Like the rest of the
Reichswehr leadership, Schleicher saw democracy as an impediment to military power, and was convinced that only a dictatorship could make Germany a great military power again.
[44] Though Schleicher sometimes claimed to be a
monarchist, in reality he cared nothing for the
House of Hohenzollern, and often stated: "Republic or monarchy is not the question now, but rather what should the republic look like."
[45] He was willing to accept a republic, but was deeply hostile toward the democratic Weimar republic, and much preferred a regime dominated by the military.
[46] The German historian
Eberhard Kolb wrote that:
"...from the mid-1920s onwards the Army leaders had developed and propagated new social conceptions of a militarist kind, tending towards a fusion of the military and civilian sectors and ultimately a totalitarian military state (
Wehrstaat)."
[47]
It was Schleicher's dream to create that
Wehrstaat (Military State), in which the military would reorganize German society as part of the preparations for the total war that the
Reichswehr wished to wage.
[48] From the second half of 1931 onwards Schleicher was the leading advocate within the German government of the
Zähmungskonzept (taming concept) where the Nazis were to be "tamed" by being brought into the government, which had the additional bonus for Schleicher as helping to do away with democracy by having an anti-democratic party in office.
[49] Schleicher, a militarist to the core, greatly admired the militarism of the Nazis; and the fact that
Grenzschutz was working well, especially in East Prussia where the SA was serving as an unofficial militia backing up the
Reichswehr was seen as a model for future Army-Nazi co-operation.
[50]
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