There’s an old saying something like this: “Most states have an army, Germany is an army that has a state.”
That seems to be an unfair characterization of the German army, which seemed to have been subordinate to civilian leadership. I know Hitler made a show of uniforms, like a lot of dictators, but the Army really did tend to follow the political leaders, not vice versa. Hitler was a lot more eager for war, imho, than the Army.