A secret army was in the works by the Nazis after losing World War II. It appears, according to Nazi intelligence, that their overall plan was to overtake the Allied forces which were occupying the nation after war’s end. They had hoped that such a plan might result in the unification of Germany under a renewed Third Reich. The secret army was predominantly comprised of top-ranking officers.
There were as many as two thousand former Nazis involved in the plan. In some ways, it is surprising that these plans have only recently been discovered, as they actually made quite a bit of progress in their strategy for overthrowing the Allies. They had originally planned to recruit as many as forty thousand to their secret army following their successful acquisition of numerous weapons and ammunition. They even managed to spy on a number of political adversaries. The plan was primarily spearheaded by Albert Schnez, who had experience working under Hitler as a high-ranking member of the Nazi regime during World War II.
Of course, this was only the beginning of their plan. There was much more they had intended to do, starting with an assault on occupying Russians. Beginning in East Germany, the secret army of former SS officers and Wehrmacht soldiers was going to make its way to West Germany as they continued their assault on the Allies. They also hoped that they could sway some of the Soviets to join their cause.
While this information is a revelation to most people, it was not so secret to some important parties at the time of the group’s formation. German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was aware of the group by 1951. Wary of the secret army, he had them watched. He was evidently curious as to their long-term goals, as he did not order them killed or even imprisoned. Under his watch, he let the group continue until it fizzled out on its own, the Mail Online reports.
The secret army felt that their nation had been dishonored at the end of the Second World War, and took it upon themselves as their duty to rectify the situation. They were also uncomfortable with the division of Germany into the East and West, and felt that they needed to unify the country or face a possible civil war. Aside from that, they wanted to find people they felt had betrayed Germany during the war and bring them to justice. The secret army had high hopes for a force nowhere near as large as that which fought for Germany during the war, and it is not fully surprising that they did not achieve most of what they set out to do.