Walther Reinhardt

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Reinhardt during a group maneuver of the 5th and 7th divisions in Bavaria, Württemberg and Baden in 1926

Walther Reinhardt (born March 24, 1872 in Stuttgart ; † August 8, 1930 in Berlin ) was a German infantry general and the last Prussian war minister and first chief of the army command of the Reichswehr .

Life

Reinhardt was the son of Württemberg Major General August von Reinhardt (1827-1907) and his wife Emilie, born Wide man. In 1891 he joined the Grenadier Regiment "Queen Olga" (1st Württembergisches) No. 119 of the Württemberg Army and advanced to lieutenant a year later . From 1904 he was a captain in the General Staff . Between 1912 and 1915 Reinhardt was the first general staff officer in the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps . In 1915, Reinhardt was appointed major chief of staff of this army corps. A year later he was Chief of Staff of the 11th Army in Macedonia . In 1917 Reinhardt was appointed Colonel Chief of Staff of the 7th Army in France . On November 4, 1918, Reinhardt was transferred to the Prussian War Ministry as a department director because of his well-known significant skills . With the rank of division commander, he was responsible for demobilizing the returning troops.

From January 3rd to September 1919 Reinhardt was Prussia's last Minister of War . He was also a member of the Reich Cabinet between February 13 and October 1, 1919 without voting rights. In connection with the imminent signing of the Versailles Treaty and the cession of areas in eastern Germany, Reinhardt was one of the planners for the proclamation of an independent eastern state , from which a national survey in all of Germany would later proceed. These ideas failed because of Wilhelm Groener .

After the signing of the Versailles Treaty , there were key personnel and organizational changes in the military. After the dissolution of the Supreme Army Command on July 3, 1919, Gustav Noske was appointed Reichswehr Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the new Reichswehr on August 20 . In this context, the institution of the Prussian War Minister ended on September 13, 1919. Reinhardt became the commander of the Prussian Reichswehrstelle. He expanded this position to that of a chief of the army command and was promoted to major general. He was then superior to the head of the Troop Office, Hans von Seeckt . Tensions arose between the two. Reinhardt from Württemberg tried to set the Reichswehr on a loyal attitude towards the Weimar Republic , while the Prussian Seeckt was more critical of the new form of government. Even before the start of the Kapp Putsch Lüttwitz called Walther von Lüttwitz of Friedrich Ebert in addition to the dissolution of the Weimar National Assembly and the replacement Reinhardt.

Reinhardt's competitor Seeckt is said to have said during the coup : “Troops don't shoot troops”. Reinhardt, on the other hand, was the only high-ranking military man who shared Noske's opinion that violence could only be countered with violence. Reinhardt had come to appreciate Gustav Noske during his tenure as Reichswehr Minister. As the only member of the Reichswehr leadership, he wanted to take military action against the putschists during the putsch of 1920. After the coup he resigned on March 27, 1920 from his position as head of the army command. His successor was Seeckt of all people. He was then from 1920 to 1924 as Lieutenant General Commander of Military District V and Commander of the 5th Division in Stuttgart and thus also State Commander for Württemberg . Reinhardt was given the task of exercising executive power and the suppression of the proletarian hundreds as part of the Reich execution against Thuringia in 1923 . Most recently Reinhardt was General of the Infantry and Commander-in-Chief of Group Command 2, based in Kassel, from 1925 to 1927 .

After retiring from active service - he was given permission to wear the uniform of the 13th (Württemberg) Infantry Regiment - he was the initiator of the Reinhardt courses . The aim was to encourage general staff officers to think beyond the narrow military domain by visiting civil universities.

The Reinhardt barracks in Ellwangen is named after him.

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Meier-Welcker (founder), Othmar Hackl , Manfred Messerschmidt (eds.): Handbook on German military history 1648–1939. Volume 6: Rainer Wohlfeil , Edgar Graf von Matuschka: Reichswehr and Republic (1918–1933). Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Defense, Frankfurt am Main 1970, p. 61.
  2. ^ Heinrich August Winkler : Weimar 1918–1933. The history of the first German democracy. Beck, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-406-37646-0 , p. 94.
  3. ^ Heinrich August Winkler: Weimar 1918–1933. The history of the first German democracy. Beck, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-406-37646-0 , p. 113.
  4. ^ Heinrich August Winkler: Weimar 1918–1933. The history of the first German democracy. Beck, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-406-37646-0 , p. 121.
  5. ↑ Wolfgang Niess : The Revolution of 1918/19 , Europa-Verlag 2017, ISBN 978-3-95890-074-5 , p. 431.
  6. ^ Heinrich August Winkler: Weimar 1918–1933. The history of the first German democracy. Beck, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-406-37646-0 , p. 214.
  7. ↑ Jörg Hauptmann: Military history in officer training. Grin, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-638-66469-1 , p. 23 .
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Ranking list of the German Imperial Army. 1930, ZDB -ID 380055-6 , p. 41.
personal data
SURNAME Reinhardt, Walther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German infantry general and Prussian war minister
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1930
Place of death Berlin