ABSTRACT
On 10 November 1918, a day before the armistice, the high command of the German Wehrmacht (armed forces) in effect legitimized the recently declared republic by agreeing to defend it against ‘Bolshevik’ challenges and demobilize the armies in good order. In doing so, it renounced its subordination to the emperor and became an autonomous partner in the republic, a ‘state within a state’. In early 1919, having brought the troops home and vigorously, even brutally, suppressed left-wing opposition to the republic – and shown itself considerably less willing to do the same with the right – the General Staff took up the question of the armed forces’ future, which was also being considered at the peace conference in Versailles. On 21 February 1919, the National Assembly, in a decree drafted in the General Staff, abolished the Wehrmacht and created a Reichswehr (national defense force) consisting of a Reichs Heer (army) and Reichs Marine (navy). What had been the Army High Command (Oberkommando des Heeres) became the more innocuoussounding Heeresleitung, Army Command, Leitung actually connotating guidance more than command. The Army’s former commander in chief became the mere Chief of the Army Command. The General Staff disappeared altogether, and a Truppenamt (Troop Office) appeared in the space it had occupied.1
