[deks]

Luftwaffe? I thought that term only applied to World War II era (and pre-war) Germany.

[alexander_busek]

Luftwaffe? I thought that term only applied to World War II era (and pre-war) Germany.

Nope: The Luftwaffe is alive and flying - still under the same name!

However, the terms Wehrmacht and Heer have been replaced with Bundeswehr ("Volksarmee" in the East until 1991).

Ranks have been NATOized, too. No longer any Feldmarschälle, for example.

Regards,

[irishjuggler]

Well, it’s a pretty generic name: “air weapon.” Makes sense that they’d stick with it. Even with regime change, countries still usually stick with generic names like “army” and “navy” for their fighting forces. The exception would be highly politicized fighting forces like the “People’s Liberation
Army,” various “Red Guards,” Cromwell’s “New Model Army” etc.

[tophat9000]

Lufftwaffe means Air Weapon in German just like Panzer means Armor

So unless they change the language.. that what it’s going to be called

[FLT-bird]

No. Luftwaffe just means Air Force.

Their navy (pitiful though it is) is still called the Kriegsmarine. That’s the word for Navy.

[pierrem15]

It just means "air force," so the Germans are stuck with it. Wehrmacht has become Bundeswehr, however.

[The Pack Knight]

The overall military has a different name: the FRG’s Bundeswehr rather than the Third Reich’s Wehrmacht. Two of the three branches have the same name as WW2: Heer (Army) and Luftwaffe (Air Force). The Germany Navy is now just Marine rather than Kriegsmarine.