Git Submodules don't work as expected

[tapirbait]

First off, I could not clone using the command given in the README.md as SSH support seems to have been dropped. HTTPS worked good.
In the .gitmodules there is a submodule with SSH url. Yet the commands given in README.md, git submodule init and git submodule update seem to do nothing. There is neither an error nor a success message. No files are cloned into Libraries/OwlPatches.
After I replaced the SSH url with the HTTPS url for OwlPatches in .gitmodules, the commands still don't work.
Can you please fix this issue?
Btw. I use git version 1.8.5.2