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Goose stepping is often seen in military parades. However, the goose step is very difficult to maintain for long periods of time. As a result, troops typically begin the goose step only when they approach the reviewing stand, switching back to their normal march step once they have passed. Large military parades require several days of practice to ensure that troops can perform the goose step without injuring themselves. Preparatory training includes having soldiers march in small groups, with arms linked to maintain balance.
Goose stepping is often seen in military parades. However, the goose step is very difficult to maintain for long periods of time. As a result, troops typically begin the goose step only when they approach the reviewing stand, switching back to their normal march step once they have passed. Large military parades require several days of practice to ensure that troops can perform the goose step without injuring themselves. Preparatory training includes having soldiers march in small groups, with arms linked to maintain balance.


In the most rigorous form of goose-stepping, the leg is raised almost horizontally. This is Generally, more formal ceremonies are accompanied by the more rigorous and exaggerated forms of goose-stepping. Honor guards also use the goose step during solemn ceremonies, such as at war memorials or military cemeteries. It has been featured in several Olympic opening ceremonies, as host nations pay respect to the Olympic flag in the same fashion as they would to their own flags.
In the most rigorous form of goose-stepping, the leg is raised almost horizontally. Generally, more formal ceremonies are accompanied by the more rigorous and exaggerated forms of goose-stepping. Honor guards also use the goose step during solemn ceremonies, such as at war memorials or military cemeteries. It has been featured in several Olympic opening ceremonies, as host nations pay respect to the Olympic flag in the same fashion as they would to their own flags.


In a modified form that is often adopted for large military parades, the leg is often raised only to knee-height, sometimes only a few centimeters off the ground. This makes it easier to maintain balance and unit cohesion at the standard march tempo of 120 paces per minute.
In a modified form that is often adopted for large military parades, the leg is often raised only to knee-height, sometimes only a few centimeters off the ground. This makes it easier to maintain balance and unit cohesion at the standard march tempo of 120 paces per minute.

Revision as of 20:13, 15 September 2011

This article is about the marching step. For other uses, see Goose step (disambiguation).
Russian soldiers goose-stepping in Moscow

The goose step is a special marching step usually performed on formal military parades and other ceremonies. While marching in parade formation, troops swing their legs in unison to a nearly horizontal position while keeping their knees locked. In many armed forces the step is modified to raise the legs to a lower angle. Originating in Prussian military drill in the mid-18th century, the step was called the Stechschritt (literally, "piercing step") or Stechmarsch. Although "goose step" is a pejorative term in English, it is used officially by the armed forces of the nearly 30 countries that maintain the tradition.

History

Like other march steps, the "Stechschritt" originated in the 18th century as a method to keep troops lined up properly as they advanced towards enemy lines. It was introduced into German military tradition by Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, a Field Marshal whose close attention to training transformed the Prussian infantry into one of the most formidable armed forces in Europe. Other armies adopted different march steps which served the same purpose: in the British army, soldiers were trained to swing their arms in a wide arc to allow officers to keep the advancing line in order.

By the mid-19th century, firearms with longer range and greater striking power made the practice of marching forward in precise formation irrelevant. Armies no longer advanced in neat lines to meet the enemy. However, armed forces continued to drill recruits in marching techniques that now had only a ceremonial and psychological function. This was true in Prussia and the later German Empire, where the goose step became emblematic of military discipline and efficiency.

Ceremonial usage

The goose step is a difficult marching style that takes much practice and coordination. It is generally reserved for ceremonial occasions today.

Goose stepping is often seen in military parades. However, the goose step is very difficult to maintain for long periods of time. As a result, troops typically begin the goose step only when they approach the reviewing stand, switching back to their normal march step once they have passed. Large military parades require several days of practice to ensure that troops can perform the goose step without injuring themselves. Preparatory training includes having soldiers march in small groups, with arms linked to maintain balance.

In the most rigorous form of goose-stepping, the leg is raised almost horizontally. Generally, more formal ceremonies are accompanied by the more rigorous and exaggerated forms of goose-stepping. Honor guards also use the goose step during solemn ceremonies, such as at war memorials or military cemeteries. It has been featured in several Olympic opening ceremonies, as host nations pay respect to the Olympic flag in the same fashion as they would to their own flags.

In a modified form that is often adopted for large military parades, the leg is often raised only to knee-height, sometimes only a few centimeters off the ground. This makes it easier to maintain balance and unit cohesion at the standard march tempo of 120 paces per minute.

Spread

The goose step became widespread in militaries around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries. Military modernization and political influence carried the practice to Asia, Africa, and Latin America from its origins in Prussia and Russia.

The first wave of adoption took place in the late 19th century, as the Prussian army became greatly admired for its complete victory in the Franco-Prussian War. This led many countries to modernize their militaries along the Prussian model. The Chilean Army was the first non-European country to adopt the goose step, importing many Prussian military traditions starting in 1886. The practice of goose stepping then spread widely throughout Latin America. Goose stepping continued to spread even after Germany's defeat in World War I, as many nations still looked to the German model.

The Russian Empire adopted the goose step during the 1796–1801 reign of Paul I. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union trained and supplied the militaries of many of its client states. The goose step thus displaced French and British drill in many Third World countries in Asia and Africa.

Current adoption

Cuban Honor Guards goose-stepping at the Mausoleum of José Marti, Santiago de Cuba

The goose step is a feature of military ceremonies in dozens of countries, to varying extents.

Latin America

Europe

Africa

Middle East and Central Asia

East Asia and Southeast Asia

  • Cambodia
  • China:
    • The Republic of China adopted the goose step from its German military advisors in the 1930s. The practice continued despite American military aid and the government's move to Taiwan after its defeat in the Chinese Civil War. However, the goose step has become less visible recently, as the formal military parade on Double Ten Day has given way to a less ceremonial parade.
    • The People's Republic of China inherited the goose step from its predecessor, as entire Nationalist divisions were absorbed into the Communist forces that they surrendered to. However, the practice did not become universal in the People's Liberation Army until the mid 1950s, under Soviet military influence.
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Laos
  • Mongolia
  • North Korea
  • Pakistan
  • Thailand
  • Vietnam received Chinese and Soviet military aid during the Vietnam War. North Vietnam had already begun adopting the goose step by 1954, when the victory at Dien Bien Phu was celebrated with a military parade in Hanoi.

Abandonment

As a ceremonial march that requires substantial training, the goose-step is often abandoned in times of war as more pressing needs occupy the available training time. Opinion on the goose-step was divided even in the German Wehrmacht,[1], which curtailed its use after the fall of France in 1940. Later in the war, the goose step nearly disappeared because of manpower shortages, accelerated courses in basic training, and a paucity of appropriate occasions.

After World War II, West Germany opted for an American-style march step. East Germany preserved the goose step in a modified form, renamed the "drilling step" (Exerzierschritt) to avoid references to old Prussian and Wehrmacht military traditions. The longstanding German tradition of goose stepping finally ended with German reunification in 1990, as East German forces were absorbed into the Bundeswehr and conformed to West German military customs.

The Swiss army gave up the goose step in 1946, shortly after German defeat in World War II.[2]

During the Zimbabwean War of Liberation, ZIPRA was trained and supplied by the Warsaw Pact, adopting East German uniforms and the goose step[3][4]. After independence, however, the unified Zimbabwean Army standardized on British marching style.

Association with dictatorship

Wehrmacht troops parading in Warsaw in October 5, 1939.

Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy, introduced the goose step in 1938 as the Passo Romano ("Roman Step"), but the custom was never popular in Italy's armed forces.[5]

The goose step was especially ridiculed during the world wars of the 20th century as a symbol of blind obedience and senseless attachment to military form. In the United States and Great Britain the custom became virtually synonymous with German militarism. During World War II, it was condemned in George Orwell's essay The Lion and the Unicorn, and proved an easy target for parody in many editorial cartoons and Hollywood movies.

The Soviet Union and other Communist countries retained the goose step after Nazi Germany's defeat. However, many of the countries that maintain the tradition today are ostensible democracies.

In English-speaking countries World War II propaganda has indelibly associated the goose step with fascism. There, and sometimes elsewhere in the West, it is invoked as a reference to Nazism, fascism or militarism in general.

  • George Orwell commented in Why I Write (1946) that the goose step was used only in countries where the population was too scared to laugh at their military.
  • In the film and concert of Pink Floyd's The Wall, a famous scene includes animated goose-stepping hammers.
  • In the British sitcom Fawlty Towers, the main character Basil Fawlty infamously imitates the goose step in front of some German guests.
  • In Walt Disney film The Lion King during the musical sequence "Be Prepared", a rally of Scar's Hyena henchmen are shown goose-stepping to the song.
  • Zim, in the show Invader Zim, walks with a goose step as his normal walking mechanism.
  • José in the show Cybersix, regularly walks with a goose step in reference to his and his father's Nazi roots.
  • On the back cover of the album Bear's Choice, the Dancing Bears are engaged in an exaggerated goose-step march.
  • In a 1999 television adaptation of Orwell's Animal Farm, the goose step is appropriately performed by a flock of geese, singing the praises of their porcine leader Napoleon in a propaganda film.

The goose step does not carry this negative connotation elsewhere. This sometimes results in inaccurate conclusions being drawn by English-speaking observers.

  • In Spartacus ballet by Khachaturian, the Roman soldiers goose-step in most of their scenes. English-speaking reviewers sometimes conclude erroneously that the choreography must be intending to link the Roman Empire with the tyranny of Nazi Germany. However, goose-stepping in Russia carries no such connotation, and reflects only military discipline. Goose-stepping can be found in a number of Russian ballets in which it is not associated with the villains[6].

See also

References

  1. ^ "Doom Of 'Goose-Step' Sought By Nazi Military Officials", The Baltimore Sun, Jun 6, 1937. p. 19
  2. ^ "Swiss Army Drops Goosestep," Associated Press, February 28, 1946.
  3. ^ Petter-Bowyer, Peter J.H. Winds of destruction: the autobiography of a Rhodesian combat pilot. Johannesburg: 30° South Publishers, 2005. p.382.
  4. ^ Siff, Peter. Cry Zimbabwe: Independence -- Twenty Years on. Galago, 2000. p. 97.
  5. ^ Time magazine, Feb. 7, 1938
  6. ^ "Bolshoi in DC -- Nutcracker" http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/8417-bolshoi-in-dc-nutcracker/
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