The German military had traditionally functioned as a "state within a state" with a very large margin of institutional autonomy.[1] Thus Chancellor Otto von Bismarck had been forbidden to attend meetings of the Supreme Council of War because as it was insultingly phrased "Lest this civilian might betray the secrets of the State".[2] In the First World War, the military began to complain more and more that both the Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg and the Emperor Wilhelm II were grossly incompetent, and needed to step aside in order to allow the military to win the war.[3]