Reichswehr Ministry

Inner courtyard of the Bendlerblock , seat of the ministry (2005)

The Reichswehr Ministry (RWM) was founded in accordance with the Imperial Constitution of the Weimar Republic in October 1919 from the individual state war ministries (especially the Prussian War Ministry ) of the empire and the Reichsmarineamt . The Defense Act of May 21, 1935 renamed the Reich Ministry of War .

history

Under the law on the formation of a provisional Reichswehr of March 1919 , the Reich President was given supreme command of the troops, while the Reichswehr Minister exercised the authority. Only in Prussia was the authority of command reserved for the Prussian Minister of War. After the Weimar Constitution came into force on August 14, 1919, the remaining war ministries of the states of Bavaria , Saxony, Württemberg and Prussia were dissolved and the exercise of command was concentrated with the Reichswehr Minister. The power of command lay with the chief of army command and the chief of naval command . In 1929 a third leadership office was established: the ministerial office, the head of which acted as the minister's political deputy. The role of the general staff took over the troop office .

With the "proclamation of military sovereignty " in 1935, the army command became the High Command of the Army (OKH), the naval command became the High Command of the Navy (OKM) and a new Air Force Command (OKL) was established. From then on, the ministerial office was called the Wehrmachtamt . As a result of the Blomberg-Fritsch crisis , the Wehrmacht Office was reclassified to the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW). The previous head of the Wehrmacht Office, General of the Artillery Wilhelm Keitel , became head of the Wehrmacht High Command . His rank was equal to that of the Reich ministers. The OKW also took on the business of the Reich Ministry of War; on behalf of Adolf Hitler, his boss exercised the powers previously granted to the Reich Minister of War.

The Ministry of Armaments was subordinate to Albert Speer from 1942 and was called the Reich Ministry for Armaments and War Production from 1944 .

Department heads

Surname	Taking office	Term expires	Political party	cabinet
Gustav Noske	February 13, 1919	March 22, 1920	SPD	Scheidemann , farmer
Otto Gessler	March 27, 1920	January 19, 1928	DDP	Müller I , Fehrenbach , Wirth I & II , Cuno , Stresemann I & II , Marx I & II , Luther I & II , Marx III & IV
Wilhelm Groener	January 28, 1928	May 30, 1932	independent	Marx IV , Müller II , Brüning I and Brüning II
Kurt von Schleicher	June 1, 1932	January 28, 1933	independent	Papen , sneak
Werner von Blomberg	January 30, 1933	January 27, 1938	from January 30, 1937 NSDAP	Hitler

Noske and Gessler were civilians, Groener and Schleicher were former generals, and Blomberg was an active general.

Chief of Army Command

Major General Walther Reinhardt - September 13, 1919 to March 1920
Colonel General Hans von Seeckt - March 1920 to October 1926
Colonel General Wilhelm Heye - October 1926 to October 31, 1930
General of the Infantry Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord - November 1, 1930 to December 27, 1933
General of the Artillery Werner Freiherr von Fritsch - January 1, 1934 to June 1, 1935

Commander in Chief of the Army

Colonel General Werner Freiherr von Fritsch - June 1, 1935 to February 4, 1938

Chief of Naval Command

Vice Admiral Adolf von Trotha - September 1919 to March 1920
Rear Admiral William Michaelis - March to September 1920 (Acting)
Admiral Paul Behncke - September 1, 1920 to September 30, 1924
Admiral Hans Zenker - October 1, 1924 to September 30, 1928
Admiral Erich Raeder - October 1, 1928 to June 1, 1935

Commander in Chief of the Navy

Grand Admiral Erich Raeder - June 1, 1935 to January 30, 1943

Head of the Ministerial Office

Lieutenant General Kurt von Schleicher - February 1, 1929 to June 1, 1932
Major General Ferdinand von Bredow - June 1, 1932 to January 30, 1933
Colonel Walter von Reichenau - February 1, 1933 to February 1, 1934

Chief of the Wehrmacht Office

Major General Walter von Reichenau - February 1, 1934 to September 30, 1935
Major General / Lieutenant General / General der Artillerie Wilhelm Keitel - October 1, 1935 to February 4, 1938

Chief of the Wehrmacht High Command (OKW)

General der Artillerie / Generaloberst / Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel - February 4, 1938 to May 9, 1945

literature

Waldemar Erfurth : The history of the German general staff from 1918 to 1945. Muster-Schmidt, Göttingen 1957, ISBN 978-3-941960-20-6 .
Jürgen Schmädeke : Military command and parliamentary democracy. On the problem of the responsibility of the Reichswehr Minister in the Weimar Republic (= historical studies . H. 398). Matthiesen, Lübeck 1966.

Individual evidence

↑ RGBl. I, p. 609 / Facsimile Defense Act
^ Rudolf Absolon: The Wehrmacht in the Third Reich , Vol. IV: February 5, 1938 to August 31, 1939 . 2nd edition, Boldt im Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-486-41739-8 , p. 156 ff.
↑ From January 1936.
↑ From August 1937.
↑ From November 1938.
↑ From July 1940.

[1] RGBl. I, p. 609 / Facsimile Defense Act

[2] Rudolf Absolon: The Wehrmacht in the Third Reich , Vol. IV: February 5, 1938 to August 31, 1939 . 2nd edition, Boldt im Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-486-41739-8 , p. 156 ff.

[3] From January 1936.

[4] From August 1937.

[5] From November 1938.

[6] From July 1940.