Abstract During the interwar period, the Reichswehr planned the air war of the future. The prohibition of air armament by the Treaty of Versailles and limited economic resources lead to a small-scale air armament conducted in secret. The Reichswehr’s air warfare planning is often interpreted in light of the Wehrmacht’s air warfare operations in the Second World War. In contrast, technical planning and development of aircraft, weapons and bombs are usually neglected. However, a greater reliance on these sources helps to clarify the Reichswehr’s guiding principles for air warfare. It becomes clear, that the central focus of its air warfare thinking largely, but not entirely, corresponded to the theories of the air warfare theorist Giulio Douhet (1869–1930). Due to the aforementioned limitations, this thinking was hardly reflected in the actual armament procurement.
