XVI, was conscripted into the German army during WWII. Just out of ghoulish curiosity…are there any photos available of him, in uniform? (Especially if he’s wearing a helmet) ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photos-of-pope-elect-ratzinger-in-his-german-army-uniform/300169/2 "2005-04-20T02:01:14Z")
I haven’t seen any pictures of that, but MSNBC on Countdown was showing pictures of him in his Hitler Youth uniform. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photos-of-pope-elect-ratzinger-in-his-german-army-uniform/300169/3 "2005-04-20T03:03:40Z")
This must be [the MSNBC site](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7383053/?CM=SpatPopeObit&CE=images) \*\*Ranchoth \*\* was refering to. Follow the link to “making of the pope” It requires flash download :mad: , unfortuantly. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photos-of-pope-elect-ratzinger-in-his-german-army-uniform/300169/4 "2005-04-20T03:05:53Z")
GAH! I meant **asterion** , of course. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photos-of-pope-elect-ratzinger-in-his-german-army-uniform/300169/5 "2005-04-20T03:23:21Z")
He wasn’t in the army. He was in the Hitler youth. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photos-of-pope-elect-ratzinger-in-his-german-army-uniform/300169/6 "2005-04-20T03:26:37Z")
He was [conscripted into the army](http://www.msnbc.com/modules/interactive.asp?id=/d/ip/PopeBenedictXVI/data.js&navid=3032506). ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photos-of-pope-elect-ratzinger-in-his-german-army-uniform/300169/7 "2005-04-20T03:27:19Z")
From an article in [National Catholic Reporter](http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/conclave/pt041905e.htm): > [@](#): > > In 1943 he was conscripted into an antiaircraft unit guarding a BMW plant outside Munich. Later Ratzinger was sent to Austria’s border with Hungary to erect tank traps. After being shipped back to Bavaria, he deserted. When the war ended, he was an American prisoner of war. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photos-of-pope-elect-ratzinger-in-his-german-army-uniform/300169/8 "2005-04-20T03:31:24Z")
That I didn’t know. My bad. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photos-of-pope-elect-ratzinger-in-his-german-army-uniform/300169/9 "2005-04-20T05:48:12Z")
Let’s be fair about this Hitler Youth thing and kill it quickly. Ratzinger just recently turned 78 so he was 6 years old when Hitler came to power in 1933. He grew up during the years when Hitler was Germany’s savior. I don’t know about the rest of you but I strongly suspect that at the same age and under the same conditions I would have been eager to be Hitler Youth members. We should lay off this crap and I’m no fan of Ratzingers, which is a definite "Who cares? because I’m not a Roman Catholic . ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photos-of-pope-elect-ratzinger-in-his-german-army-uniform/300169/10 "2005-04-20T09:30:11Z")
So? I didn’t say I was going to hold it _against him_; I just wanted to know if there’s a picture of the new Pope wearing a frikkin’ Stahlhelm. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photos-of-pope-elect-ratzinger-in-his-german-army-uniform/300169/11 "2005-04-20T09:39:37Z")
Just a side nit-pick… there was only a small moment when Cardinal Ratzinger was “Pope-Elect:” between the time the election was made and the time he accepted the results. There’s no inauguration or consecration; the new Pope receives his power the moment he accepts election to the supreme pontificate. ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photos-of-pope-elect-ratzinger-in-his-german-army-uniform/300169/12 "2005-04-20T14:07:02Z")
It’s pretty unlikely that you’ll ever see a picture of Benny in a stahlhelm; I don’t think I’ve ever seen a studio photo of a German in one; these shots were generally taken while home on leave, or in a studio in a town/city somewhere away from home; both situations _not_ in the front line. Almost certainly a man in those situations would be in either the _feldmutze_, a grey-green cloth hat, very much like the US Garrison Hat, or the British/Canadian “Wedge” hat. It would have had the eagle/swastika on the front, and a coloured cloth piping edging around the top seams, identifying the arm of service. The article doesn’t make a distinction if Benedict was in the Luftwaffe or Army flak (likely the former, as flak was mostly the Luftwaffe’s turf); his hat probably then had a red piping. Since it was later in the war, he could also have worn the M43 einheits feldmutze. He would almost certainly never have worn the stahlhelm apart from training in it, or when “on alert”–both unliklely times to have someone strolling around with a camera. For fancy dress occasions, he may have had a peaked hat. [http://www.stahlhelms.com/wwii\_german\_feldmutze.htm](http://www.stahlhelms.com/wwii_german_feldmutze.htm) [http://www.stahlhelms.com/wwii\_german\_einheitsfeldmutze.htm](http://www.stahlhelms.com/wwii_german_einheitsfeldmutze.htm) [http://www.stahlhelms.com/wwii\_german\_peaked\_hats.htm](http://www.stahlhelms.com/wwii_german_peaked_hats.htm) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photos-of-pope-elect-ratzinger-in-his-german-army-uniform/300169/13 "2005-04-20T14:14:24Z")
While I have never been in the military I do not find it difficult, when imagining someone shooting at me, to prefer that person to be not merely a draftee, but one whose prior Hitler Jugend record was miserable and who, in the near future, will desert. And I promise that’s the last nice thing I say about him. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photos-of-pope-elect-ratzinger-in-his-german-army-uniform/300169/14 "2005-04-20T23:24:14Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Just a side nit-pick… there was only a small moment when Cardinal Ratzinger was “Pope-Elect:” between the time the election was made and the time he accepted the results. There’s no inauguration or consecration; the new Pope receives his power the moment he accepts election to the supreme pontificate. This made me think of the scenes from the _Highlander_ films of the Highlander receiving the life-energy of someone he has slain. Y’know, there can be only one Pope. ---
**Author:** ![Catalyst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@Catalyst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catalyst)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photos-of-pope-elect-ratzinger-in-his-german-army-uniform/300169/15 "2005-04-21T01:52:37Z")
> [@CynicalGabe](#): > > This made me think of the scenes from the _Highlander_ films of the Highlander receiving the life-energy of someone he has slain. > > Y’know, there can be only one Pope. Yes, immediately after the election, every window in the Vatican shattered and every electrical outlet sprayed sparks. That also explains all the Queen they’ve been playing.