Wilhelm Groener - Biography

Biography

Born in Ludwigsburg in the Kingdom of Württemberg as the son of a regimental paymaster, Groener entered the Württemberg Army in 1884 and attended the War Academy from 1893 to 1897. He won appointment to the General Staff in 1899. Attached to the railway section for the next 17 years, he became head of it in 1912. In November 1916 he moved into the Prussian War Ministry as deputy war minister - in charge of war production. In August 1917 Groener served as chief of staff of an army group in the Ukraine.

On the resignation of Erich Ludendorff on 29 October 1918, Groener became First Quartermaster General (Deputy Chief of the General Staff) under Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg. 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. In November, Groener advised Kaiser Wilhelm II that he had lost the confidence of the armed forces and recommended abdication to the monarch.

With the Kaiser's abdication on 9 November 1918 the Marxist Spartacus League declared a soviet republic in Berlin on the same day. Social Democrat leaders Friedrich Ebert (newly-named Chancellor) and Philipp Scheidemann sought to forestall the Communists′ action, and—evidently on the spur of the moment—Scheidemann proclaimed a Republic two hours earlier.

Groener, as second-in-command of the German Army and an aquaintance of 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, which was to remain secret for a number of years. For his part of the pact, Ebert agreed to suppress the Bolshevik-led revolution and to 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 leaders, many of whom sought the retention of the monarchy.

Groener subsequently oversaw the retreat and demobilisation of the defeated German army after active World War I fighting ended with the armistice of 11 November 1918.

After his resignation from the army (30 September 1919) to protest the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Groener moved 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 storm troopers (SA). When he rose to defend his views of the banning of the SA in the Reichstag, Hermann Göring attacked him violently. The defense minister tried to defend himself, but suffering from diabetes and heart trouble, the old man was overwhelmed by abuse from the Nazi benches. Exhausted and humiliated, Groener left the chamber, only to walk into Kurt von Schleicher, who told Groener he must resign as Defence minister. He appealed to President Hindenburg, but Hindenburg claimed he could do nothing about it. On 13 May, Groener resigned, humiliated and ridiculed throughout Germany, and disappeared from public life.

Groener married twice: to Helene Geyer (1864–1926), with one daughter, Dorothea Groener-Geyer {b.1900}; and to Ruth Naeher-Glück, with whom he had a son. Groener died in Potsdam-Bornstedt on 3 May 1939.