Wilhelm Groener

Who was Wilhelm Groener?

Karl Eduard Wilhelm Groener was a German soldier and politician. His organisational and logistical abilities resulted in a successful military career before and during World War I. After a confrontation with the Quartermaster general of the German army and de-facto dictator of Germany, Erich Ludendorff, Groener was reassigned to a field command. However, on Ludendorff's dismissal in October 1918, Groener succeeded him. Groener then worked with the new Social Democratic president Friedrich Ebert to prevent chaos and a left-wing take-over during the German Revolution of 1918–19. Under his command the military bloodily suppressed leftist uprisings throughout Germany. Yet he also tried to integrate the military, which was dominated by an aristocratic and monarchistic officer corps, into the new republic. After resigning from the army in the summer of 1919, Groener served in several governments of the Weimar Republic as minister of transportation, interior and defence. He was pushed out of the government in 1932 by Kurt von Schleicher, who was working on a pact with the Nazis. Groener was an obstacle to the pact.