Introduction

As the subject of this chapter is very diverse, only the most important aspects could be singled out, giving preference to an accentuating and more thesis-like presentation of the theme as opposed to a very differentiating one. Despite the wish to do justice to the German and the Russian side, the German perspective will after all prevail. Not least this has to do with the way one looks at the subject and sees the historic importance of the issue largely in its function as part of the secret German rearmament before 1933. Admittedly, this may run the risk of reducing the subject too much to a piece of German history and particularly of German military history within this epoch.

First a few general remarks about the historical context of the subject. Looking at the rather eventful German-Russian relations, the period in question here, i. e. the time between the wars, belongs to the cooperative side of those relations. The other side, the confrontational one and uppermost in our general conscience, will be dealt with in other chapters.

If we look at German-Russian relations between the creation of the German nation state in 1871 and its re-establishment in 1990, we see a constant sequence of confrontational and cooperative phases, of cold or hot war, even war of extermination, and strong, even intensive economic-technical cooperation, down to military-strategic collaboration. We have therefore rarely known anything like non-dramatic inter-state ‘normality’, perhaps with the exception of a period during the Empire, but a constant series of extremes in one or other direction. Both countries are unable to feel or behave indifferently towards each other but always take a firm stand, and the changes in their relations are usually caused by external circumstances. Since German unification in 1990, the relationship is clearly moving in the direction of cooperation again - political, economic and, to a lesser extent, military.

The emphasis in this contribution is on the relations, in particular the military ones, during the years of the Weimar Republic from 1919 to 1933. Before, however, we should consider the situation before and after the historic dates which define our period. What were things like before and after? Let’s have a brief look at the military, and only the military, relations between both countries before 1918 and after 1933.