Wilhelm Groener

Karl Eduard Wilhelm Groener (German pronunciation: [ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈɡʁøːnɐ] ; 22 November 1867 – 3 May 1939) was a Württemberg–German general and politician, who served as the final Chief of the Great General Staff and Reich Minister of Transport, Defence and the Interior. After a confrontation with Erich Ludendorff, the Quartermaster general (Erster Generalquartiermeister) of the German Army, Groener was reassigned to a field command. When Ludendorff was dismissed in October 1918, Groener succeeded him. Groener worked with the new Social Democratic president Friedrich Ebert to foil a left-wing take-over during the German Revolution of 1918–1919. Under his command, the army bloodily suppressed popular uprisings throughout Germany. Groener 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. He was pushed out of the government in 1932 by Kurt von Schleicher, who was working on a pact with the Nazis.