Forming the Wehrmacht and Nazi Politics

[longsword14]

Need accounts of how did the politics and military high command interact, and led to each others evolution.
Hopefully this book would not be too hard a read, with a narrative that flows nicely.

I could never get a clear view of how could upstarts like Hitler get so much support regardless of his promise of rearmament.
Was the German political scenario so broken?

 

[mudhead]

Albert Seaton, The German Army 1933–45, is a very good, and readable, 1982 book that covers more than the title indicates - excellent sections on the Imperial and Weimar periods. Waspish pen pictures of the major participants, and good on how Das Heer tried to evolve in the Nazi era in order to cope with the somewhat unconventional demands of the political leadership. Recommended, a good starting point.

 

[Deleted member 1487]

Need accounts of how did the politics and military high command interact, and led to each others evolution.
Hopefully this book would not be too hard a read, with a narrative that flows nicely.

I could never get a clear view of how could upstarts like Hitler get so much support regardless of his promise of rearmament.
Was the German political scenario so broken?

There was political purges of the Wehrmacht by minister von Blomberg:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_von_Blomberg#Minister_of_Defence
Then by Hitler:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blomberg–Fritsch_affair
Then he took over the army directly after stacking it with passive officers. Plus he was bribing the fuck out of everyone he could:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bribery_of_senior_Wehrmacht_officers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism_and_the_Wehrmacht#Growing_alignment_with_Nazism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism_and_the_Wehrmacht#Mechanisms_of_control

Starting with Hindenburg appointing von Blomberg to have a military that was politically willing to work with Hitler, plus then Hitler bribing the military with outright bribes and rearmament and promotions, plus fulfilling their ideological desire for revenge for WW1, Hitler then made sure the officer corps and government was stacked with people that wouldn't oppose him. Any opposition was filtered out in a process over the 1930s and then war was used as another means of control over society, the government, and the military that was ideologically opposed to couping the government; plus Hitler being right about a bunch of foreign policy and strategy convinced the willing believers of his genius. It wasn't until much later that his failures made them willing to stand up and even then only a portion.