By this time he was encountering increasingly stark differences with General Hans von Seeckt who had become head of the army in 1920. Thaer submitted his resignation and entered military requirement, taking at his own wish the uniform of a Colonel of the old Prussian General Staff; he was 53. Nearly two decades later, on 27 August 1939, he was given the title of "Generalmajor" in the context of nationwide celebrations intended to highlight the Battle of Tannenberg a quarter century earlier.