1 On the biography of Walther Reinhardt: Walther Reinhardt was born in Stuttgart on 24 March 1872 as the son of the then captain August Reinhardt. He attended the Gymnasium in Ulm, the Lyceum in Ludwigsburg and the Gymnasium in Heilbronn. Afterwards he changed to the Kadettenanstalt in Oranienstein and to the Hauptkadettenanstalt Groß-Lichterfelde. On 9 February 1891 Reinhardt joined the Grenadier regiment of Queen Olga No. 119 as Portepeefähnrich. In 1892 he was promoted to lieutenant, in 1897 he was appointed to war academy and subsequently commanded as lieutenant in service at the Great General Staff. Three years later, on March 10, 1904, Reinhardt was promoted to Captain, leaving the Grand General Staff in office. On April 22, 1905, he joined the General Staff of the XV Army Corps in Strasbourg before serving as Company Commander in the Infantry Regiment Alt-Württemberg No. 121 in Ludwigsburg from February 25, 1907 to April 19, 1909. On 20 April 1909 Reinhardt was transferred to the General Staff of the 26th (1st Kgl.-Württ.) Division. He returned to the Grand General Staff as Major on September 10, 1910. On 3 November 1912 he was assigned to the General Command of the XIIIth (Kgl.-Württ.) Army Corps. Reinhardt was a staff officer of the XIII Army Corps and on August 2, 1914 he entered the First World War. He was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Württemberg Army Corps on 23 January 1915. On 18 May 1915 he was appointed lieutenant colonel. From June 1916 to February 1917 Reinhardt held various command posts, each of which he held for only a few months or even a few weeks. From 26 June to 16 July 1916 he was commander of infantry regiment 118, before becoming chief of staff of the XVII Army Corps from 17 July to 20 November 1916. On 21 November 1916 he took over the post of Chief of Staff of the 11th Army in Macedonia. The appointment as Chief of Staff of the High Command of the 7th Army on 10 February 1917 led him back to the Western Front. On 23 May 1917 Reinhardt was awarded the Order of Pour le Mérite with oak leaves for his achievements in the conquest of the Chemin des Dames. He also received the Commander's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with swords for his military achievements. On April 18, 1918, Reinhardt was promoted to colonel, and by cabinet order of November 4, 1918, Reinhardt was transferred to the Prussian War Ministry to organize the demobilization of the army. Two months later, on January 2, 1919, Reinhardt took over the office of Prussian War Minister. After the dissolution of the Imperial Army, Reinhardt became the first Chief of Staff of the new Imperial Army on 13 September 1919. During this time he was also appointed Major General. Only a few months after taking over his new duties, Reinhardt resigned as Chief of Staff at the end of March 1920, following the Kapp Putsch, and took over the Döberitz apprentice brigade for a short time before becoming Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrkreiskommando V in Stuttgart as Lieutenant General on 15 May 1920. In personal union he exercised the functions of a commander of the 5th division as well as the state commander of Württemberg. He retained his position as commander of the military district command V for almost five years. On 1 January 1925 Reinhardt was appointed commander-in-chief of Group Command 2 in Kassel. Two years later, in December 1927, he retired from the army and took charge of a course for older officers. These "Reinhardt courses" lasted beyond the death of their creator until 1932/1933. Furthermore, he devoted himself to the preparation of publications mainly on military and historical topics. Walther Reinhardt died in Berlin on August 8, 1930. 2 On the estate of Walther Reinhardt: The estate of Walther Reinhardt comprises documents from his military service as well as private correspondence. In addition, manuscripts for lectures and publications, which Reinhardt wrote above all after his retirement from military service, form a not inconsiderable part. The documents are supplemented by Reinhardt's collections of newspaper clippings, particularly from the years 1918/1919, most of which were in the possession of Reinhardt's daughter Lotte Reinhardt, Director of Studies, after his death on August 8, 1930. On September 7, 1939, the latter handed over 13 tufts of files and three war diaries to the former Heeresarchiv Stuttgart, and on September 11, 1940, further archival documents, namely photographs (some of them in albums), newspaper clippings, and official personnel reminders. The documents from Reinhardt's estate were arranged chronologically in the army archives, stapled into folders and recorded. The repertory with a foreword by Major General Sieglin was available on 15 October 1940, and a small part of Reinhardt's estate was handed over to the Potsdam Army Archives shortly after his death. In a letter dated 11 September 1940, the Heeresarchiv Stuttgart attempted to obtain the transfer of this part of the estate in order to merge it with the Stuttgart holdings in process at that time. On 23 October 1940, however, the Heeresarchiv Potsdam announced that Reinhardt had "no private records" in his custody. The Heeresarchiv Stuttgart does not seem to have made any further attempts to gain possession of the Potsdam partial estate. Since the Heeresarchiv Potsdam was destroyed immediately before the end of the Second World War and most of its holdings were destroyed, the documents handed over there from Reinhardt's property are presumably lost today.17 February 1961 Lotte Reinhardt handed over to the Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart, which had meanwhile taken over most of the holdings of the former Heeresarchiv Stuttgart, further documents of her father in her possession (letters, records, drafts, printed matter, newspaper clippings). In the summer of 1964, Oberstaatsarchivrat Dr. Uhland ordered and listed these archival records, which were then combined with the older holdings. The collection folders bound by the Army Archives were dissolved several times in order to be able to chronologically classify pieces belonging to them. These studies also showed that the recording in the Army Archives was incomplete, and in some cases incorrect. The new holdings comprised 56 folders, which were structured according to the chronological order method of the Army Archives. In some of the tufts formed, subfascicles were formed. Before the transfer to the Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart, Lotte Reinhardt had made available the estate of her father, Professor Fritz Ernst (Heidelberg), in her possession, who used it for a publication (Ernst, Fritz: Aus dem Nachlass des General Walther Reinhardt, Stuttgart 1958). It seems that individual pieces remained with Professor Ernst and that even after his death (22 December 1963) they no longer came to the owner. Between 1964 and 1987, his daughter Lotte Reinhardt repeatedly submitted documents from the estate of Walther Reinhardt. On December 29, 1964, Lotte Reinhardt handed over newspaper clippings and writings. There were also copies made by Professor Ernst. The archival documents were sorted, recorded and placed to the corresponding bundle numbers. In addition, two new tufts were formed. This increased the size of the estate to 58 folders. Lotte Reinhardt also handed over further archival records on 27 August 1969, 7 March 1970, 12 March 1973, 6 February 1978, April 1978, 16 August 1978 and 26 January 1987, mainly to Walther Reinhardt for private correspondence (letters to parents, wife, children) and newspaper clippings. The M 660/034 holdings were reopened in September 2010 by the candidate Sylvia Günteroth under the guidance of Dr. Wolfgang Mährle. In the course of this work, a classification of the documents was carried out which replaced the previous chronological order. The allocation of the documents that had been archived until 1964 to individual clusters and the division of these archive units into subfascicles have been retained. The existing title recordings were carefully revised. The previously unrecorded archival records that had been archived between 1969 and 1987 were sorted and recorded. The estate of Walther Reinhardt now comprises 89 tufts with a total volume of 1.6 linear metres. 3. References to sources and literature: Sources:- Walther Reinhardt's personal file: M 430/2 Bü 1684;- Biographical documents: E 130b Bü 235, Q 3/60 Bü 29, Q 3/60 Bü 32, Q 3/60 Bü 47; M 743/1 Bü 11- Photographs: Q 3/60 Bü 32; M 703 R 170N19; M 703 R190N10; M 703 R191N17; M 707 Nr. 1213; M 743/1 Bü 11Publications Walther Reinhardt's (selection):- Reinhardt, Walther: Six Months West Front: Campaign Experiences of an Artillery Officer in Belgium, Flanders and the Champagne, 3rd edition, Berlin 1915 - Reinhardt, Walther: In der Picardie: Pictures from the position war in the west, 3rd edition, Berlin 1917 - Reinhardt, Walther/Zenker, Hans: Wehrwille und Wehrgedanke in Deutschlands Jugend: 2 lectures at the Freusburger Schulungswoche 1929, Berlin-Charlottenburg 1930 - Reinhardt, Walther: George Washington. Die Geschichte einer Staatsgründung, Frankfurt 1931 - Reinhardt, Walther: Wehrkraft und Wehrwille: aus seinem Nachlass mit einer Lebensbeschreibung Walther Reinhardt, Berlin 1932 Literature: - Ernst, Fritz: Aus dem Nachlass des General Walther Reinhardt, Stuttgart 1958.- Kohlhaas, Wilhelm: Walther Reinhardt: General der Infanterie, 1872-1930, in: Lebensbilder aus Schwaben und Franken, 17th volume, Stuttgart 1991, pp. 306-316 - Mulligan, William: The creation of the modern German Army: General Walther Reinhardt and the Weimar Republic, 1914-1930, New York 2005.Stuttgart, May 2011Dr. Wolfgang MährleSylvia Günteroth
