StarDestroyer.Net BBS

This is really a question for Thanas, who mentioned this a couple of times in this forum. He basically said that the Reichswehr (the pre-Nazi German military) planned a coup in 1933 (the year Hitler assumed power) but for some reason (Thanas said cowardice), it wasn't carried out. My questions were who planned such a coup, their intentions, why it remained stillborn, and what would have happened if it was carried out?

The German Army repeatedly toyed with the idea of removing Hitler until the actual attempt in '44. Basically every time Hitler did something (remilitarizing the Rhineland, Munich, etc.), they talked about it, and I emphasize talked. I don't know of any real plans for a coup in '33, but there would have been serious trouble in '34 had Hitler not bought them off by eliminating the SA. Cowardice (in some form or another, since quite a few of them ended up taking their own lives in '44) is a pretty good reason, to be frank, for why they never did anything, though it can't be ignored that many of them welcomed the Nazis and were glad to get rid of the Republic.

Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord might've done it, if he was a tad younger and more healthy, and his two eldest sons and daughter stepped up to the plate to act againt the regime, but I get the impression that everyone in Germany knew that. I get the impression that many of the German officers were unhappy with what was going on, but utterly unwilling to actually take any steps outside of what their role granted them. They also tended to be put off by success - in the lead-up to virtually all the risky events the officers started muttering, but when it all came off they put rebellion back into the closet.

I'm a tad suspicious of these claims of planned coup(s). Is there significant evidence outside of postwar interviews and the like?

AFAIK, the only really big pre-war coup planned against Hitler that got close to being tried was in 1938 during the crisis about Czechoslovakia.

Even there, the people and groups involved were not in full agreement about what had to be done, which led to this coup possibility being ignored by the British. When Chamberlain came to an agreement with Hitler, support for a coup dropped significantly, so that no more big coups were attempted until 1944.

The Wikipedia article is quite well detailed and sourced.

spaceviking wrote:I'm a tad suspicious of these claims of planned coup(s). Is there significant evidence outside of postwar interviews and the like?

Off the top of my head, I know that during the Sudeten crisis, the conspirators contacted the British four times (Churchill was one), saying that they would overthrow Hitler if it came to war. There's probably some surviving SS/Gestapo records about all the people they were watching/arresting, too.

Force Lord wrote:This is really a question for Thanas, who mentioned this a couple of times in this forum. He basically said that the Reichswehr (the pre-Nazi German military) planned a coup in 1933 (the year Hitler assumed power) but for some reason (Thanas said cowardice), it wasn't carried out. My questions were who planned such a coup, their intentions, why it remained stillborn, and what would have happened if it was carried out?

Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord had planned a coup. However, von Hammerstein dallied and was in the end too unwilling to commit to a coup, despite such people as Brüning all but calling for him to do so.

Support was also high when Hitler ordered General von Schleicher assassinated and the brutality of the Night of the Long Knives occured. The Reichswehr did not like that one bit. Hitler however managed to get out of that pickle by promising the Army expansion and autonomy in personal decisions and that he would not use the SS to build up a paralell army.

Thanas wrote:Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord had planned a coup. However, von Hammerstein dallied and was in the end too unwilling to commit to a coup, despite such people as Brüning all but calling for him to do so.

"Dallying" is a recurring theme amongst all the various generals' plots to overthrow Hitler. It's really very astonishing how, at the very least, timid the upper echelons of the German officer corps were.

Tradition. Overthrowing the goverment was a huge no-go - and Hitler always managed to appease them enough that that taboo stood firm.
Hence, you had a lot of planning when he did something that they did not agree with - but they never managed to actually do it, because they did not want to.

How strongly was civilian control of the military drummed into the officer corps? Also it appears to me that many of the German officers took their personal oaths to Hitler very seriously and used that to justify not taking action.

I wonder how the German public would have reacted to a military putsch (may be mispelled)?

1stPalladin wrote:How strongly was civilian control of the military drummed into the officer corps?

Very strongly. First, it was a Prussian thing - the army did not revolt against its superior and except for Yorck von Wartenburg, you will not find any field marshal which revolted against his sovereign. So you got a ~300 year old tradition right there.

Even more, there had already been a coup attempt by members of the military establishment, so it was very heavily empathized by the education that loyalty to the state, no matter whether you opposed the current leader or not, was of the utmost importance.

Also it appears to me that many of the German officers took their personal oaths to Hitler very seriously and used that to justify not taking action.

Yes, Hitler was devious in that sort of way. An oath was an oath back then, one did not break it. In fact, one of the major problems of the resistance in 1944 was trying to justify its own actions to themselves. A large part of Beck's autobiography for example is devoted to trying to justify his actions.

I wonder how the German public would have reacted to a military putsch (may be mispelled)?

Impossible to say. For one, the SA might riot, but the army would have dealt with them. The question is how long the Army would take to deal with the Nazis. They cannot remain in power indefinitely.