It was said that Prussia, the nucleus of the German state, was not a country with an army but an army with a country. The army achieved an exalted status as the engine of German unification during the 19th century; officers became an elite to which civilians were expected to defer.
When World War I went bad — a war the German army had largely provoked through its hair-trigger invasion plans — the Prussian officer corps called for an armistice, forced the abdication of the Kaiser (to whom they had sworn obedience) and blamed civilian politicians for the defeat. They intrigued throughout the Weimar Republic period, unseating governments, conspiring with enemies of the republic and, in 1933, helping to give the final shove that toppled democracy.
