Based in the Bendlerblock building in Berlin, it was established in October 1919 under the leadership of a defence minister and staffed mostly from the existing Prussian Ministry of War.

On 6 March 1919, the Weimar National Assembly – Germany's post-war interim parliament, which was tasked with passing necessary laws while it drafted a constitution for the Republic – enacted the Law on the Formation of a Provisional National Defence Force (Gesetz über die Bildung einer vorläufigen Reichswehr ).

The position of defence minister was established early in 1919[2] and filled by Gustav Noske on 13 February.

[3] As a covert replacement for the German Empire's General Staff (OHL), which had been banned by the Treaty of Versailles (Article 160), the Truppenamt was formed within the Reichswehr Ministry in October 1919.

In § 12, the war ministries of Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg were dissolved, and command authority was concentrated in the hand of the defence minister.

[9] The Defence Act (Wehrgesetz ) of 21 May 1935 made the Führer and chancellor (Hitler) supreme commander of the Wehrmacht.