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Wilhelm Groener, in full Karl Eduard Wilhelm Groener, (born November 22, 1867, Ludwigsburg, Württemberg [Germany]—died May 3, 1939, Bornstedt, near Potsdam, Germany), German general and politician who helped prevent a communist revolution in Germany after World War I by throwing army support to the moderate Social Democratic government of ...

Wilhelm Groener (1867-1939) was a high-ranking military officer whose support for Friedrich Ebert and the SPD helped suppress a socialist revolution in Germany in 1918-19. He later became a minister in several Weimar governments. Born in Württemberg in southern Germany to a military family, Groener enlisted in the army in 1884.

Early in the revolution, he had signed off on a pact with the High Command--Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and his able chief of staff (actually “Quartermaster General”), Wilhelm Groener. The officer corps pledged to defend the new Republic, and in return, Ebert promised to support the army, to restore law and order, and to do everything ...

Groener is considered the most loyal of the military leaders of the Weimar Republic. His successor, Hans von Seeckt , who, from October 1, 1919, held the new position of chief of the Truppenamt (as the Treaty of Versailles did not allow Germany to have a general staff) was unwilling to follow every order given to him by the civilian government.

Karl Eduard Wilhelm Groener war ein württembergischer Generalleutnant und deutscher Politiker. Nach wichtigen militärischen Funktionen im Ersten Weltkrieg leitete er von 1920 bis 1923 das Reichsverkehrsministerium, von 1928 bis 1932 amtierte er als Reichswehrminister und seit 1931 zusätzlich als Reichsminister des Innern, ohne einer Partei ...