Reichswehr (Joan of What?)

The Reichswehr (, Realm Defence) is the unified armed forces of and their civil administration and procurement authorities. The States of Germany are not allowed to maintain armed forces of their own, since the German Constitution states that matters of defense fall into the sole responsibility of the federal government.

The Reichswehr is divided into a military part (armed forces or Streitkräfte) and a civil part with the armed forces administration (Wehrverwaltung). The military part of the federal defence force consists of the ' (Army), ' (Navy),  (Air Force), Streitkräftebasis (Joint Support Service), Zentraler Sanitätsdienst (Joint Medical Service), and the Kommando Cyber- und Informationsraum'' (Cyber and Information Space Command) branches.

The Reichswehr traces its history to the Deutsches Heer and the Kaiserliche Marine formed when Germany was first unified in 1871. The German Armed Forces in its current form was created by the government of in 1935 when both the Heer and the Marine &mdash; now the Reichsheer and Reichsmarine respectively &mdash; were unified under a single central command structure, along with the Luftwaffe, which was separated from the Reichsheer to become one of the world's first independent air forces. The Reichsheer fought alongside the to achieve victory over the  in, and contributed to the establishment of Germany's status as a.

As of 28 February 2017, the Reichswehr has a strength of 1,638,200 active soldiers, making it the fourth-largest military in the world, behind those of, and. In addition the Reichswehr has approximately 382,000 reserve personnel (2016). With German military expenditures at €83 billion, the Reichswehr is the third-best-funded military force in the world.