Greetings all.
Recently I was at a conference and someone mentionned briefly at a glance that Germany in the 1920s was heavily restricted in terms of military personnel as we know. But the goal of the head of the army (?) was to give more adequate and higher level training to have people be able to do function 2-3 higher than theirs, in order to have a force capable of increasing rapidly without loosing competence in the higher ranks/functions.
Is this accurate ? If this is so, what was the actual training strategy/plan/program that Germany used for it ? Who was the man in charge, where did his thinking come from and how did he do ? Did it worked ?
Thank you
In July 1919 a certain Hans von Seeckt, already having been Chief of Staff for the Ottoman army in 1918, became the last Chief of Staff for the German Imperial army. After the general staff became illegal according to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, October 1. 1919, von Seeckt was the first to become chief of the so-called 'Truppenamt' (~'Bureau of the Forces'), an institution that de facto was a more or less secret continuation of the general staff. (The allies had suspicions but couldn't prove anything)
It's not 100% clear, if it was his very own idea, but the rule, that every member of the new army had to be trained for assignments at least 1 rank above their actual rank was introduced when von Seeckt was in charge of the formation of the Reichswehr.
The ultimate goal was for him and other officers like e.g. (to be 'Reichswehrminister', ~ ministers of defence) Groener and von Schleicher a strong german army able to reestablish Germany as a military power and if possible revenge for the defeat in WW1. Effectively the whole Reichswehr consisted of people devoted to this goal. It was the military who decided who entered the Reichswehr after all.
1920-1926 von Seeckt was 'Chef der Heeresleitung' (~ 'Chief of Army Command'), de facto chief in command of the German army. It was during this time, that cooperations with the Soviet Union in the development and testing of tactics and army branches that had been forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles, such as tanks, air force and chemical warfare, were kicked off.
Also, in 1923, in the light of the french and belgian invasion of the Ruhr Area and the impotence of the Reichswehr to do anything about it, von Seeckt gave order to develop an actual road map for a capable german army. This road map, officially called 'Übersicht der Gesamtstärken und -Ausrüstung der Kommandobehörden und Truppeneinheiten des Feldheeres' (~ 'Outline of total strenght and equipment of command departments and combat units of the field army'), unofficially better known as 'Der Große Plan' ('The Grand Plan'), was developed by a secret group of majors and captains and presented in 1925.
Already in November 1924 an organization ('Wehrwirtschaftsorganisation', ~ 'defense economy organisation') was established within the Truppenamt to prepare the mobilization of the german economy for a rearmament and establish ties to german industrialists.
The plan aimed for 102 divisions with about 3 million soldiers and 252 generals, exactly the numbers the Wehrmacht had September 1. 1939.
Von Seeckt had to resign in 1926 on political grounds.
1930-1933 he was elected member of the Reichstag with the national liberal DVP.
1933-1935, already ill, he was military advisor for Chiang Kai-shek, helped to save german-chinese relations, reformed the chinese army and developed the strategy that ultimately forced the chinese communists onto their 'Long March'.
Hans von Seeckt died from a heart condition in 1936.
For further reading:
Corum, James S. The Roots of Blitzkrieg. Hans von Seeckt and German Military Reform.