There can be no doubt at all that the Reichsvvehr did not consider itself unpolitical. Later, they came out into the open they became more cynical.
In the beginning, they had worked by stealing archives, setting up a Black Reichswehr, buying arms and murdering pacifists. It had merely not been stated quite so openly at first. But what they really meant was that they had considered themselves the State. Or, as General von Hammerstein-Equord, one of Seeckt's successors as head of the Reichswehr, declared in July, 1929: 'During the period of the collatpse and the Revolution, the German officer corps learned to distinguish between the State and the Form of the State and to serve the permanent identity of the State, even when it was leaderless.' Hammerstein and other generals spoke as though they had served the State. The Reichswehr stood behind the Reichswehr alone. As later events proved, it also did not stand behind Herr von Seeckt. President.' The Reichswehr had, indeed, never stood behind the Republican Government. Finally heĬonsented to reply: 'The Reichswehr stands behind me, Mr. His eyes coldly measured the uncomfortable ministers.
Uring the night of November 9, Ebert called a cabinet meeting and asked Herr von Seeckt: 'Does the Reichswehr stand behind the Government?' For a long moment Herr von Seeckt did not answer.
