The Rise of the Third Reich

"You two, come in."

The door to Hindenburg's office was opened, and what appeared in front of Hessmann was Lieutenant Colonel Schulenburg, whose face was ashen. The Treaty of Versailles was like a bolt from the blue to him and middle-level German officers like Hersmann and Schleicher. For lieutenant colonels and colonels of their age, it would only take ten or fifteen years for them to be promoted to general rank in the normal-sized German Army. Unless you are particularly unlucky, becoming a lieutenant general or admiral is a high probability event.

And behind the promotion of military ranks, there are of course corresponding powers and interests!

Now according to the treaty, the future size of the German Army is limited to a mere 100,000 men! How many divisions can be organized with such a small number of people? How many people can be division commanders or regimental commanders? Moreover, even the General Staff is disbanding. How many positions will be reduced among the elites of the General Staff? The future of everyone is not optimistic just thinking about it!

Hersmann and Schleicher entered the office, where Hindenburg and Seckter were found. Sekt returned from Paris with a copy of the Treaty of Versailles. Hindenburg had already read the copy of the Treaty word for word, and was naturally frowning now.

There are also provisions for trying war criminals! This is life-threatening! And he also had to put the emperor on trial, which was really too much of a deception. I don’t think the Germans ever proposed trying the two Napoleonic emperors back then!

"Kurt, Ludwig, you are here together." Marshal Hindenburg sat behind the desk and waved to the two juniors. "You must have read the copy of the treaty, right?"

Of course they have not read the copy that Sekter brought, but Hessmann had spies. The Stasi has now taken over many spies from the original Military Intelligence Agency and established an intelligence station in Paris.

A copy of the "Treaty of Versailles" was delivered to Hersmann this morning, and Schleicher also obtained the copy from Hersmann later - although Hersmann wanted to make the Stasi independent. Kingdom, but Schleicher regarded himself as the successor of the Juncker Group and considered Hersmann his younger brother. Therefore, Hessman was required to report any important information to him immediately.

Hersman did not refuse this request, but readily complied with it. Because he was well aware of Schleicher's energy during the Weimar Republic era, and he also knew that this man had no ill intentions towards him.

Hersmann is ten years younger than Schleicher. In an army that emphasizes seniority, the relationship between the two should not be a competition, but a succession relationship. Hersmann can definitely take over from Schleicher. If Schleicher becomes chief of general staff, he will probably consider Hersmann as one of his successor candidates.

There are more reasons for the harmonious relationship between the two. During these days of contact with Schleicher, Hersman found that this man was a relatively traditional aristocratic officer, although he knew the importance of intelligence work. But he was not very interested in leading and controlling the secret service organization, nor did he regard the secret service as a powerful force.

"Already seen it." Hersman answered Hindenburg's question first.

"What do you think?" Hindenburg asked.

“It sucks overall,” Hersman said, “but there are positives!”

"The positive side?" Von Seeckt looked at Hersman with a look that looked at a lunatic, "I didn't see it!"

"First of all, the treaty does not cover the United Baltic Duchy," Hersman said. "That means we have a good chance of keeping it there and having a puppet state that is not controlled by the treaty."

"Secondly, this peace conference has actually greatly improved Germany's external security environment." Hessmann said thoughtfully, "Although our Germany has been weakened, it has still preserved most of its territory and population. The Austro-Hungarian Empire has already No longer exists, and Austria is obviously inclined to form a unified country with us. In addition, Russia is not only excluded from the peace conference, but also because of the emergence of Greater Poland, they are no longer neighbors with us. As far as I know, the Soviet Union. In order to concentrate its forces against Belarus, Russia is preparing to cede half of Ukraine and half of Belarus to Poland..."

"Is there such a thing?" Von Seeckt smiled mockingly, "Do the Poles dare to ask for it?"

"Of course they dare. The Poles have always been very courageous!" Hersman laughed. "This determines that we will have a long-term and relatively stable cooperative relationship with Soviet Russia in the future."

"Secondly, it educated 66 million German people," Hessmann continued, "let them see clearly who is Germany's real enemy! It also let the people know who is the sinner who betrayed the country! In this way, we will fight in the next battle In war, there is a clear goal and unity.”

"Germany's real enemy?" von Seeckt asked, "Who do you think it is?"

"Britain, the United States and France!" Hersman said, "These three countries are bent on destroying us. The reason why Germany did not turn into another Austria-Hungary this time is because of the emergence of Soviet Russia and Red Hungary."

“Isn’t Soviet Russia the enemy?”

Hersmann looked at von Seeckt and said seriously: "General, I think we can only fight in one direction!"

"Then why not deal with Soviet Russia first?"

"Because Germany cannot be the dog of Britain, France and the United States!" Hersman said. "Not only because of dignity, but also because Germany is too powerful. Whether it is industry or population, we are a big and powerful European country. Britain, France and the United States, which dominate the world, will not allow us to get enough spoils in the East to make us stronger. For example Poland and Ukraine...So, we should defeat Britain, France and the United States first, at least Britain and France first."

"How to defeat them?" Sekter seemed a little moved. Hersman's analysis made sense.

"Acquire strength through cooperation with the Soviet Union, and then seize future military changes."

"Future military changes?"

"It will be brought about by significant advances in internal combustion engine technology!" Hersman said. "The power of internal combustion engines has increased at least dozens of times in the past 50 years, and has increased several times in the past few years. If it can be used again in the next 20 years, An increase of more than 5 times will trigger a military revolution!”

"Tank? Plane?" Von Seeckt shook his head, "But the treaty limits our hands and feet!"

"Then we will find a way to break through this constraint!" Hessman replied. "This is an attempt to kill our treaty, so the thing to consider is not compliance, but how to break through!"

"Where to break through?"

"Baltics, Soviet Russia and Hungary!"

Von Seeckt turned to look at Hindenburg and suddenly laughed: "Marshal, you are right, Ludwig is indeed a talent... Why didn't I see it in the past?"

Hindenburg threw his head back and sighed: "He and Kurt are both the kind of people who can be the chief of general staff and the first director of munitions in the future. Unfortunately... there may not be a general staff in the future!"

"Your Excellency, Marshal, I think it is necessary to preserve the General Staff and the standing army of at least 300,000 people. In the future, we need to keep the army as powerful as possible."

Hersman knew the subsequent history. The General Staff turned into the Army Bureau, and the Army only had 100,000 soldiers left. This greatly weakened the military forces controlled by Juncker, making them unable to fight against extreme parties like the Nazis in the future.

Now Hessmann has very clearly felt that the emergence of the Nazi Party in Germany will be an inevitable trend!

The combination of the November Revolution and the Treaty of Versailles will definitely give birth to the Nazis! This is determined by the will of tens of millions of Germans. No one can stop it and can only follow this trend. And Germany in the future will indeed need extreme forces like the Nazis and the military to cooperate - because only the Nazis and Junkers have the power to restore National Socialism in Germany.

But the army controlled by Juncker cannot be too weak. If the military is too weak, then Juncker will not be co-ruling Germany with the Nazis. The German army will become a tool of Nazi rule and eventually become a victim!

"But how are we going to break this damn treaty?"

"Hungary!" Hersman said, "a Hungarian Soviet Republic ruled by Bolsheviks! As long as it exists for one day, we have reason to maintain a larger force. And France, as the overlord of the European continent, is obliged to suppress the Hungarian revolution. To prevent the revolution from spreading throughout Central Europe and the Balkans... we can make the French mission in Hungary difficult."

——

Please collect and recommend