Reichswehr
The Reichswehr was born from defeat. On the 9th of November 1918, as the German Empire collapsed around him, Chancellor Friedrich Ebert struck a deal that would haunt German democracy for fifteen years. His partner was General Wilhelm Groener, who called from Supreme Army Command headquarters to pledge the loyalty of Germany's armed forces. In return, Ebert promised that the new republic would keep the military largely independent of civilian control. The army would remain, in Groener's own framing, a 'state within a state'. From that bargain came the Reichswehr: the official armed forces of the Weimar Republic, limited by treaty to just 100,000 men, yet powerful enough to shape who governed Germany. How did so small a force carry such outsized political weight? And how did an army sworn to the Weimar Constitution end up pledging its personal loyalty to Adolf Hitler?
Part V of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles stripped Germany's military down to its bones. The army was capped at 100,000 men; the navy at 15,000. Heavy artillery above defined calibres, armoured vehicles, submarines, large warships, and any form of air force were all prohibited outright. Even the general staff was banned. To prevent Germany from rebuilding a reserve of trained soldiers, Versailles fixed officer service terms at 25 years and enlisted terms at 12 years, far longer than the traditional 1-to-3 year conscript cycle that had previously produced a deep pool of reservists. A provisional Reichswehr of 43 brigades was authorised by the Weimar National Assembly on the 6th of March 1919. Through a series of reductions, the force passed through a 400,000-strong 'Transitional Army' of 20 brigades before hitting the treaty ceiling. The Reichswehr was officially constituted on the 1st of January 1921, with the Defence Law of the 23rd of March 1921 governing the details. The soldiers' oath was sworn to the Weimar Constitution itself. The Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control oversaw compliance until February 1927, when it finally withdrew from German soil.
Three thousand seven hundred and eighteen officers ran the Reichswehr, down from more than 227,000 in 1918, of whom 38,118 had been career officers. Nearly all of those admitted were general staff veterans. Front-line officers promoted during the war were largely excluded; Reichswehr commanders considered them 'alien to officer life in the mess hall, barracks, and society'. Democratically-minded officers were not accepted at all. By 1926-96% of officer candidates came from the upper social classes, and nearly half came from officer families. In 1912-13, only 24% of officers had come from families of active or former officers, meaning the Reichswehr was actually more socially homogeneous than the Imperial Army it replaced. The German nobility had officially been abolished in August 1919. It had made up only 0.14% of the pre-war population. Yet in 1920, noble officers constituted 50% of the cavalry's officer ranks, even as they dropped to just 4% in the sappers. By 1927 nobles made up 20% of the overall officer corps, down from 30% in 1913, but still vastly overrepresented. Of roughly 1,000 non-commissioned officers promoted to officer rank in 1919, only 117 remained by 1928. Regimental commanders, as in the old Imperial Army, kept sole control over selecting officer candidates, and those admitted came almost exclusively from circles traditionally close to military life.
Wherever the Treaty of Versailles tied the army's hands, the Reichswehr found workarounds. By 1923, General Hans von Seeckt, with the backing of Defence Minister Otto Gessler, had organised 'civilian work groups' called Arbeits-Kommandos, attached to Reichswehr units and trained by them. These groups, known as the Black Reichswehr and drawn largely from former Freikorps members, reached a peak strength of about 20,000 men. They allowed the Reichswehr to exceed the Versailles Treaty's 100,000-man ceiling without technically violating it. The arrangement held a dangerous edge. On the 1st of October 1923, roughly 4,000 Black Reichswehr members attempted a putsch at Kuistrin on the Oder river, east of Berlin. Seeckt had it quickly disbanded after the coup failed. Other workarounds were more elaborate. In February 1923, Major General Otto Hasse travelled to Moscow for secret negotiations. The resulting arrangement let Germany train aviation and tank specialists on Soviet soil, obtain artillery, and develop and test chemical warfare agents. A secret aviation school at Lipetsk trained some 120 military pilots, 100 aerial observers, and numerous ground personnel. Tank specialists were trained at Kazan, starting in 1930. Chemical warfare work took place at the Tomka gas test site near Saratov. In December 1926, the Social Democrat Philipp Scheidemann exposed the Soviet collaboration to the Reichstag, bringing down the government of Chancellor Wilhelm Marx.
In March 1920, a Freikorps brigade called the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt refused to disband and marched on Berlin, triggering the Kapp Putsch. When Defence Minister Gustav Noske asked the Reichswehr's generals to defend the republic, only General Walther Reinhardt recommended deploying troops. Hans von Seeckt and the rest advised against it. Seeckt was reported to have said, 'Reichswehr will not fire on Reichswehr'. The government fled Berlin. The left-wing Ruhr uprising that erupted during that same crisis was a different matter: the Reichswehr put it down ruthlessly. Three years later, during the Beer Hall Putsch of the 8th of November 1923, President Ebert transferred executive power directly to Seeckt, even though there was no assurance Seeckt would act in the republic's interest. When Bavarian state commissioner Gustav Ritter von Kahr turned against Hitler and the Reichswehr division in Bavaria declined to support the putsch, no direct intervention from Seeckt proved necessary. He returned the emergency powers voluntarily in February 1924. In October 1926, Seeckt overstepped in a different direction. Without government approval, he invited the son of the former emperor Wilhelm II to attend army manoeuvres in the uniform of the Imperial 1st Foot Guards. When the republican press published the story, Gessler told President Hindenburg that either Seeckt resigned or he would. Hindenburg asked for and received Seeckt's resignation on the 9th of October 1926.
Paul von Hindenburg, elected Reich president in 1925, was the victor of the 1914 Battle of Tannenberg, and Reichswehr soldiers identified with him personally. His presidency brought the army closer to political power. By 1930, the presidential cabinets that governed with decreasing parliamentary backing began increasing the Reichswehr's influence. In 1931 the Harzburg Front, an anti-democratic alliance that included the Nazi Party, was formed; fifteen men who had been admirals or generals in the First World War were present, including Hans von Seeckt. When Reichswehr Minister Wilhelm Groener outlawed the Nazi SA and SS in 1932, his own subordinate Kurt von Schleicher told him he had lost the trust of the Reichswehr, and Groener resigned. The Reich Board for Youth Training, founded at Hindenburg's initiative on the 13th of September 1932 for the military education of German youth, was implemented by Chancellor Schleicher and then absorbed into the Hitler Youth in 1933. Historian Klaus-Jürgen Müller traced in von Schleicher's strategy what he called one of the 'lines of continuity' of German development from the Empire to National Socialism. Hitler needed the traditional military elites to reach power; those elites needed Hitler's mass following as a political base. On the 2nd of August 1934, the day Hindenburg died, Reichswehr Minister Werner von Blomberg had the army swear its oath personally to Hitler rather than to the constitution. In the Night of the Long Knives, the 30th of June to the 2nd of July 1934, Rohm and the SA leadership were murdered alongside Reichswehr generals Schleicher and Ferdinand von Bredow. The officer corps acknowledged those murders without objection.
The Reichswehr's final chapter was written in months of rapid expansion. In December 1933 the army staff decided to grow the active force to 300,000 men organised into 21 divisions. Between 50,000 and 60,000 recruits entered on the 1st of April 1934, assigned to special training battalions. The original seven infantry divisions were expanded to 21, with military district headquarters enlarged to corps size by the 1st of October 1934. Divisions used cover names to conceal their true size until October 1935. Officers forced into retirement in 1919 were recalled in October 1934; those no longer fit for combat filled administrative roles, freeing front-line officers for active duty. On the 1st of March 1935, the Luftwaffe was established. On the 16th of March, universal conscription was reintroduced, both in direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles. In the same act, the Reichswehr was renamed the Wehrmacht. On the 1st of June 1935, the Reichsheer became the Heer and the Reichsmarine became the Kriegsmarine. Hitler had foreshadowed this outcome in a speech in Munich in March 1929, telling his audience: 'As far as we are concerned, the Reichswehr in its present form is not permanent. For us it will serve as a great cadre army, which produces officers, NCOs; we shall crush anyone into pieces who should dare to hinder us in this undertaking.' Seeckt himself had designed the Reichswehr as exactly that: a cadre army preserving the expertise of the old imperial military, ready to expand the moment the treaty restrictions fell away.
Common questions
What was the Reichswehr and when was it officially formed?
The Reichswehr was the official name for Germany's armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first two years of Nazi Germany. It was officially formed on the 1st of January 1921, after the terms of the Treaty of Versailles had been met, with the Defence Law of the 23rd of March 1921 regulating its structure.
How many soldiers was the Reichswehr allowed under the Treaty of Versailles?
Under Part V of the Treaty of Versailles, the Reichswehr was limited to a professional army of 100,000 men and a navy of 15,000. The treaty also prohibited the establishment of a general staff, heavy weapons above defined calibres, armoured vehicles, submarines, large warships, and any type of air force.
What was the Black Reichswehr?
The Black Reichswehr was the informal name for illegal paramilitary groups, known officially as Arbeits-Kommandos, organised by General Hans von Seeckt in 1923 and attached to Reichswehr units. Drawn largely from former Freikorps members, the Black Reichswehr reached a peak strength of about 20,000 men, allowing the Reichswehr to secretly exceed the Versailles Treaty's 100,000-man limit.
How did the Reichswehr secretly train pilots and tank crews despite the Versailles Treaty ban?
Following secret negotiations in Moscow in February 1923, the Reichswehr established training facilities on Soviet soil. A secret aviation school at Lipetsk trained approximately 120 military pilots and 100 aerial observers. Tank specialists were trained at Kazan starting in 1930, and chemical warfare agents were tested at the Tomka site near Saratov.
Why did the Reichswehr refuse to defend the Weimar Republic during the Kapp Putsch?
When the Kapp Putsch threatened the government in March 1920, almost all Reichswehr generals, led by Hans von Seeckt, advised against deploying troops to defend the republic. Seeckt was reported to have said, 'Reichswehr will not fire on Reichswehr'. Only General Walther Reinhardt recommended using army troops in the government's defence.
When did the Reichswehr become the Wehrmacht?
The Reichswehr was renamed the Wehrmacht on the 16th of March 1935, the same day Adolf Hitler reintroduced universal conscription in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. On the 1st of June 1935, its army branch, the Reichsheer, was renamed the Heer, and the Reichsmarine became the Kriegsmarine.
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