Ministry of the Reichswehr
German interwar defence ministry
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.
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 (Reichskriegsministerium) 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:
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 and filled by Gustav Noske on 13 February. On 20 August, President Friedrich Ebert ordered that the Reichswehr Ministry take over from the federal states' war ministries on 1 October, although it was not until 8 November 1919 that the new ministry was officially opened.
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