High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Wehrkraftzersetzung is a term from German military law during the Third Reich. In 1938, with Adolf Hitler moving Germany closer to war, the Nazi government issued a decree for the purpose of suppressing any expression or activity opposed to the Nazi regime or the Wehrmacht. The anti-sedition decree included the crime of Zersetzung der Wehrkraft. Commonly called wehrkraftzersetzung, the term is variously translated as "subversion of the war effort", "undermining military morale" and "sedition and defeatism" Paragraphs already in the military penal code were consolidated and redefined, creating the new crime, which carried the death penalty. In 1939, a second decree was issued that extended the crime to civilians.