Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht, official name of the combined army, navy, and air force of the Third Reich, as decreed by Adolf Hitler under the Wehrgesetz (Defence Law) of May 21, 1935. Under the military clauses of the Treaty of Versailles, the armed forces of the Weimar Republic were severely restricted. The army, or Reichswehr, was limited to 100,000 men, conscription was abolished, and Germany was permitted no tanks, heavy artillery, or other mechanized units. In addition, Germany was forbidden to build aeroplanes or train pilots except for strictly commercial purposes, and was allowed only a tiny navy. After years of small-scale secret rearmament, most notably with Russian assistance under the 1922 Treaty of Rapallo, these provisions were formally invalidated by Hitler in the first half of 1935.

Following the Nazi seizure of power, Hitler had left the military leaders in no doubt about his plans for large-scale rearmament in preparation for conquests in the east. After a series of failed negotiations for a limited measure of German rearmament, Hermann Göring suddenly announced the existence of the Luftwaffe (air force) on March 9, 1935. On March 16, Hitler himself proclaimed the reintroduction of conscription and his intention to create an army of 36 divisions. Three months later Great Britain formally abrogated the naval clauses of the Versailles settlement by concluding the Anglo-German Naval Agreement. The military clauses of Versailles were now dead, and German military sovereignty thereby restored. By the Wehrgesetz, the War Minister, General Werner von Blomberg, became Commander-in-Chief of the new Wehrmacht. However, following the Blomberg-Fritsch crisis of February 1938, Hitler dismissed von Blomberg, purged the officer corps of known or suspected opponents, himself assumed the title of Minister of War, and established a new and subservient High Command, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. Nevertheless, some resistance to Hitler's aggressive plans persisted in the higher echelons of the Wehrmacht and culminated in the failed plot by Claus Schenk, Graf von Stauffenberg, and other officers in July 1944.