Ministry of the Reichswehr

The Ministry of the Reichswehr (German: Reichswehrministerium) was the defence ministry of Germany from 1919 to 1938 during the Weimar Republic and early Nazi Germany periods. It was responsible for the Reichswehr under the leadership of the Minister of Defence and based in the Bendlerblock building in Berlin.

Ministry of the Reichswehr

Reichswehrministerium (German)
Entrance to the Bendlerblock.
Ministry overview
Formed	October 1919 (1919-10)
Preceding Ministry	Prussian Ministry of War
Dissolved	4 February 1938 (1938-02-04)[a]
Superseding Ministry	Oberkommando der Wehrmacht
Jurisdiction	Government of Germany
Headquarters	Bendlerblock, Berlin
Minister responsible	Minister of Defence

The Ministry of the Reichswehr was formed from the Prussian Ministry of War in the aftermath of World War I as part of a centralisation of the armed forces to Berlin from the states of Germany. Its longest serving Weimar-era Defence Ministers were the civilian Otto Gessler (almost 8 years) and General Wilhelm Groener (4 years). It was renamed the Reich Ministry of War in 1935 under the Nazis and led by General Werner von Blomberg as the Minister of War. It was abolished in 1938 and replaced with the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Armed Forces High Command) under the direct command of Adolf Hitler.

History

Formation

On 6 March 1919, the Weimar National Assembly – Germany's post-war interim parliament, which was tasked with passing necessary laws while it drafted a constitution for the Republic – enacted the Law on the Formation of a Provisional National Defence Force (Gesetz über die Bildung einer vorläufigen Reichswehr ). It authorized the president of Germany to:^[1]

disband the existing Army and to form a provisional Reichswehr, which will protect the Reich's borders, enforce the orders of the Reich government and maintain peace and order within the Reich until the new Armed Forces (Wehrmacht ), which is to be organized by Reich law, is created.

The position of defence minister was established early in 1919^[2] and filled by Gustav Noske on 13 February.^[3] On 20 August, President Friedrich Ebert ordered that the Reichswehr Ministry take over from the federal states' war ministries on 1 October,^[4] although it was not until 8 November 1919 that the new ministry was officially opened. The heads of Army Command (Heeresleitung ) and the Admiralty – which became Navy Command (Marineleitung ) on 15 July 1920 – were subordinate to the defence minister.^[2] The Ministry was for the most part made up of members from the states' war ministries, with the majority coming from the Prussian Ministry of War.^[5]

The Prussian armed forces remained under the command of General Walther Reinhardt, the Prussian Minister of War, until the Ministry was disbanded on 30 September 1919.^[6] Reinhardt sat on the first two cabinets of the Weimar Republic as a non-voting member until 30 September, as did Admiral Adolf von Trotha in a similar capacity for the Admiralty until 27 March 1920, when the Bauer cabinet resigned.^[3]

As a covert replacement for the German Empire's General Staff (OHL), which had been banned by the Treaty of Versailles (Article 160), the Truppenamt was formed within the Reichswehr Ministry in October 1919. General Hans von Seeckt was its first head.^[7]

The Reich law to create a new Armed Forces, which had been referred to in the 1919 Law on the Formation of a Provisional National Defence Force, was promulgated as the Defence Act (Wehrgesetz ) on 23 March 1921 by the Weimar Reichstag. It formally established the Reichswehr in compliance with the limits set in the Treaty of Versailles. In § 8 [2], it stated that: "the Reich President is the supreme commander of the entire Armed Forces. Under him, the Armed Forces minister exercises command over the entire Armed Forces." Paragraph 10 also provided that:^[8]

[1] An Army Board (Kammer ) and a Navy Board, whose members are elected by secret ballot, are to be established at the Reichswehr Ministry as advisory and expert bodies. [2] The Army and Navy Boards are directly subordinate to the defence minister.

In § 12, the war ministries of Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg were dissolved, and command authority was concentrated in the hand of the defence minister.^[8]

A Minister's Office (Ministeramt), which served as a top military authority between the minister and the army and navy leadership, was set up on 1 March 1929.^[2]

Under the Third Reich

Just over two years after Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party rose to power, the Proclamation of Military Sovereignty (Verkündung der Wehrhoheit ) of 16 March 1935 created a new Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (OKL) under the Air Ministry and turned the Heeresleitung into the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) and the Marineleitung into the Oberkommando der Marine (OKM). The Minister's Office was renamed the Wehrmacht Office.^[9] The Defence Act (Wehrgesetz ) of 21 May 1935 made the Führer and chancellor (Hitler) supreme commander of the Wehrmacht. Under him, the renamed minister of war (Reichskriegsminister ) became commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht (§ 3).^[10]

As a result of the Blomberg–Fritsch affair,^[11] Hitler took over as commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht by decree on 4 February 1938. Under the same decree, the functions of the Ministry of War were taken over by the High Command of the Wehrmacht (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, OKW). The Ministry of War ceased to exist at that point.^[12]

Karl Dönitz was named as Minister of War in Hitler's testament.

Lists of officials

Defence Ministers

See also: List of German defence ministers

No.	Portrait	Name (born–died)	Term of office			Political party		Cabinet	Ref.
			Took office	Left office	Time in office
Minister of Defence
1		Noske, GustavGustav Noske (1868–1946)	13 February 1919	22 March 1920	1 year, 38 days		SPD	Scheidemann Bauer
2		Gessler, OttoOtto Gessler (1875–1955)	27 March 1920	19 January 1928	7 years, 298 days		DDP	Müller I Fehrenbach Wirth I − II Cuno Stresemann I − II Marx I − II Luther I − II Marx III − IV
3		Groener, WilhelmWilhelm Groener (1867–1939)	19 January 1928	30 May 1932	4 years, 132 days		Independent	Marx IV Müller II Brüning I − II
4		Schleicher, KurtKurt von Schleicher (1882–1934)	1 June 1932	28 January 1933	243 days		Independent	Papen Schleicher
5		Blomberg, WernerWerner von Blomberg (1878–1946)	29 January 1933	21 May 1935	2 years, 113 days		Independent	Hitler
Minister of War
1		Blomberg, WernerWerner von Blomberg (1878–1946)	21 May 1935	27 January 1938	2 years, 251 days		Independent	Hitler
2		Dönitz, KarlKarl Dönitz (1891–1980)	30 April 1945	23 May 1945	23 days		NSDAP	Goebbels Schwerin von Krosigk

• 
  Flag of the Minister of Defence (1933–1935)
• 
  Flag for the minister of War and Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht (23 June 1935–5 October 1935)
• 
  Flag for the minister of War and Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht (5 October 1935–27 January 1938)

Ministerial office heads

No.	Portrait	Name (born–died)	Term of office			Ref.
			Took office	Left office	Time in office
Heads of the Ministeramt (German: Chefs des Ministeramtes)
1		Schleicher, KurtGeneral der Infanterie Kurt von Schleicher (1882–1934)	1 February 1929	1 June 1932	3 years, 121 days
2		Bredow, FerdinandGeneralmajor Ferdinand von Bredow (1884–1934)	1 June 1932	30 January 1933	243 days
3		Reichenau, WalterOberst Walter von Reichenau (1884–1942)	1 February 1933	1 February 1934	1 year, 0 days
Heads of the Wehrmachtamt (German: Chefs des Wehrmachtamtes)
1		Reichenau, WalterGeneralmajor Walter von Reichenau (1884–1942)	1 February 1934	30 September 1935	1 year, 243 days
2		Keitel, WilhelmGeneralmajor Wilhelm Keitel (1882–1946)	1 October 1935	4 February 1938	2 years, 127 days

Army heads

No.	Portrait	Name (born–died)	Term of office			Ref.
			Took office	Left office	Time in office
Heads of the Army Command (German: Chefs der Heeresleitung)
1		Reinhardt, WaltherGeneralmajor Walther Reinhardt (1872–1930)	13 September 1919	22 March 1920	191 days
2		Seeckt, HansGeneraloberst Hans von Seeckt (1866–1936)	26 March 1920	9 October 1926	6 years, 197 days
3		Heye, WilhelmGeneraloberst Wilhelm Heye (1869–1947)	9 October 1926	31 October 1930	4 years, 22 days
4		Hammerstein-Equord, KurtGeneral der Infanterie Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord (1878–1943)	1 November 1930	31 January 1934	3 years, 91 days
5		Fritsch, WernerGeneral der Artillerie Werner von Fritsch (1880–1939)	1 February 1934	1 June 1935	1 year, 120 days
Commander-in-chief of the Army (German: Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres)
1		Fritsch, WernerGeneraloberst Werner von Fritsch (1880–1939)	1 June 1935	4 February 1938	2 years, 248 days

• 
  Flag of the Chef der Heeresleitung from 1925–1927.
• 
  Flag of the Chef der Heeresleitung from 1927–1933.
• 
  Flag of the Chef der Heeresleitung from 1927–1933.
• 
  Flag of the Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres from 1935–1941.

Navy heads

No.	Portrait	Name (born–died)	Term of office			Ref.
			Took office	Left office	Time in office
Chief of the Admiralty (German: Chef der Admiralität)
1		Trotha, AdolfVizeadmiral Adolf von Trotha (1868–1940)	26 March 1919	22 March 1920	362 days
–		Michaelis, WilliamKonteradmiral William Michaelis (1871–1948) Acting	22 March 1920	1 September 1920	163 days
2		Behncke, PaulVizeadmiral Paul Behncke (1869–1937)	1 September 1920	14 September 1920	13 days
Chief of the Naval Command (German: Chef der Marineleitung)
1		Behncke, PaulVizeadmiral Paul Behncke (1869–1937)	14 September 1920	1 October 1924	4 years, 17 days
2		Zenker, HansVizeadmiral Hans Zenker (1870–1932)	1 October 1924	30 September 1928	3 years, 365 days
3		Raeder, ErichVizeadmiral Erich Raeder (1876–1960)	1 October 1928	1 June 1935	6 years, 243 days
Commander-in-chief of the Navy (German: Oberbefehlshaber der Kriegsmarine)
1		Raeder, ErichGroßadmiral Erich Raeder (1876–1960)	1 June 1935	30 January 1943	7 years, 243 days