Reichswehr - Germany's Forgotten Army

[Music] when germany lost world war one in 1918 it also lost its right according to the allies to military forces it was a feeling that the only way to curb german expansionism in the future was by degrading her armed forces to the point where the nation would physically be unable to do anything other than defend itself germany would be militarily neutered but this plan actually caused a different outcome its very severity caused the german army in particular to become a lean and potentially very dangerous future opponent for it may come as a surprise to many but germany began planning for the next war shortly after defeat in world war one and long before hitler came on the scene in november 1918 the imperial german army was still occupying swathes of france and belgium after four years of bloody trench warfare and an effective stalemate but the last great offensive in the west the german march 1918 offensive had not succeeded in knocking france and britain out of the war and back home the german people were starving as the allied naval blockade bit deeply politics was in turmoil and revolution began to break out among the weary populace and armed forces the german emperor wilhelm ii abdicated and germany became a republic and the army marched back to the fatherland in good order to be demobilized after months of anarchy and revolution the weimar republic was established and the terms of the 1919 treaty of versailles enacted the allies ordered that the german army be reduced from 4.6 million men in 1918 to just one hundred thousand by nineteen twenty one the imperial german navy was renamed the reich's marina and reduced to just fifteen thousand men and a collection of old and largely useless warships these figures ensured that the germans could not flex their military muscles again in fact such tiny armed forces would not even have been able to defend the country if it had been attacked the newly formed reichshere national army consisted of only seven infantry divisions and three cavalry divisions it was not permitted aircraft of any kind nor any tanks officially established in 1921 the reichs here would actually provide the highly trained nucleus for hitler's new army the wehrmacht in the mid-1930s that would conquer most of europe similarly the reichs marina or navy was a largely toothless organization it was forbidden any aircraft or submarines everyone knowing how effective u-boats had been in world war one its surface warships were limited to six pre-dreadnought battleships six light cruisers 12 destroyers and only 12 torpedo boats no new warship could displace more than 10 000 tons where most battleships of the period were 30 to 40 000 tons the problem for future world peace was the attitude of the conservative german officer elite that ran the reichsfield the term a state within a state was coined as the reichsphere's general staff detested the democracy of the weak weimar republic and of course the hated treaty of versailles and they used their influence to ensure strong lobbying of politicians and policies that were actually diametrically opposed to what the new armed forces were supposed to be the reichsvir began planning for war and secretly developing the technologies and weapons germany would need this rearmament program actually had the covert blessing of chancellor hermann mueller who secretly permitted illegal rearmament efforts also during the first few years of his existence the weimar government tolerated a collection of paramilitary groups formed of world war one soldiers and nationalists called the frey corps they were well organized and professionally led and seen by many in the government as a useful adjunct to the state's tiny official armed forces in the early days the reichsphere was commanded by old school prussian general hans von zekt in his mind it was still the duty of the army to protect the nation and also suppress anti-government unrest at home one of the few occasions that the reichsweir saw action was in the suppression of revolutionary activity at home in 1923 hitler leader of the nazi party attempted to snatch power in bavaria by force a huge column of nazis and their supporters marching through the streets of munich during the so-called beer hall putch general von secht was behind moves to quell the revolt and it was police and reichsfare troops that opened fire on the nazis in the process crushing the coup attempt regarding manpower the allied insistence on such a tiny army of just a hundred thousand men proved advantageous to the germans only the very best and brightest officers and ncos from world war one were retained new recruits were similarly carefully selected in order to permit the immediate expansion of the army to a full war fighting force the regimental traditions and lineages of world war one units were carried forward into the new army each infantry company of 300 men held the name and colours of an older regiment which would have been three thousand men strong in this way if mobilization was announced the reich's fair could rapidly expand tenfold from a hundred thousand to one million men yes hey and this is indeed exactly what happened in 1935 when the new chancellor hitler removed the limits on the size of the army the reichsphere's leaders knew that not having tanks placed it at a massive disadvantage even if the infantry heavy army was rapidly expanded beyond 100 000 men the treaty of versailles did allow the army 105 armored cars and the german police a further 150 the germans got around this restriction on tanks by signing an agreement with the soviet union to secretly develop and test tanks and also aircraft in russia crook the famous armaments company worked on artillery shell research in leningrad and junckers the famous aircraft manufacturers of world war one actually built an aircraft manufacturing plant near moscow tank crews and air crews trained intensively in the soviet union from 1922 onwards again well before the nazi period in government when gustav stresaman was foreign minister and then chancellor of germany between 1923 and 1929 he created more foreign opportunities for the german arms build-up including in sweden where crook secretly partnered with bofors the german firm rheinmetall repurposed part of its railway department to artillery research and development and foca busily developed new aircraft in the netherlands incredibly between 1924 and 1928 german military spending actually doubled by 1927 the reichsphere had secreted away from allied inspectors three times more rifles than it needed as well as three times the allowance of mortars and artillery guns as versailles permitted and an astounding six times the number of machine guns because of all this secret research and development germany was able to start manufacturing the panzer one tank in 1934 to start equipping its new tank units with bigger and better armored vehicles following soon after and in 1935 hitler finally repudiated the terms of the versailles treaty announcing the reintroduction of conscription and a name change the became the wehrmacht the rapid expansion and re-equipment of germany's new army was possible because of the pre-nazi period organizational structures secret training programs and weapons research and development of the 1920s during the weimar republic period it is clear from what i've outlined that the leadership of the reichsfair always intended that germany should acquire an army capable of foreign adventures but until hitler came to power in 1933 the weimar government had at least paid lip service to the constraints of versailles the rest as they say is history [Music] so [Music] thanks to military 1945 for archival footage please visit their channel linked below thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my other youtube channel war stories with mark felton you can also help to support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box 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Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 471,816

Rating: 4.9618535 out of 5

Keywords: Reichswehr, Mark Felton

Id: Ip-RZjKy8jA

Length: 11min 0sec (660 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 31 2020