Wehrmacht in the NS dictatorship. In the debate about the Wehrmacht and its crimes, the Western front was largely overlooked. However, the battles of the Wehrmacht against the Western Allies and the French Resistance during the years 1943/44 were of decisive importance for the war. To what extent did the German leadership succeed in unleashing a "war of ideology" in the West as well? What impact did the experiences of the Eastern Front have on the fighting in France? Were there differences between the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS? Did operational leeway exist at the troop level that could be utilized in both directions? Peter Lieb discusses these questions for the first time based on a broad range of sources, thereby filling a significant research gap. The dissertation, accepted in 2005 at Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, was awarded the Prix Guillaume Fiche.