High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Carl Wilhelm Severing (1 June 1875 Herford 23 July 1952) was a German Social Democrat politician during the Weimar era. He was Interior Minister of Prussia from 1920 to 1926, Minister of the Interior from 1928 to 1930 and Interior Minister of Prussia again from 1930 to 1932. Along with fellow Social Democrat, Otto Braun, Severing agreed to General Hans von Seeckt's plans for a secret army to protect Germany's eastern border against a sudden attack from Poland. At the Nuremberg Trials on 21 May, 1946, Severing defended this strategy by saying: "That the army of 100,000 men granted to Germany was not sufficient even for a defensive war was and is known to-day possibly to everyone in Germany concerned with politics. Germany got into a very bad situation with regard to her eastern neighbours since the establishment of the Corridor. The insular position of East Prussia forced Germany, even at that time (1920-22), to take measures which I reluctantly helped to carry out".