The three men were charged with membership in the Nazi Party; at that time membership in political parties was forbidden for members of the "Reichswehr". The three officers openly admitted to Nazi Party membership and used it as their defence to claim that the Nazi Party membership should not be forbidden to "Reichswehr" personnel. When the three officers were caught red-handed distributing Nazi literature at their base, their commanding officer, General Ludwig Beck (of the 5th Artillery Regiment based in Ulm), was furious at their arrest, and argued that since the Nazi Party was a force for good, "Reichswehr" personnel should be allowed to join the Party. At the Leipzig trial of Ludin and Scheringer, Beck and other officers testified about the good character of the accused, described the Nazi Party as a positive force in German life, and proclaimed his belief that the "Reichswehr" ban on Nazi Party membership should be rescinded. The trial in Leipzig caused a media sensation and Hitler himself testified at the trial about how much Nazi and "Reichswehr" values were one and the same. After the trial, many "Reichswehr" officers started to favour the NSDAP. By 1931, Germany's reserves of experienced reservists were coming to an end, because Part V of the Treaty of Versailles forbade conscription and existing reservists were ageing. General Kurt von Schleicher worried that unless conscription was restored soon, German military power would be destroyed forever. So, Schleicher and the rest of the "Reichswehr" leadership were determined that Germany must end Versailles, and in the meantime saw the SA and the other right-wing paramilitary groups as the best substitute for conscription. Schleicher and other "Reichswehr" generals made secret contacts with the SA leadership starting in 1931. Like the rest of the "Reichswehr" leadership, Schleicher viewed democracy as a great impediment to military power, and firmly believed that only a dictatorship could make Germany a great military power again. Thus Schleicher worked to replace the democracy with a dictatorship headed by himself. In this way, Schleicher played a key role in the downfall of the Weimar Republic and unintentionally helped to bring about Nazi Germany. The military played a major role in January 1933 in persuading President Paul von Hindenburg to dismiss Schleicher and appoint Hitler as Chancellor. The reasons for this was by January 1933 that it was clear that the Schleicher government could only stay in power by proclaiming martial law, and by sending the "Reichswehr" to crush popular opposition.