Realm resistance

realm resistance was from 1921 to 1935, during the Weimar Republic and the first years of the third realm, the official name of the German armed forces. With the introduction of the military service 1935 the structure and the name in armed forces changed. Their commander in chief the realm president was according to Weimar condition.

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after the defeat in the First World War, which did not want to accept the military (see: Dolchstosslegende), placed the past highest army command (OHL) to William Groener the advice of the people-assigned under Friedrich Ebert the services of the armyfor the order (see: Ebert Groener pact). It secured with it a surviving for the new government. In the following jerky years the army was used particularly in the fight against left forces.

The war opponents limited 1919 with the articles 159 to 213 of the Versailler of contract the armed forcesthe German Reich strongly, in order to prevent a renewed aggression.

The army was allowed to cover maximally 100,000 soldiers, the navy at the most 15.000. A military service system was forbidden. With the limited range of the army a careful selection of the personnel was possible. Experienced high-level personnel came from the old army of theEmpire. The armed forces should achieve a high level of education in the following years. However air forces were completely forbidden, in addition the kind and the range of the armament limit; heavy artillery, tank, submarines and capital ships were forbidden. The regulations were supervised at first by the inter+allied control commission.

During the necessary decrease of the number of the active officers more civil officers became to dismiss, so that the aristocracy portion of 1925 with 24% opposite approx. 9% during the world war lay. In the time after the revolution the army was used. A democratization of the troop was never intended.The army represented a conservative, monarchistic conception of the world. It identified itself not with the republic or even rejected these.

Already soon after the end of war 1918 returning soldiers and federations united to free corps and educated with the so-called black realm resistance the forerunners of the realm resistance. To 6. March 1919 was formed from the federations by law of the national assembly the provisional realm resistance. It consisted of the provisional realm navy and the provisional realm army. To 30. September became from it the transition army. To 23. March 1921 was created by the law on conscription the realm resistance. ThatSupreme command over all parts of the realm resistance (realm army and realm navy) exercised the realm military Minister . For the NCOs and soldiers the service amounted to twelve years, for officers 25 years; they were sworn in on those Weimar condition.

The realm resistance had with politically right military federations like thatFree corps a good relationship. These developed among other things, because former war participants could not serve no more after the Versailler contract in in terms of figures limited realm resistance. The realm resistance received so a personnel reserve for substitution of separated soldiers or for possible employments. There the realm resistance itself not into interfere this task the military federations wanted, took over conflicts relating to domestic affairs. There were close connections for example to the steel helmet and the Kyffhäuserbund.

The realm army consisted three Kavalleriedivisionen of seven infantry - and. There was two group commands, one in Berlin and one in Kassel. The navywas divided in a command for the North Sea and one for the Baltic Sea.

the realm resistance in the crisis years

the realm resistance behaved in the subsequent years in principle state-faithfully. However was a large part only four thousand men comprehensive officer corps noble and oneconservative-monarchistic conception of the world arrests. Usually therefore its members of the parliamentary democracy faced rejecting.1919 could be enlisted Adolf Hitler of the Munich realm military administration, in order to spy on meetings of political parties and circles. At the same time Hitler was sent to training courses for propaganda speakers.

In March 1920 becamethe realm resistance of the political guidance not against the cut Putsch assigned. The boss of the office for troop - the camouflaged general staff of the realm resistance - Hans's von Seeckt did not have itself with the alleged formulation troop shoots expressed at troop against it before. Seeckt possessed however also no authority.The boss of the army command and thus highest military walter Reinhardt were for the employment of the faithful realm military federations. The communist March rebellion, which began during the cut Putsches in the Ruhr district and Saxonia, was struck down inconsiderately of it; Participants of the cut Putsches were involved. As consequence of the Putsches that becamepast realm military Ministers Gustav Noske (SPD) by Otto Gessler (strip packing) replaces.

The realm resistance behaved in the future under Seeckt and Gessler “unpolitically”, it took part not in the internal arguments, and member of the realm resistance had no right to vote. From Seeckt hadbefore however with the cut Putsch politically expressed, into it the obedience refused itself.

It was detached thereby by the political system. The autonomy with the selection of the personnel, its Wertekodex and the opinion to serve for to the state and not system of government made the armywith difficulty controllable “state in the state”.

Since 1921 the guidance of the realm resistance in the secret one in co-operation with the Red Army tried to extend contract the realm resistance against the Versailler to introduce new weapon systems and develop a Air Force. Germany supported the development of modern technologies and could own soldiersin the Soviet Union to train leave.

In February 1923 the new boss of the office for troop, traveled major general hate, to secret negotiations to Moscow. Germany supported the structure of the Soviet industry, commanders of the Red Army received general staff training in Germany. But the realm resistance received the possibility, artillery ammunition outto refer the Soviet Union to train flier and tank specialists on Soviet soil and to let there chemical agents manufacture. On the airfield Lipezk were trained about three hundred military pilots, the trunk for a flighter pilot weapon. Trained with Kazan' tank specialists, however only starting from 1930 and only approximately thirty.With Saratow agents were developed.

Ruhr occupation 1923 showed also the weakness of the realm resistance. As reaction to an attempt in Bavaria to establish a right dictatorship Ebert transferred the carrying out force in November to realm military Minister Gessler. Thus the force lay in the reality with Seeckt,the boss of the army command, which a Reichsexekution prevented knights of Kahr against the government under Gustav. Involved also Otto von Lossow was, the Bavarian military district commander. It was relieved by Gessler of its office. As Seeckt in a letter, which he did not send, wrote, sympathizedhe with the government in Munich and regarded those Weimar condition not as noli ME tangere (dt.: Do not touch me). It contradicts its political thinking. Further it implemented in the letter that it due to the missing confidence of the realm resistance for the government of Gustav Stresemann a civil war would foresee, which could be prevented only by a reversal of the government. He expressed the conviction that a government without support of the realm resistance could itself hold not for a long time. As Seeckt at the 3. November its readiness for chancellor shank suggest and Ebert thiswith reference to reasons with regard to foreign policy and its indispensability as a boss of the army command, accepted Seeckt rejected the refusal. He wanted to know nothing more from a Putsch, as some high officers had demanded him. In the consequence of the dictatorship it came into Munich to the Hitlerputsch (see also: History Bayerns).

In October and November 1923 with the aid the realm resistance so-called “Reichsexekutionen” was accomplished against left governments in Thuringia and Saxonia.

Already in February 1924 Seeckt delivered the diktatorischen authority, which he had received from Ebert, again.

The realm resistance in the years of relative stability

1925 was excluded with the contract from Locarno a change by force of the west borders, and 1926 joined Germany the Völkerbund. The position of the realm resistance can be represented well by discussions between Ebert and Seeckt. On the question,where the realm resistance stands, Seeckt answered:The realm resistance stands behind me. On the question whether the realm resistance is reliable answered he: Whether it is reliable, I do not know, but she obeys me.

By the choice Paul von Hindenburgs to the realm president he became asWinner of fir mountain instead of Seeckt for the identification figure of the soldiers. To 8. October became Seeckt because of the participation of a son of the former emperor at a maneuver to dismiss, however there were probably also different reasons, like the criticism at the undemocratic guidance of the realm resistance.

An example ofthe rising criticism was after the dismissal Seeckts the suggestion of realm tag president Paul Löbe to make the employment of recruits dependent on their physical fitness only. It wanted to reach with the fact that the composition of the realm resistance would approach the overall view of the society. The realm resistance was,particularly in the officer corps, strongly nationalconservative-Protestant coined/shaped, the crews came to a large extent from agrarian and skilled trades. Apart from the fact the service was anyway less attractive in the army for other groups of the society. The choice of personnel practiced corresponded however exactly to the conceptions of the realm military guidance (“desired circles”). Therefore harvestedPraise violent contradiction from conservative circles. They were the opinion, an opening the level of the realm resistance would lower. The penetration social-democratically and other unwanted “elements” and thoughts into the army had been already perhorresziert in the old army and limited after possibility - e.g. throughfar superproportional consulting of rural recruits in the time before the First World War. While in the realm resistance the war was seen further as means for the penetration of political goals, the policy with the contract of Locarno and the Dawes plan was rather on the preservation of the peace andthe people communication aligned. Seeckt and its officers were against the entry to the Völkerbund and saw by the Pazifismus to that linking also their existence threatened.

Successor Seeckts became William Heye, however above all the department manager at that time in the realm military Ministry short from Schleicher at power won. Underits guidance intervened the realm resistance more strongly in the policy, in order to achieve their goals, and the republic and the realm resistance moved more near together. The realm resistance accepted the democracy as system of government and Groener saw it as important part of the people and power instrument of the German republic.

In December 1926 the Social Democrat Philipp sheath man revealed the machinations in Reichstag and fell thereby the government under William Marx. 1931 were condemned the journalist Carl von Ossietzky because of a report over those already well-known co-operation because of Landesverrats.

1927 became those Inter+allied military control commission, which had supervised up to then the disarmament, taken off.

The resolution for the building combatstrong tank cruisers of the A, which corresponded to the regulations of the Versailler of contract, a prestige question, brought 1928 Hermann Mueller and its coalition of problems. For the realm military guidance the decision was to the buildinga political decision of general principle. 1929 already contained the household the first rate for the tank ship B.

The winner of the approximation between republic and realm resistance was above all the realm resistance. It reached an increase of the defense budget. A criticism at the defense budget became as attack on the realm resistance andso that the state regards.

the realm resistance and the end of the Weimar Republic

by the Präsidialkabinette starting from 1930 the power of the realm resistance became again larger, since now the former boss of the OHL, Hindenburg, was in power. Heinrich Brüning became as formerSoldier of the realm resistance accepts and spared these from its unpopular economy measures. Franz of Papen and general short from Schleicher considered beginning, the realm resistance for the abolishment of the democracy. In addition one of the principal purposes was a revision of the Versailler of contract lying in the interest of the realm resistance.

As1930 three officers (second lieutenant smelling pool of broadcasting corporations Scheringer, second lieutenant Hanns Ludin and first lieutenant Hans Friedrich Wendt) because of National Socialist manipulation in the realm resistance before court stood came it to the legality oath of Hitler.

With the education of the resin citizens front 1931 also high-ranking members of the realm resistance were present.

1932 forbadeGroener, which had become in the meantime also Minister of the Interior, the SA. It lost thereby the confidence of the realm resistance and had to withdraw.

With the Prussia impact the carrying out force was transferred into Berlin and Prussia temporarily the realm resistance.

the realm resistance under Hitler

after the seizure of power needed Adolf Hitler the army for its foreign policy and decided to give to the experienced and efficient realm resistance opposite the party troop SA preference. It placed already at the 3. February the generals its government program forwards and promised them that the realm resistance the exclusive weapon carrier of Germanyremains. The realm resistance hoped on the one hand for intensified efforts for the revision of the Versailler of contract and the structure of a strong military and a taut government. In addition, one feared that the realm resistance could be displaced by the 3 million members counting SA. The realm resistance supported Hitlerstriking down the alleged Röhm Putsches in the summer 1934; the SA was switched off as power factor. Two generals of the realm resistance (of Schleicher and of Bredow) were killed of the SS. The officer corps accepted these murders without opposition.

At the day of death of realm president Paul von Hindenburg, that 2. August 1934 let swear in the realm military Minister Werner von Blomberg the realm resistance on the person of Hitler.

To 16. March 1935 introduced Adolf Hitler with a clear break of the Versailler of contract the military service to Germany and designated in the same law the realm resistance in Armed forces over.

guidance of the realm resistance

sound of Weimar condition was a realm president of the commanders in chief, in peacetime it by the realm military Minister as an owner of the command authority was represented. The military point was a boss of the army command.

In the Weimar Republic two realm presidents officiated: Friedrich Ebert until 1925, it followed Paul von Hindenburg.

At first Gustav Noske realm military Minister was, he after the cut Putsch from Otto Gessler was replaced. 1928 took over William Groener the office, 1932 and 1933 Schleicher. After the outlet Schleichers appointed Hindenburg arbitrarily - not howit in the condition was prescribed for Werner von Blomberg on suggestion of the chancellor - to the realm military Minister. It should help thereby, “zähmen” the national socialists, however later e.g. supported this. by the swearing-in of the realm resistance in on Hitler.

Boss of the army command was at the beginning of walter Reinhardt. Afterthe cut Putsch took over Seeckt this post.1926 followed William Heye. General short exerted large influence of Schleicher . Schleicher received large influence on Hindenburg in the next years and pulled in the background with the Präsidialkabinetten the threads. Heye became 1930 of briefly baron ofHammerstein Equord replaced, which officiated until 1934.

see also


  • Rainer well-being for sale/Hans Dollinger: The German realm Reich: Pictures, documents, texts; to the history of the hundredthousand man army 1919-1933, Frankfurt/Main, 1972
  • Möllers, Heiner:“Realm resistance does not shoot at realm resistance!” Legend around the cut Lüttwitz Putsch from March 1920. In: Military history. Number 3, 2001. Given change of the military-historical office for research of the German Federal Armed Forces.
  • Voss, Heinfried: “The new house of the realm resistance”. Military Sozialisation in the political and military transition. Contributions to the South West German economic and social history, Bd.15, pc. Katharinen1992

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