The study examines 216 memoirs on the Second World War by former German combatants, published mostly in West Germany between 1945 and 1961. The aim is to describe the attitudes identifiable in them on subjects such as National Socialism and military action. The inquiry reveals regularities in the selection and processing of perception and of the valuations implicit in them. Conclusions are drawn on the way in which biographical features of the 200 authors correlate with certain thematic elements in their texts, thus elaborating components of an author-text system allowing for a distinction between 'typical' and 'coincidental' features.