Military bureaucracy, a tale as old as time.
@Mike1976, I reckon you're gonna like this.
"The work pace of Army Command has slowed down far too much for my liking. Rest assured that I do not attribute these delays to a lack of devotion to duty, but rather to an excess thereof, that is, an overabundance of bureaucratic wonts.
I fear a departmental vanity that will not allow the redesign of a horseshoe nail to proceed until departments T1, T2, T3, T4, V.A., J.W.G. In. 1 through 7, the Legal Department, and the Entente's Peace Commission have all had their say in writing, and any and all disagreements between them have thoroughly been resolved through exhaustive personal meetings.
And even more than that, I fear that all these departments will now have consulted every single cavalry squadron about that horsehoe nail.
And once the Veterinary Department, wielding sole authority in this question, has at last recommended a final design for my approval, either 100 cavalry mounts will have gone lame, or the old nail will remain in use, rendering all the Ministry's and the troops' efforts for naught.
I urge all Army Command departments to perceive this horseshoe nail as a symbol, and to do everything in their power to ensure that we rid ourselves of a bureaucratic lethargy incompatible with soldiering."
—General Hans von Seeckt, Commandant of the German Army, December 5 1925
so-called 'Hufnagelerlass'
When reading these lines, do not forget the Versailles-mandated disarmament of Germany gave the new
Reichswehr free choice amongst the very best officers who had survived the Great War.
