The Civil–Military Gap among German Future Elites

We surveyed 270 young officers studying at the Bundeswehr University in Munich and 400 civilian students from Potsdam University. Both groups of future elites were from the social sciences, law, economics or computer sciences departments. The questionnaires were distributed to respondents between January and May 2004. All respondents were volunteers. Return rates were 99% for the military sample with 268 questionnaires returned and 25% for the civilian sample with 100 questionnaires returned so that a total of 368 questionnaires were processed.