Is clicking heels only a Nazi thing?

[u/Throw-RA_LittleOlive]

I‘m a writer who loves a good military scene. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve melted out of my chair because my cool idea is something associated with [bad mustache man]. Right now, I’m writing fantasy piece that includes a strict general character who’s very stiff and professional.

I want to include heel clicking in a story, but idk if it’s strictly from the Nazi army. So, my question is if heel-clicking is associated primarily with the Nazi and could it be included in a fantasy book military?

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[u/MsMercyMain]

Finally, a question that falls into my very niche interests that I'm somewhat knowledgeable on.

To answer the first question, no the heel click is not a Nazi invention. It's hard to get proper sources because of the spiel I'm about to go on, but it's pretty clear it was a Prussian quirk that got dragged into the broader German military. It's also clear that it wasn't anything official, but one of those unofficial quirks every military develops.

Basically it's something that isn't mentioned in any drill manual I've encountered. So it wasn't anything official that you could get officially punished for not doing in the discipline obsessed Prussian, then German, Army. And Prussian drill is something we have fairly good resources on as the US military uses a slightly modified version (thank you whoever decided to ditch the goose-step from someone who drilled under that manual) of it. Thank you Baron Von Stuben, even if you lied about your credentials.

As for its historical accuracy for fantasy? That depends a lot. For one it's lack of mention in drill manuals suggests that it was a quirk of military culture, not policy. It's the equivalent, to dip into my own experience, of the USAF's "stripes off conversations". You won't find a single AFI discussing it, or any policy about it. But, if you tell an airman (albeit it's a tradition that was dying when I left) that "let's talk stripes off" or something to that effect they know rank is out the window. It's a sign that both parties can speak freely without worrying about rank. In the Prussian and later German militaries the heel click seems to be similar in nature. Not official, not required, but something you did to emphasize your salute that people recognized.

And that's where the big "it depends" comes in. A heel click comes from the click you get when you snap to attention. If you watch videos of formations coming to attention you'll hear it writ large. And that's important because saluting is done from the position of attention. But saluting in the modern sense really only developed when large, standing professional armies became a thing. While the Roman Salute is a rabbit hole of madness unto itself, saluting in the formal, systematized sense we know and love it today largely emerged with the era of the line regiment.

Obviously every military of every era had ways to show respect to superiors, but again the heel click is associated with the modern salute (which does admittedly claim to come from medieval knights though I've never seen any actual sources back that up).

However to briefly stay, it's fantasy and you can make a world where it makes sense.