Friedrich Ebert (1919–25) Paul von Hindenburg (1925–34) Adolf Hitler (1934–35)
Reichswehr Minister
See list
Chief of the ministerial office
See list
Personnel
Military age
18–45
Conscription
No
Active personnel
115,000 (1921)
Related articles
History
German Revolution Greater Poland uprising Silesian Uprisings Ruhr uprising
Ranks
Military ranks of the Reichswehr
Reichswehr (lit.'Reich Defence') was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first years of the Third Reich. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army (Deutsches Heer) was dissolved in order to be reshaped into a peacetime army. From it a provisional Reichswehr was formed in March 1919. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the rebuilt German Army was subject to severe limitations in size, structure and armament. The official formation of the Reichswehr took place on 1 January 1921 after the limitations had been met. The German armed forces kept the name Reichswehr until Adolf Hitler's 1935 proclamation of the "restoration of military sovereignty", at which point it became part of the new Wehrmacht.
Although ostensibly apolitical, the Reichswehr acted as a state within a state, and its leadership was an important political power factor in the Weimar Republic. The Reichswehr sometimes supported the democratic government, as it did in the Ebert-Groener Pact when it pledged its loyalty to the Republic, and sometimes backed anti-democratic forces through such means as the Black Reichswehr, the illegal paramilitary groups it sponsored in contravention of the Versailles Treaty. The Reichswehr saw itself as a cadre army that would preserve the expertise of the old imperial military and form the basis for German rearmament.
Reichswehr (lit. 'Reich Defence') was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first years of the Third Reich. After...
The Black Reichswehr (German: Schwarze Reichswehr) was the unofficial name for the extra-legal paramilitary formation that was secretly a part of the...
The Ministry of the Reichswehr (German: Reichswehrministerium) was the defence ministry of the Weimar Republic and the early Third Reich. The 1919 Weimar...
player in the Reichswehr's efforts to avoid the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles, Schleicher rose to power as head of the Reichswehr's Armed Forces...
military ranks of the Weimar Republic were the military ranks used by the Reichswehr. The Peacetime Army (German: Friedensheeres) continued to use the uniforms...
humanity. During the Weimar era, the oath of allegiance, sworn by the Reichswehr, required soldiers to swear loyalty to the Reich Constitution and its...
after the collapse of the Kapp Putsch, the German government sent in the Reichswehr (the German army) and right-wing Freikorps to crush the ongoing insurgency...
During the years of the Weimar Republic he was chief of staff for the Reichswehr from 1919 to 1920 and commander in chief of the German Army from 1920...
(intelligence agent) of an Aufklärungskommando (reconnaissance unit) of the Reichswehr, assigned to influence other soldiers and to infiltrate the German Workers'...
the Ruhr uprising. In 1921 the Reichswehr organized the Black Reichswehr, a secret reserve networked within the Reichswehr and organised as labour battalions...
newly gained political power. He also wanted to appease leaders of the Reichswehr, the German military, who feared and despised the SA as a potential rival...
officer and Nazi Party official perhaps best known as a leader of the Black Reichswehr in the 1920s. Schulz entered non-commissioned officers' school in Potsdam...
autocratic government in its place. It was supported by parts of the Reichswehr, as well as nationalist and monarchist factions. Although the legitimate...
force). The designation "Wehrmacht" replaced the previously used term Reichswehr and was the manifestation of the Nazi regime's efforts to rearm Germany...
the Black Reichswehr. It consisted of "labour battalions" (Arbeitskommandos), purportedly made up of civilian volunteers attached to Reichswehr units, but...
the Ulm Reichswehr trial, in which he and two other Reichswehr officers were tried for attempting to form a Nazi cell within the Reichswehr in Ulm. The...
Reichswehr, pp. 57ff. Sauer, Reichswehr, p. 58. Sauer, Reichswehr, pp. 61ff. Sauer, Reichswehr, p. 62. Nagel, Fememorde, p. 326. Sauer, Reichswehr, pp...
the Treaty of Versailles. Constructed in secret, they were tested by Reichswehr units at the Kama tank school in the Soviet Union. They were used for...
left-wing state governments, and crushed the paramilitaries with the Reichswehr and police. The October events formed a part of the existential crisis...
Europe, where they demonstrated full autonomy and rejected orders from the Reichswehr and German government, left a negative impression with the state. By this...
German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) offices, it served the Ministry of the Reichswehr after World War I. Significantly enlarged under Nazi rule, it was used...
The following is an incomplete list of German colonel generals. Generals later promoted to general field marshal (GFM) are not included. See also: ⇒ de:...
Kahr, Bavarian state police chief Colonel Hans Ritter von Seisser and Reichswehr General Otto von Lossow formed a ruling triumvirate. Hitler announced...
started a policy of "frontier defense" (Grenzschutz) under which the Reichswehr would stockpile arms in secret depots and begin training volunteers beyond...
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