Wilhelm Groener

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Wilhelm Groener

Karl Eduard Wilhelm Groener (November 22 1867 - May 3 1939) was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
soldier and politician.
as born in Ludwigsburg

Ludwigsburg

Ludwigsburg is a city in Germany, about 12 km north of Stuttgart's city center, near the river Neckar. It is the capital of the Ludwigsburg , and belongs to the Stuttgart Region in the Stuttgart ....
, Württemberg

Württemberg

W?rttemberg [], formerly known as Wirtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
, the son of a regimental paymaster. He entered the Württemberg Army in 1884, and attended the War Academy from 1893 until 1897, whereupon he was appointed to the General Staff

German General Staff

The German General Staff was an institution whose rise and development gave the German military a decided advantage over its adversaries. The Staff amounted to its best "weapon" for nearly two centuries....
(1899). For the next seventeen years he was attached to the railway section, becoming head of it in 1912.

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Karl Eduard Wilhelm Groener (November 22 1867 - May 3 1939) was a German

Germany

Biography

He was born in Ludwigsburg

Ludwigsburg

Württemberg

German General Staff

Prussian Minister of War

The Prussian War Ministry was gradually established between 1808 and 1809 as part of a series of reforms initiated by the Military Reorganization Commission created after the disastrous Treaty of Paris....
as deputy war minister and was in charge of war production. In August 1917 Groener served as chief of staff of an army group

Army group

An army group is a military organization consisting of several field army, which is self-sufficient for indefinite periods. It is usually responsible for a particular geographic area....
in the Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south....
.

On the resignation of Erich Ludendorff

Erich Ludendorff

Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff was a Imperial Germany Army Officer , victor of Battle of Li?ge, and, with Paul von Hindenburg, one of the victors of the battle of Battle of Tannenberg ....
on October 29, 1918, Groener became First Quartermaster General (Deputy Chief of the General Staff) under Field Marshal von Hindenburg

Paul von Hindenburg

Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg , known universally as Paul von Hindenburg was a German Generalfeldmarschall and statesman....
. Germany's military situation was worsening under the onslaught of the enemy, and social unrest and rebellion among both the German armed forces and the civilian population threatened to break out into revolution

German Revolution

The German Revolution was the politically-driven civil conflict in Germany at the end of World War I. The period lasted from 1918#November until the formal establishment of the Weimar Republic in August 1919....
. In November, Groener advised Kaiser Wilhelm II that he had lost the confidence of the armed forces and recommended abdication

Abdication

Abdication is the act of renouncing and resigning from a formal office, especially from the supreme office of state. In Roman law the term was also applied to the disowning of a family member, as the disinheriting of a son....
to the monarch.

With the Kaiser's abdication on November 9, 1918 the Marxist Spartacist League

Spartacist League

The Spartacist League was a left-wing Marxism revolutionary movement organized in Germany during and just after the politically volatile years of World War I....
had declared a soviet republic in Berlin. Social Democrat

Social Democratic Party of Germany

The Social Democratic Party of Germany is Germany's oldest political party. After World War II, under the leadership of Kurt Schumacher, the SPD reestablished itself as an ideological party, representing the interests of the working class and the trade unions....
leaders Friedrich Ebert

Friedrich Ebert

Friedrich Ebert was a German politician , who served as Chancellor of Germany of Germany and its first President of Germany during the Weimar Republic period....
(newly-named Chancellor) and Philipp Scheidemann

Philipp Scheidemann

Philipp Scheidemann was a Germany Social Democratic Party of Germany politician, who proclaimed the Republic on 9 November 1918, and who became the second Chancellor of Germany of the Weimar Republic....
sought to forestall the Communists' action and — evidently on the spur of the moment — Scheidemann proclaimed the Republic.

Groener, who was second-in-command of the German Army and who had known Ebert from the soldier's days in charge of war production, contacted the socialist leader that evening. The two men concluded the so-called Ebert-Groener pact

Ebert-Groener pact

The Ebert-Groener pact or sometimes called The Ebert-Groener deal was an agreement between Friedrich Ebert, , and Wilhelm Groener, First Quartermaster General of the German Army on November 9, 1918, 2 days before the official end of World War I....
, which was to remain secret for a number of years. For his part of the pact, Ebert agreed to suppress the Bolshevik-led revolution

German Revolution

The German Revolution was the politically-driven civil conflict in Germany at the end of World War I. The period lasted from 1918#November until the formal establishment of the Weimar Republic in August 1919....
and maintain the defeated Army's role as one of the pillars of the German state; Groener in turn agreed to throw the weight of the still-considerable Army behind the new government. For this act, Groener earned the enmity of much of the military leadership, much of whom sought the retention of the monarchy.

Groener subsequently oversaw the retreat and demobilisation of the defeated German army after World War I

World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
ended with the armistice

Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)

The armistice treaty between the Allies and German Empire was signed in a railway carriage in Compi?gne Forest on 11 November 1918, and marked the end of the World War I on the Western Front ....
of November 11, 1918.

After his resignation from the army (September 30 1919), Groener was in and out of retirement during the 1920s. He served as Transportation Minister between 1920 and 1923. He succeeded Otto Geßler as Defence Minister in 1928, a post he held until 1932. In 1931 he also became acting Interior Minister, and favoured the banning of the Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, officially National Socialism , refers to the ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Workers? Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945....
storm troopers

Sturmabteilung

The , abbreviated SA, , functioned as a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party the Germany Nazism. They played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1930s....
(SA). After Franz von Papen

Franz von Papen

was a Germany nobleman, Catholic Monarchism politician, General Staff officer, and diplomat, who served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor in 1933-1934....
replaced Heinrich Brüning

Heinrich Brüning

Dr. Heinrich Br?ning was a Germany politician during the Weimar Republic. He served as Chancellor of Germany from 1930 to 1932....
as Chancellor

Chancellor of Germany (German Reich)

The head of government of the German Reich was called Reich Chancellor or short Chancellor from 1871 until 1945. This designation stems from the German chancellor tradition from the Middle Ages and the early modern era....
, Groener retired from public life.

Groener was married twice: Helene Geyer (1864-1926), with one daughter, Dorothea Groener-Geyer , and Ruth Naeher-Glück, with whom he had a son. Groener died in Bornstedt bei Potsdam

Potsdam

Potsdam is the capital city of the Germany States of Germany of Brandenburg and is part of the Metropolitan area of Berlin/Brandenburg. It is situated on the River Havel, some 25 kilometres southwest of the center of Berlin....
on May 3, 1939.

Wilhelm Groener

Biography

External links