ABSTRACT
First, the British and German office cadets’ approach, knowledge and perceptions of history are discussed to demonstrate that although the British and German cadets’ perceptions of history differed dramatically, their emotional response to history was relatively similar. In addition, the role of history in the present is outlined through an analysis of whether or not the cadets felt that their country should make amends for wrongdoing in the past. In a second step, an overview of the most frequently named incentives for enlistment (1) provides knowledge about the cadets’ career decision-making, (2) demonstrates that most reasons for enlistment are directly linked to nationality-related differences because the vast majority of dissimilarities in the British and German cadets’ attitudes are a result of the two societies’ different ways of dealing with the past, and (3) confirms Segal’s Pragmatic Professionalism approach. In a final step an investigation into how the past has served as a point of orientation and identification for the cadets’ occupational decision-making is undertaken in order to introduce history-oriented reasons for enlistment as a new element in the field of recruitment studies. The results of the data analysis will, inter alia, demonstrate that history-oriented reasons for enlistment should not take a back seat in future recruitment research, considering that the majority of the British and German cadets were heavily influenced by their perceptions of history, not only with regard to their initial interest in the military and a number of value-related incentives for enlistment, but also to their very decision to serve their countries in the armed forces.
