Chapter fifteen: The old warhorse
Germany had endured a long and painful ordeal after the war, as the crisis of 1922 proved: that year Germany claimed it could no longer afford the reparations payments required by the Versailles Treaty. Then Walther Rathenau, the Foreign Minister, and Aristide Briand, the French Prime Minister, came to an agreement over the payments (1), agreement that would, eventually, result in the Dawes Plan of 1924 and the withdrawal of all Allied troops from Germany over the course of 1925. Thus started the
Goldene Zwanziger ("Golden Twenties"), a period of civil calm and improved economic conditions: the inflationary spiral broke down and the new currency, the Reichsmark, contributed to the growing level of international confidence in the German economy. The diplomatic relations with the USSR improved with the Treaty of Berlin (1925) and the Locarno Treaties also helped to bring Britain, France, Italy, Belgium and Germany slightly closer. The improvement in Germany's fortune, led by Chancellor Karl Jarres, was shown in 1926 when the Reich was admitted to the League of Nations as a permanent member.
Karl Jarres, German Reichschancellor (from 1925 to 1933)
The growing dependence on American finance proved dangerous as Germany was one of the worst hit nations in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, as the Dawes Plan was cancelled. Those were hard times for the Reich, but Britain eased the situation by grating some loans that, for a short while, helped the German economy. The German situation only continued to worsen, however, and by the end of 1930 almost three million Germans were unemployed. In 1931 it was agreed that the Saar would be reunited with Germany, in spite of the French and Belgian opposition, thanks to the pressure exercised by the United Kingdom and the United States (which needed the French to pay their debts, and Paris, in turn, needed the German money to do so).
Then came the political bickering between the conservative party of von Papen, the social-democrat of Wels and the Zentrumspartei led by Brunning, all of them too busy to replace Jarres as Reichschancellor, which was solved by the unexpected victory of Gustav Stresseman's German People's Party (
Deutsche Volkspartei, or DVP) in the elections of 1933 (1). Stresseman's victory marked the beginning of a bitter-sweet period, marked by the rise in Czechoslovakia of the
Deutsche Nationalpartei Böhmens, a nationalist party led by Konrad Henlein, which became a source of endless embarrasement for Berlin until the Communist takeover; the Anschluss and the success of the Disarmement conferences of 1933 and 1936, which lifted the last restrictions over the German military imposed by the Treaty of Versailles.
The end of the Locarno Conference: here we can see Vittorio Scialoja (the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs), Gustav Stresseman; Prime Minister Baldwin, Lord and Lady Chamberlain -2-; Edvard Beneš (Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia), Aristide Briand (Prime Minister of France), Aleksander Skrzyński (Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland) and Emile Vandervelve (Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium)
The worse bad news that Stresseman had to face was Italy's siding with France and Balbo's germanophobia. Having the British Empire backing Germany simply eclipsed this minor problem and thus Stresseman could devote himself to make Germany a true power able to defy the Soviet threat side by side with London. Enemies twenty years ago, now allied by the circunstances, one may think. Germany could boast of a quite strong economy. In fact, the Reich was enjoying a quite noticeable economic growth which had started around 1933 (the
Wirtschaftswunder or "Economic Miracle"). Industrial production doubled from 1930 to 1935, and gross national product grew at a rate of nine or 10% per year. The recovery had been accelerated by Jarre's currency reform (June 1931) and the British loans, plues the breaking down of trade barriers.
The lifting of the military restrictions and this economic growth made possible that, by late 1937, the German army was one of the most powerful of the Continent. The
Deutsches Reichsheer, once the armies of Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg were merged with the "Prussian" army, fielded, by December 1937, 52 active divisions -six of them armoured (3)-. It had endured a long reform that had modernized its structures. The
Grosses Generalstab, which towards the end of World War had almost wholly usurped the political power of the state, saw its influence diminished by the creation of separate general headquarters by the three branches of the armed forces (the
Oberkommando des Heeres, the
Oberkommando der Marine and the
Oberkommando der Luftwaffe, which were coordinated by the
Grosses Generalstab and answered directly to the Kaiser and the Reichschancellor.
Werner von Blomberg, head of the Grosses Generalstab from 1933 to 1937)
The defeat in the war had led to a change in strategies, too. The vicious strife of the trenches had left a deep mark in the soul of the generals. After 1918, the German Army furthered concepts pioneered during World War I, combining ground (Heer) and Air Force (Luftwaffe) assets into combined arms teams: the German army was to avoid a long struggle and gave priority to fast and campaigns aimed to annhilate the enemy might in a few weeks by means sweeping pincer and lateral movements meant to obliterate the enemy as quickly as possible. To achieve this goal the OKH gave priority to the formation of motorized and armored formations, but it was a slow process and the horse was still the main mean for transportation, the artillery also remained horse-drawn and the Grenadier still moved by foot or used bicycles. But the mechanization of the German army was a fact as it was in Britain.
New weapons were introduced, as the Flammenwerfer 35 flamethrower, used to clear out trenches and buildings; the Karabiner 98k, which replaced the Gewehr 98 while the Waffenamt began to study a self-loading rifle, like the .276 Pedersen T1 rifle or the M1 Garand whcih the US Army was beginning to introduce into service; the MP-38 submachine gun and the MG34 (used as a light machine g un or as a general-purpose machine gun) became the new automatic weapons of the German infantry; the 8.8 cm Flak 18 anti-aircraft gun and the 15 cm sIG 33 (schweres Infanterie Geschütz 33) heavy infantry gun. But the darling of the Heer were the half-track vehicles and the tanks, like the Sd.Kfz.7 or the Panzer II.
The Panzer II, Germany's candidate for the "Toy Tank" prize.
The same happened to the
Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte, which included 7 Fighter Wings, 5 Bomber Wings and 3 Close Support Wings. Its aircraft were modern and well designed: the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bomber the, the Dornier Do 17 and the Heinkel He 111 bombers, and the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter. It had a weak point, however: the Luftwaffe was centered on providing close air support to the army. Thus its strenght lay in medium two-engine bombers, Stuka dive bombers and tactical fighters. Unlike the RAF, however, it lacked four-engine bombers and was thus unable to conduct an effective long-range strategic bombing campaign.
The
Kaiserliche Marine was somehow neglected. It was still recovering from the beating suffered in the Great War and consisted of 2 battlecruisers, 4 heavy cruisers, 5 light cruisers, 30 destroyers and 40 submarines, plus two old battleships of the
Deutschland class (Great War vintage). To short this out, it was planned to reequipe the navy with more ships (4 battleships, 2 aircraft carriers, 8 heavy cruisers, 16 light cruisers, 40 destroyers and 100 U-boats) with the so-called Plan Z, aimed to give Germany control of the Baltic Sea and protection against France (4).
On paper, the German army as a quite impressive force which, after the events of Prague, Stresseman was determined to reinforce, just a Chamberlain was doing.
(1) Nobody dies here until I say so.
(2) Is it me or even Lady Chamberlain looks more Primeministerial than Baldwin? Hell, even Austen Chamberlain looks more German than Stresseman!
(3) Light armoured, to be precise.
(4) Old habits die hard.
@trekaddict: Soon, very soon, methinks. Sooner than later, in fact.
@H.Appleby: After the war Owen returned to England around the mid 1920s, writting poetry and translating some French poets into English. Through his friendship with C. K Scott Moncrieff he met Lord Northcliffe but had to leave England around 1925 to avoid attracting unwanted "popularity" related with some kind of scandal a là Wilde. After some time touring in Italy and France he has settled in Paris. He's 45, still single and remains in good terms with Gertrude Stein. One of this days he will finish a novel, he promises.
No, there won't be a German civil war. Without Hitler, the nazis are, so to speak, like the Scottish after Culloden: too few and scattered to mean a thing. And forbidden to dress in brown.:laugh::laugh:
@Nathan Madien: Chambie iz angry... chambie wantz to kill!!!!
@Mr. Santiago: Rebuilding the army and taking tea with Winston.
@talt: He's ugly, but that's the less disgusting feature of him for me. I can't stand him.
@El Pip: It had to be you that found a suitable explanation, although I find odd that a pre-war deceased went unnoticed in post-war Austria. Anyway, cheers for the KGB. Impressive trick
I must confess something: I looked for the worst picture possible to post it. And when I saw it, I remembered a similar pic of Harold Wilson (a pity I can't scan it) and went for the kill.