Wilhelm Groener

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Wilhelm Groener (1928)

Karl Eduard Wilhelm Groener (born November 22, 1867 in Ludwigsburg ; † May 3, 1939 in Potsdam-Bornstedt ) was a Württemberg lieutenant general and German politician . After important military functions in the First World War, he headed the Reich Ministry of Transport from 1920 to 1923 , from 1928 to 1932 he served as Reich Defense Minister and, from 1931, as Reich Minister of the Interior , without belonging to a party . Groener was one of the military who recognized the republic as a reality. As compared to the 1932 he Nazis occurred harder, he was pushed out of office.

Life

Wilhelm was a son of the later paymaster in the dragoon regiment "Queen Olga" (1st Württembergisches) No. 25 Karl Eduard Groener († 1893) and his wife Auguste, née Boleg.

Military career in the German Empire

After graduating from high school, Groener joined the Infantry Regiment "Alt-Württemberg" (3rd Württembergisches) No. 121 of the Württemberg Army on November 22, 1884 as a flag junior . On September 9, 1886, he was promoted to lieutenant . From April 3, 1890 to September 30, 1893, Groener acted as an adjutant battalion . He was then sent to the War Academy in Berlin until July 21, 1896 . He then served in his main regiment again, was assigned to the General Staff on April 1, 1897 , and there on March 25, 1898 as a captain . As such, Groener was company commander in the Metz Infantry Regiment No. 98 for two years from September 12, 1902 and then transferred to the General Staff from October 1, 1904. After he was promoted to major on January 27, 1906 , he was assigned to the General Staff of the VII. Army Corps on July 1, 1907 and on September 10, 1908, he was appointed First General Staff Officer in the General Staff of the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps . He held this post for the following two years and was given command of the III on August 18, 1910. Battalion of the infantry regiment "Kaiser Friedrich, King of Prussia" (7th Württembergisches) No. 125 . With effect from October 1, 1911, he was reassigned to the Great General Staff, where he was appointed head of the railway department a year later and in the meantime was promoted to lieutenant colonel on September 13, 1912 .

With the outbreak of the First World War , Groener became head of the field railways ( FECH for short ) in the main headquarters . In this function he was responsible for the organization of troop transports and supplies as well as the further expansion and construction of the route network, especially for strategic railways to Belgium . For his achievements in this area, he was promoted to major general on June 26, 1915 , received the order Pour le Mérite and the honorary citizenship of his native Ludwigsburg on September 11, 1915 . Also in 1915, the Philosophical Faculty of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin and the Technical University of Stuttgart awarded him an honorary doctorate.

At the end of May 1916 he moved to the War Food Office , on November 1, 1916, after his promotion to Lieutenant General, he was appointed Chief of War Office in the Prussian War Ministry and Deputy War Minister; In this function he represented the submission of the auxiliary service law before the Reichstag . After he came into conflict with the Supreme Army Command (OHL), he was transferred to a front command in August 1917 as commander of the 33rd Division and was awarded the star of the Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd class, with crown and swords for his services . There he took over the XXV on December 23, 1917 . Reserve Corps and was entrusted with the command of the I. Army Corps on February 27, 1918 . From there, a short time later, he was transferred to the Eichhorn Army Group in Kiev , where Groener was Chief of the General Staff. The threads of German occupation policy in Ukraine came together in Groener's hands.

Quartermaster General at the end of the war

Groener in 1917 with his first wife Helene

After Ludendorff's dismissal on October 26, 1918, Groener became the new First Quartermaster General, in fact the head of the OHL . He led the retreat of the German troops from the western front and the demobilization in the home bases.

During the November Revolution of 1918 he supported the moderate policy of the Council of People's Representatives under MSPD Chairman Friedrich Ebert ( Ebert-Groener Pact ) in order to prevent a feared Bolshevik revolution based on the Russian model . On November 6, Ebert had urged Groener to abdicate the emperor . In a telephone conversation on November 10, 1918, the general promised the new Chancellor Ebert that the army would submit to his government, otherwise Ebert would not have been able to hold out. In his memoirs, Groener justified the fact that as a general of the imperial army he supported the Chancellor of the republican SPD, which had long been considered an enemy of the Reich during the monarchy , with the intention of “despite the revolution, the best and strongest element of the old Prussia in the new Germany “Over to save.

Friedrich Ebert relied on the cooperation with the old elites in order to maintain the administration, to get the economy going again and to be able to carry out the demobilization of the troops in an orderly manner. However, Ebert was unable to enforce moderate demands, such as the abolition of compulsory greetings when off duty and equal catering for officers and common soldiers.

Groener's decision to “step down to the facts” of the new republican-democratic system was less a free decision by the Chief of Staff than a power political necessity if he wanted to keep the OHL the option of internal political influence, at least in the medium term. / 10. November 1918 no more loyal troops were available who would have been ready to support a confrontational policy of the General Staff.

On June 23, 1919 Groener pleaded for the acceptance of the Versailles Treaty , two days later, after Hindenburg's resignation, he took over the management of the headquarters in Kolberg . Groener knew that if the treaty were rejected, the weakened Reichswehr could not prevent foreign troops from occupying Germany.

Politician in the Weimar Republic

Wilhelm Groener (1932)

On September 30, 1919, he took his leave against Ebert's will and was put up for disposal with the statutory pension . After a short retirement he headed the Reich Ministry of Transport from June 25, 1920 to August 11, 1923 as a non-party under several Reich Chancellors . After another retirement, on January 28, 1928, due to the Lohmann affair, he succeeded Otto Gessler as Minister of Defense, and on October 8, 1931, he was also Acting Minister of the Interior . In this function, after the presidential election in 1932 and at the insistence of the state interior ministers, he banned the SA .

In the 62nd session of the Reichstag on May 10, 1932, Groener justified the SA ban. His speech was accompanied by tumultuous protests by NSDAP members . Gregor Strasser then requested in the same meeting that Groener's speech be distributed on records, but this was not taken seriously by the incumbent Vice President Thomas Eßer .

Due to the SA ban and his speech in the Reichstag on it, Groener was urged by Kurt von Schleicher to resign as Reichswehr Minister in May 1932 ; As head of the ministerial office in the ministry, Schleicher was Groener's right-hand man. When Chancellor Brüning was overthrown on May 30, 1932 , Groener also lost the office of Minister of the Interior. Thereupon he withdrew into private life.

tomb

Groener died on May 3, 1939 of an acute inflammation of the liver. The media announced his death, but comments were prohibited. Also, due to an army order, all officers of the Wehrmacht as well as officers who were authorized to wear the regimental uniform were forbidden to attend the funeral service. Only Colonel General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord (1878–1943) (who had long since been “frozen”) appeared in full uniform for burial in the south-west cemetery in Stahnsdorf , where the grave still exists today.

family

Wilhelm Groener was married twice: with Helene Geyer (1864–1926) he had the daughter Dorothea Groener-Geyer (1900–1986); with his second wife Ruth Naeher-Glück, whom he married in 1930, he had a son, Walter Groener. This son was born quite soon after remarriage; this contributed to Groener's loss of reputation.

See also

Fonts

  • Politics and warfare. A look back at the world war. Lecture. F. Enke, Stuttgart 1920.
  • The world war and its problems. Review and outlook. Stilke, Berlin 1920 (digitized version) .
  • The railroad as a factor in politics. Lecture given at the Politics College . F. Enke, Stuttgart / Berlin 1921.
  • Count Schlieffen's will. Operational studies on the world war. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1927; 2nd revised edition ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1929.
  • General against his will. Operational studies on the world war. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1930; 3rd revised edition ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1931.
  • Friedrich Freiherr Hiller von Gaertringen (Ed.): Wilhelm Groener: Memories of life. Youth, General Staff, World War. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1957 (= German historical sources of the 19th and 20th centuries . Volume 41); New print Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1972. ISBN 3-7648-0282-0 .
  • Winfried Baumgart (Ed.): From Brest-Litovsk to the German November Revolution. From the diaries, letters and records of Alfons Paquet, Wilhelm Groener and Albert Hopman March - November 1918. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1971 (= German historical sources of the 19th and 20th centuries . Volume 47) (digitized version) .

literature

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Groener  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dorothea Groener-Geyer: General Groener. Soldier and statesman. Societäts-Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1955, p. 19.
  2. ↑ Trude Maurer : «... and we are also part of it. University and 'People's Community' in World War I. " Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-525-33603-8 , pp. 1115 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ^ Dorothea Groener-Geyer: General Groener. Soldier and statesman. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1955, p. 352.
  4. ^ Winfried Baumgart : General Groener and the German occupation policy in the Ukraine 1918. In: History in science and teaching. Vol. 21, No. 6, June 1970, pp. 325-340 (here: p. 327).
  5. ^ Heinrich August Winkler : The long way to the west. German history 1806–1933. Bonn 2002, p. 168.
  6. ^ Heinrich August Winkler: The long way to the west. German history 1806–1933. Bonn 2002, p. 368.
  7. ↑ Wilhelm Groener: Memoirs. Youth, General Staff, World War. Göttingen 1957, p. 467f.
  8. ^ Heinrich August Winkler: The long way to the west. German history 1806–1933. Bonn 2002, p. 382.
  9. ^ Heinrich August Winkler: The long way to the west. German history 1806–1933. Bonn 2002, p. 400.
  10. ↑ "Reichswehr Minister Groener justifies the SA ban": Report on SWR2 archive radio with the recording of the Reichstag session on May 10, 1932 (including Groener's full length speech)
  11. ↑ Plenary minutes of the 62nd session of the Reichstag of the 5th electoral term, pp. 2545-2550, available at: [1]
  12. ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner : January 30, 1933. Hitler's seizure of power. Heyne, Munich 1979, pp. 90-93.
  13. ^ Hans Mommsen : Rise and Fall of the Republic of Weimar 1918–1933. Berlin 1998, p. 509.
personal data
SURNAME Groener, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Groener, Karl Eduard Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Württemberg lieutenant general and politician
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludwigsburg , Württemberg
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 1939
Place of death Bornstedt , German Empire