Vossische Zeitung
- Seeckt's Resignation
- Reichsbanner Pays Homage to Severing
- Severing
The Vossische Zeitung of 7 October 1926 gave prominent space to the fall of Colonel General Hans von Seeckt, head of the army command. Its report argued that permitting such an 'extravagance' had been a highly political act, that Seeckt had decided it over the head of Defence Minister Geßler, and that Geßler then told him one of the two must go. According to the paper, Geßler reported to President Hindenburg, a minister tried to mediate, and Hindenburg was apparently ready from the start to draw the consequences rather than allow a political conflict. The page also described a Reichsbanner rally and torchlight procession in Berlin's Wilhelmstrasse for the departing Prussian Interior Minister Carl Severing, with a large police presence on the Gendarmenmarkt. A column by Max Reiner, written as a German Nationalist's speech to Severing, ironically blamed rigid party discipline for the duty to condemn his six years in office.
Translation
Seeckt's Resignation
… German Nationalist party men will have to admit that granting permission for such an extravagance was a political act of the highest order, whose political consequences had to be foreseen. If it is therefore already astonishing that Colonel General v. Seeckt was at all inclined to lend his personal support to such a proceeding, it seems entirely incomprehensible that he made an independent decision here over the head of the Reich Defence Minister. When Reich Defence Minister Geßler learned how matters stood, he left no doubt, in a conversation with Colonel General v. Seeckt, that he no longer considered further trusting cooperation with him possible, and that one of them would have to leave office. The Reich Defence Minister informed the Reich Chancellor and immediately reported to the Reich President as the supreme commander [?] of the armed forces. It appears that a Reich minister still made attempts at mediation. The Reich President, however, probably left no doubt from the outset that he was prepared, as supreme commander, to draw the consequences, and that he refused, as Reich President, to allow the political conflict that would undoubtedly have resulted from leaving the Colonel General in office. He had to reckon with the fact that, had the decision been different, the Reich Defence Minister, who in any case, owing to a series of incidents in recent times, had increasingly …
Reichsbanner Pays Homage to Severing
Torchlight procession in the Wilhelmstrasse. The Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold held a demonstration yesterday evening for the departing Prussian Interior Minister Severing. The Berlin detachments marched up in front of the [?] of the State Ministry in the Wilhelmstrasse. There the chairman of the Berlin-Brandenburg district gave an address, to which Severing replied from the [?]. Following this, Severing took the salute at a torchlight procession of the Reichsbanner. * An enormous crowd had gathered on the Gendarmenmarkt, the assembly point. The Schutzpolizei had turned out in great strength under the command of its deputy commander, Colonel Heimannsberg. [?] Police President Dr. [?] satisfied himself
Severing
[?] [?] [?] * * * Severing. A German Nationalist Speech. By Max Reiner. "… only as a private individual, of course! Good Lord: we don't live in England, after all, where one has to remain a gentleman even in the political arena. Yes, if we had the same level of political civility, then — say, at the farewell dinner in your honor — it would fall to the chairman of the German Nationalist group in the Landtag to give the speech in your honor. But we in the German Reich have not come that far yet. As a German Nationalist I have the self-evident obligation to regard your six years of ministerial activity as a misfortune for Prussia, and to condemn your ministerial acts lock, stock and barrel. That is simply the effect of our all too rigid conception of duty toward the party. From the cradle to the grave we are accompanied by the party code, from whose precepts we may not deviate by one iota. Whoever takes a little more liberty easily falls victim to ostracism. Well, you know all about that yourself; it was only a few years ago, after all,
Context
How a prince at army manoeuvres cost Seeckt his post
The 'extravagance' the paper refers to is the episode that ended Seeckt's career: Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, eldest child of the former Crown Prince, attended army manoeuvres in the uniform of the old Imperial First Foot Guards without government approval having first been sought, and Seeckt was forced to resign as a result. A modern chronology of the Weimar Republic dates Seeckt's forced departure as head of the Heeresleitung to 6 October 1926, at the insistence of Defence Minister Geßler and President Hindenburg, and gives as the reason that the prince's participation in a Reichswehr manoeuvre had not first been approved by the minister and the president. This matches the core of the Vossische Zeitung's charge that Seeckt acted 'over the head of the Reich Defence Minister', and its account that Geßler took the matter to Hindenburg as supreme commander. The paper's further details, such as a mediation attempt by an unnamed Reich minister and Hindenburg's motives, are written with hedges such as 'it appears' and 'probably', and remain the paper's own reading of events on the day after the resignation.
Strains that preceded the manoeuvre affair
Relations between Seeckt and the government were already strained before the prince appeared at the manoeuvres. The same chronology notes that ties between the Reich leadership and Seeckt had deteriorated because of his open opposition to the government's Locarno policy and his disputes with Hindenburg over their respective areas of authority. Seeckt was also a monarchist who encouraged the Reichswehr to keep traditional links with the old Imperial Army, which helps explain why the paper treated the permission given to a Hohenzollern heir as a political act whose consequences should have been foreseen. The excerpt breaks off just as it says that Geßler had already been troubled by 'a series of incidents in recent times'; the documented frictions over foreign policy and command authority are the kind of accumulated grievances that passage appears to point to.
Who replaced Seeckt, and what changed
The paper's account suggests that Hindenburg had effectively settled the matter in Geßler's favour; within days a successor was in place. On 9 October 1926 Wilhelm Heye, who had followed Seeckt before as chief of the Truppenamt, once again succeeded him, this time as Chef der Heeresleitung. Under Heye the army command lost much of the political influence it had held under Seeckt, while the authority of the Reichswehr Ministry grew. The crisis reported here thus marked a shift of power from the army command toward the Reichswehr Ministry, consistent with the paper's picture of a president who refused to tolerate a conflict between the minister and the general.
Why Severing was leaving the Prussian Interior Ministry
Carl Severing, the Social Democrat honoured by the Reichsbanner in the second report, had become Prussian Interior Minister in March 1920 after the collapse of the Kapp-Lüttwitz putsch, which accounts for the 'six years of ministerial activity' that Max Reiner's German Nationalist speaker claims he must condemn. The German Historical Museum's biography records that in 1926 Severing withdrew temporarily from politics for reasons of health. The withdrawal proved temporary: in 1930, amid growing political tensions, he took over the Prussian Interior Ministry again at the request of Minister-President Otto Braun. The torchlight procession and Reiner's ironic column therefore marked a farewell that the paper's readers could not yet know would be followed by a return.
Original
Seeckts Rücktritt
deutschnationale Parteileute werden zugeben müssen, daß die Genehmigung zu solcher Extravaganz eine im höchsten Maße politische Handlung war, deren politische Folgen vorausgesehen werden mußten. Ist es deshalb schon verwunderlich, daß der Generaloberst v. Seeckt überhaupt geneigt war, persönlich einem solchen Verfahren Vorschub zu leisten, so scheint es vollkommen unverständlich, daß er hier eine selbständige Entscheidung über den Kopf des Reichswehrministers hinweg fällte. Als der Reichswehrminister Geßler erfuhr, wie die Dinge lagen, hat er in einer Unterredung mit dem Generalobersten v. Seeckt keinen Zweifel darüber gelassen, daß er ein weiteres vertrauensvolles Zusammenarbeiten mit ihm nicht mehr für möglich halte, und daß einer von ihnen aus dem Amte scheiden müsse. Der Reichswehrminister hat den Reichskanzler benachrichtigt und sofort dem Reichspräsidenten als dem Oberbefehlshaber [?] der Wehrmacht Vortrag gehalten. Es scheint, daß von einem Reichsminister noch Vermittelungsversuche gemacht wurden. Der Reichspräsident hat aber wohl von Anfang an keinen Zweifel darüber gelassen, daß er bereit war, als Oberbefehlshaber die Konsequenzen zu ziehen, und daß er es ablehnte, als Reichspräsident einen aus der Belassung des Generalobersten im Amt zweifellos sich ergebenden politischen Konflikt zuzulassen. Er mußte damit rechnen, daß bei einer anderen Entscheidung der Reichswehrminister, der ohnehin aus einer Reihe von Vorfällen der letzten Zeit immer
Reichsbanner huldigt Severing
Fackelzug in der Wilhelmstraße Das Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold veranstaltete gestern abend eine Kundgebung für den scheidenden preußischen Innenminister Severing. Die Berliner Abteilungen marschierten vor dem [?] des Staatsministeriums in der Wilhelmstraße auf. Dort hielt der Vorsitzende des Gaues Berlin-Brandenburg eine Ansprache, auf die Severing vom [?] aus erwiderte. Im Anschluß daran nahm Severiug einen Fackelzug des Reichsbanners ab. * Auf dem Gendarmenmarkt, dem Versammlungsplatz, hatte sich eine gewaltige Menschenmenge eingefunden. Die Schutzpolizei war mit einem großen Aufgebot unter Leitung ihres stellvertretenden Kommandeurs, Oberst Heimannsberg, erschienen. [?] Polizeipräsident Dr. [?] überzeugte sich
Severing
[?] [?] [?] * * * Severing Eine deutschnationale Rede Von Max Reiner "... natürlich nur als Privatmann! Du lieber Gott: wir leben ja nicht in England, wo man auch in der politischen Arena Gentleman bleiben muß. Ja, hätten wir dasselbe Niveau politischer Gesittung, dann würde - etwa bei dem Abschiedsessen Ihnen zu Ehren - dem Vorsitzenden der deutschnationalen Landtagsfraktion die Aufgabe zufallen, die Rede auf Sie zu halten. Aber soweit sind wir im Deutschen Reich noch nicht. Als Deutschnationaler habe ich die selbstverständliche Verpflichtung, Ihre sechsjährige ministerielle Tätigkeit als ein Unglück für Preußen zu empfinden, Ihre ministeriellen Handlungen in Bausch und Bogen zu verdammen. Das ist eben die Wirkung unserer allzu starren Auffassung von der Pflicht gegenüber der Partei. Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe begleitet uns der Parteikodex, von dessen Vorschriften wir nicht um ein Jota abweichen dürfen. Wer sich etwas mehr Freiheit herausnimmt, verfällt leicht dem Scherbengericht. Nun, Sie wissen ja selbst ein Lied davon zu singen, es ist doch erst wenige Jahre her,