Once every year a nnilitary commission appeared unexpectedly at every German railt For forty-four years in the station master's roon1 of every German railroad station there had stood a big black box with two locks and four lead weights. That was why the railroads in Germany had to be more or less State controlled that was why the network of lines was built, not fr01m the viewpoint of profit or public need, but from the viewpoint of strategy. In the fonty-four peaceful years before the war, the German railroads had always been

The French recognized the tremendous role the 1railroads had played during the mobilization of 1914. The Allies, and France in particular, had insisted that the German railroads were to be placed under civil ad ministration. A decisive step in this direction was the appointment of General Greener as Minister of Transportation in 1920. The Army was satisfied to save itself as a useful tool for the future.' The generals began early, as has been pointed out, to perfect this tool. In order to conceal this, 'impartiality was a necessary mean:s. A year after Hitler's seizure of pow1er Herr von Blomberg wrote in the V oelki.rcher Beohacht,er that the Reichswehr had deceived Germany's Republican governments, which it hated, and had conspired with their enemties. It merely thought it wiser to appear unpolitical. 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.

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