Schleicher, a Reichswehr general who retired from active service shortly before he became chancellor, hoped that he could weaken the Nazi Party by splitting it and bringing some of its members into his government, but his attempts to work with them failed.

When German President Paul von Hindenburg refused to order the state of emergency that Schleicher wanted to save his government, it left him no choice but to resign.

[1] At a cabinet meeting on 2 December, however, Papen was informed by Schleicher's associate, General Eugen Ott, that Reichswehr war games showed there was no way to maintain order against a potential uprising by the Nazis and Communists.

[5] The division played into Schleicher's plan to weaken the Nazis by forming an alliance (the Querfront) that would bring together various groups that favoured an authoritarian regime.

Both Brüning and Papen had bypassed the Reichstag and governed using the emergency decrees that Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution granted the president.

The cabinet consisted of the following ministers:[8] In his inaugural declaration, Schleicher emphasized job creation as his government's major goal.

His inaction especially angered the large landowners in the eastern provinces of Germany – a group to which Hindenburg belonged – who wanted higher tariffs on foodstuffs.

[10] At the World Disarmament Conference in Geneva, Schleicher worked to abolish the arms limitations imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles.