Blomberg – Fritsch Affair The Blomberg – Fritsch Affair , also known as the Blomberg – Fritsch crisis ( German " Blomberg – Fritsch – Krise " ) , was two related scandals in early 1938 which resulted in the subjugation of the German Armed Forces ( " Wehrmacht " ) to dictator Adolf Hitler . As documented in the Hossbach Memorandum , Hitler had been dissatisfied with the two high - ranking military officials concerned , Werner von Blomberg and Werner von Fritsch , and regarded them as too hesitant towards the war preparations he was demanding . Numerous other generals were moved about . Hitler took personal command of the armed forces through the new Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ( OKW ) after the defeat outside Moscow in December 1941 and appointed himself as commander of the Oberkommando des Heeres ( OKH ) after Walther von Brauchitsch was relieved and transferred to the leadership reserve . Hitler then began participating at OKW , where Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel never dared to oppose Hitler . Blomberg marriage . The Blomberg – Fritsch affair began soon after the marriage on 12 January 1938 of the War Minister Werner von Blomberg to Erna Gruhn , when the Berlin police discovered she had a long criminal record and had posed for pornographic photographs . According to testimony given much later at the Nuremberg trials , information received by the Police Commissioner within days also indicated that " Marshal von Blomberg ' s wife had been a previously convicted prostitute who had been registered as a prostitute in the files of seven large German cities ; she was in the Berlin criminal files . . . She had also been sentenced by the Berlin courts for distributing indecent pictures . " Marriage to a person with such a criminal record violated the standard of conduct expected of officers as defined by Blomberg himself and came as a shock to Hitler — the Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring had been Blomberg ' s best man , and Hitler himself had served as a witness at the wedding . However , Hitler and Göring saw this development as an opportunity to dispose of Blomberg . Hitler ordered Blomberg to have the marriage annulled , in order to avoid a scandal and to preserve the integrity of the army . Blomberg refused to annul the marriage and , after Göring had threatened to make his wife ' s past public knowledge , on 27 January 1938 he resigned all of his posts . Fritsch . The events surrounding Blomberg ' s marriage inspired Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler to arrange a similar affair for Commander - in - Chief Werner von Fritsch . Göring did not want Fritsch to become the successor to Blomberg and thus his superior . Himmler wanted to weaken the " Wehrmacht " and its mainly aristocratic generals in order to strengthen his " Schutzstaffel " as a competitor to the regular German Army ( " Heer " ) . In 1936 , Reinhard Heydrich had prepared a file on Fritsch with allegations of homosexuality and had passed the information on to Hitler , but Hitler had rejected it and ordered Heydrich to destroy the file . However , he did not do so . Now in 1938 , Heydrich resurrected the old file on Fritsch , who was again accused of being a homosexual by Himmler and his SS . It was reported that Fritsch had been encouraged by General Ludwig Beck to carry out a military " putsch " against the State , but that he declined and resigned on 4 February 1938 , to be replaced by Walther von Brauchitsch , whom Fritsch had recommended for the post . Re - organization . Hitler used the situation to transfer the duties of the Ministry of War ( " Reichskriegsministerium " ) to a new organization — the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces ( " Oberkommando der Wehrmacht " , or OKW ) — and Wilhelm Keitel , who became the new head of the OKW on 4 February 1938 . This weakened the traditional Army High Command ( " Oberkommando des Heeres " , or OKH ) which was now subordinated to the OKW . Hitler took further advantage of the situation by replacing several generals and ministers with men even more loyal to him , taking more effective " de facto " control of the " Wehrmacht " , which " de jure " he commanded . Some senior officers of the " Wehrmacht " protested against these changes , most notably Colonel General Ludwig Beck , who circulated a petition signed by Colonel General Gerd von Rundstedt and others . Follow - up . Soon it became known that the charges against Fritsch were false — the information in the file was in fact about a " Rittmeister " ( cavalry captain ) called Achim von Frisch . Himmler and Heydrich nevertheless pursued the case , conveniently discovering an individual called Otto Schmidt to serve as a witness in support of the charge . The " Wehrmacht " demanded that an honour court of officers examine the " Blomberg – Fritsch Affair " , as it had come to be known . The proceedings were presided over by Hermann Göring . Schmidt claimed to recognise Fritsch as an officer whom he had witnessed in a homosexual act in a public lavatory with a man known ( in translation ) as " Bavarian Joe " . However , Schmidt was exposed as a notorious criminal whose Berlin gang had specialized in the blackmail of homosexuals . Members of the German officer corps were appalled at the mistreatment of Fritsch and , in the next meeting , Himmler , Göring , and even Hitler might have come under pressure from them as the case against Fritsch was seen as weak . The successful annexation ( " Anschluss " ) of Austria shortly thereafter silenced those critics . Colonel General Beck resigned on 18 August 1938 and Colonel General von Rundstedt obtained permission to retire in October 1938 . Acquittal . Schmidt later withdrew his accusation against Fritsch , and was subsequently murdered . Fritsch was formally acquitted on 18 March , but the damage to his name was done , and he was never reinstated as Commander - in - Chief . Despite the army demanding his rehabilitation and restoration to his former command , Hitler would only go as far as to name him honorary colonel of an artillery regiment . Just after the German invasion of Poland , Fritsch was inspecting front line troops when he was shot in the leg and died . Some people believed that he had been seeking his own death . Bound by their personal oath to Hitler ( the " Reichswehreid " of 1934 , ironically ordered by Blomberg ) , many members of the " Wehrmacht " never acted on their feelings of displeasure regarding this event . Thereafter , the army was more or less a reliable instrument for Hitler , ultimately leading to the destruction of both .