The Black Reichswehr was the extra-legal paramilitary wing of the Weimar Republic's Reichswehr army that was active from 1919 to 1923. As the German army was limited to 100,000 soldiers and 4,000 officers, the Weimar government tacitly supported General Hans von Seeckt and Defense Minister Otto Gessler's formation of a secret modernized army that operated tank, chemical weapons, and fighter-pilot training schools in Soviet Russia and military bases within Germany. The Black Reichswehr came to have a strength of 2,000 service members and 18,000 reservists in the aftermath of the third Silesian Uprising, when the German militar yprovided arms to Freikorps members who stashed away their arms on the conflict's end. The Black Reichswehr engaged in sabotage acts and assaults on French Army units during their occupation of the Ruhr, although the German government denied responsibility. It was not long before the Black Reichswehr, driven by right-wing nationalism, turned against the Weimar Republic, resulting in the failed 1923 Kustrin Putsch.
The Black Reichswehr was said to have disbanded after that failed coup, with most of its veterans joining the Nazi SA, Der Stahlhelm, or Organisation Consul, but Major-General Wilhelm Seegers kept the formation alive with the support of industrialist Annemarie Nyssen and her son Alfred, who smuggled in small arms, tanks, heavy artillery, and even phosgene gas from the USSR during the late 1920s. In 1929, the Black Reichswehr again attempted a coup in Operation Prangertag, but the coup was quietly thwarted by the Berlin Police, and the Black Reichswehr's continued existence remained unknown to the public.
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