In addition to the dismissal of both Vice Admiral Walter Lohmann on 19 January 1928 and Reichsmarine Chief Hans Zenker on 30 September 1928, it led Reichswehr Minister Otto Gessler to resign.
Initially, proceeds of about 100 million gold Reichsmark were garnered from the illegal sale of ships and submarines intended for scrapping in 1919 and 1920 under Treaty of Versailles requirements.
He received the assurance of personal honor protection.Ruhr fund monies were used mainly for secret weapons sales, especially in Italy, and to build a tanker fleet.
[7] After a former Phoebus employee informed him about the Lohmann investments, Wenkel published the details on August 8 and 9, that resulted in an uproar becoming a scandal.
Although the Reichstag's Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD) Deputy Ernst Schneller asked very precisely for details of the upgrade programme, he was ignored.
On 30 September, Gessler's successor Wilhelm Groener, dismissed the chief of the Reichsmarine, Admiral Hans Zenker, Lohmann's direct superintendent.
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) suspected black funds and demanded that army and navy resources should be limited to their allotted budgets and be monitored more closely.
[20] Both the author Walter Kreiser (pseudonym: Heinz Jäger) and the publisher Carl von Ossietzky were condemned to 18 months imprisonment for exposing military secrets.