Hans von Seeckt

Hans von Seeckt (born April 22, 1866, Schleswig, Prussia—died Dec. 27, 1936, Berlin) was a German general and head of the Reichswehr (army) from 1920 to 1926, who was responsible for successfully remodelling the army under the Weimar Republic.

Seeckt entered the German Army in 1885. By 1889 he was a member of the general staff, where he remained for the next two decades. During World War I he became chief of staff of the 11th Army (February 1915) and later served as chief of staff of the Turkish Army.

Appointed in November 1919 head of the Truppenamt (Troops Bureau), the republican successor of the German imperial general staff, which had been proscribed by the Versailles treaty, Seeckt clandestinely became the creator of a small but remarkably efficient army. He recognized that a Russo-German alliance would be an almost unbeatable combination in any general war, and he encouraged the Treaty of Rapallo (1922) normalizing relations between the two powers and promoted other, secret agreements. In return for German training of the Soviet Army and aid in the construction of heavy industry, the Reichswehr was able to train tank and air crews in the Soviet Union and experiment with the latest weapons, thereby effectively circumventing the Versailles treaty.

The heart of Seeckt’s policy was to maintain the power and prestige of the army by avoiding internal dissension. In 1926, however, he made two crucial mistakes in regularizing duelling between officers and approving the participation of a Hohenzollern prince in Reichswehr manoeuvres. The resulting public and parliamentary outcry forced his resignation on Oct. 8, 1926. Thereafter, Seeckt served as a conservative member of the Reichstag (parliament) in 1930–32 and, in 1934–35, as an adviser to the Chinese Nationalist Army. His memoirs, Aus meinem Leben (“From My Life”) and Aus seinem Leben (“From His Life”), appeared in 1938 and 1940.