Paramilitary groups were formed throughout the Weimar Republic in the wake of Germany's defeat in World War I and the ensuing German Revolution. Some were created by political parties to help in recruiting, discipline and in preparation for seizing power. Some were created before WWI. Others were formed by individuals after the war and were called "Freikorps" (Free corps). The party affliated groups and others were all outside government control, but the Freikorps units were under government control, supply and pay (usually through army sources). Jump to: navigation, search A paramilitary organization is a group of civilians trained and organized in a military fashion. ... Jump to: navigation, search The period of German history from 1919 to 1933 is known as the Weimar Republic IPA (German Weimarer Republik). ... Jump to: navigation, search World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machineguns, and poison gas. ... Jump to: navigation, search Revolutionaries at machine gun posts, Berlin, November 1918 The German Revolution is a series of events that occurred in 1918-1919, culminating in the overthrow of the Kaiser and the establishment of a democratic republic. ... WWI may be an acronym for: World War I World Wrestling Industry This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Jump to: navigation, search The designation of Freikorps (German for Free Corps) was originally applied to voluntary armies. ...

After WWI, the German Army was restricted to 100,000 men, so there were a great amount of soldiers suddenly de-mobilized. Many of these men were hardened into a character called ‘’Frontgemeinschaft’’ (front line spirit). It was a spirit of camaderie that was formed due to the length and horrors of trench warfare of WWI. These paramilitary groups filled a need for many of these soldiers who suddenly lost their "family" - the army. Many of those soldiers were filled with angst, anger and frustration over the loss and horror of the war. Jump to: navigation, search Wehrmacht listen â–¶(?) was the name of the armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. ...

Paramilitary groups were quite active in the ill-fated Republic, sometimes used to seize power and other times to quell disturbances. Freikorps were used in the Baltic region in 1919 by General Rüdiger von der Goltz to protect German interests against Russia. Other Freikorps members engaged in sabotage acts against French and Belgian occupying forces in the Ruhr in 1923 by blowing up bridges. Yet other freikorps orchestrated the Kapp putsch and the Beer Hall Putsch. The Communists used their groups to seize power in several places in the Weimar Republic at different times, forming Räterepubliken. Other paramilitary groups were used to quell these uprisings. Freikorps events are displayed in the Weimar Timeline. The Baltic Sea The Baltic region (sometimes briefly The Baltics) is an ambiguous term used to denominate an arbitrary region connected to the Baltic Sea (also called The Baltics). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1919 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Rüdiger von der Goltz Gustav Adolf Joachim Rüdiger Graf von der Goltz (born December 8, 1865, in Züllichau, Prussia [now Poland]; died November 4, 1946, in Kinsegg, Allgäu, Germany) was the commander of German units which played an instrumental role in the defeat of Russian Bolsheviks... The Ruhr in Essen-Kettwig The Ruhr is a large river in western Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia) starting near the town of Winterberg in Sauerland and ending in the Rhine in the city of Duisburg. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1923 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search The Beer Hall Putsch occurred in the evening of Thursday, November 8 to early afternoon of Friday, November 9, 1923 when the nascent Nazi partys Führer Adolf Hitler, the popular World War I General Erich Ludendorff, and other leaders of the Kampfbund, unsuccessfully tried... The Communist Party of Germany (in German, Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands – KPD) was formed in December of 1918 from the Spartacist League, which originated as a small factional grouping within the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and the International Communists of Germany (IKD). ... This Weimar Timeline charts the chronology of the Weimar Republic, including the pre-history before the adoption of the actual Weimar constitution. ...

The political parties used their paramilitary groups to protect their party gatherings and to disrupt the marches and meetings of their opponents. Between 1928 to 1932, the Weimar Republic experienced a growth of political violence between these organizations called Zusammenstösse. For instance in 1930, the Nazis claimed 17 fatalities and the Communists 44 fatalities in these Zusammenstössen. Scores were injured; in 1930, 2,500 Nazis were injured and in 1932, 9,715. (1) Jump to: navigation, search 1928 was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1930 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Jump to: navigation, search Look up Nazi on Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday. ...

Party Affliated

KPD paramilitary groups:

• Roter FrontKämpferbund (Red Front Fighter’s League)
  
• Young Antifascist Guard
  
• Fighting League Against Fascism
  
• Anti-Fascist Action Group
  

NSDAP paramilitary groups:

• Sturmabteilung (SA) or Storm Division.
  
• Stosstrupp; It was later changed to Schutzstaffel. The SS was originally Adolf Hitler's personal body guard unit.
  

SPD paramilitary groups:
Jump to: navigation, search The seal of SA The Sturmabteilung [▶](audio help) (SA, German for Storm Division and is usually translated as stormtroops or stormtroopers) functioned as a paramilitary organisation of the NSDAP – the German Nazi party. ... Jump to: navigation, search The infamous double-sig rune SS insignia. ... Jump to: navigation, search Adolf Hitler ▶(?) (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 and Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Chancellor) of Germany from 1934 to his death. ...

• Schwarz, Rot, Gold, Reichsbanner (Black Red Gold); It was later changed to Iron Front.

Freikorps

Freikorps were the brainchild of Major Kurt von Schleicher. The Freikorps were also called the "Black Reichswehr" (Black Army) for they were a 'secret' army outside the bounds of the Versailles Treaty. The idea was developed after the failure of an army unit to quell a small rebellion outside Berlin at the Battle of the Schloss. The army unit, when confronted by a socialist group with women and children, threw down their weapons and either ran away or joined the protest group. This led Major von Schleicher to conceive an alternative to using Reichswehr units to quell "red" (socialist or communist) uprisings. He suggested to his superiors to form volunteer units recruited from the old Reichswehr and commanded by former Imperial officers under governmental control. This way the Reichswehr would avoid the stigma of having to fire on civilians and the government would be financially supporting these freikorps, leaving the Reichswehr to concentrate on training for real battle. Men who joined these units were called "Freebooters", and they often held strong right-wing and nationalist political views. The central Berlin government thought along with the central Reichswehr command that by paying and arming these 'black' soldiers, they might be able 'to tie them to the crib' and thus render them harmless. Kurt von Schleicher (4 April 1882–30 June 1934) was a German general and the last Chancellor of Germany during the era of the Weimar Republic. ... Woodrow Wilson with the American Peace Commissioners The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 is the peace treaty created as a result of six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 which put an official end to World War I between the Allies and Central Powers. ... Jump to: navigation, search In politics, right-wing, the political right, or simply the Right, are terms that refer to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of conservatism or Christian democracy. ... Jump to: navigation, search // Nationalism is an ideology which holds that the nation, ethnicity or national identity is a fundamental unit of human social life, and makes certain political claims based upon that belief; above all, the claim that the nation is the only legitimate basis for the state, and...

The first organizer of a Freikorps unit was General Ludwig Maercker. His unit, the "Maercker Volunteer Rifles", were soon called to rush from city to city stamping out socialist uprisings. Because his unit was called upon to every corner of Germany, he hit upon the idea of forming Einwohnerwehren, local citizen militias to keep the peace. Later on, these groups grew into the Orgesch, (Organization Escherich) reserve militia units for the German Werhmahct. They were under the command of Major Dr. Forstrat Georg Eschrich. Ludwig Maercker was a German General of World War I. Following the Armistice of 1918 that saw the end of fighting and of the Bolshevik revolution that led to the creation of the Soviet Union, there were many examples of disturbances throughout Germany. ...

Other units are:

• Freikorps von Luettwitz named and commanded by General Baron Walter von Luettwitz. This was an umbrella group with the following groups under it.
  • Potsdam Freikorps with 1,200 veterans
  • remnants of the Guards Rifle Cavalry Division
  • Reinhard Freikorps commanded by Colonel Wilhelm Reinhard.
    • Freikorps Suppe (a separate unit under the Reinhard Freikorps) with 1,500 men

• von Roeder's Scouts
• Iron Brigade from Kiel
• Kuntzel Freikorps
• Ostara League
• Oberland League
• Ehrhardt Brigade. They were the first to use the swastika as a unit symbol. They participated in the Kapp Putsch which quelled the Berlin Räterepublik.
• Viking League

This article needs to be wikified. ... Jump to: navigation, search The swastika () is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles either clockwise or anticlockwise. ... Jump to: navigation, search The word Putsch literally means a thrust or blow. ...

Other Paramilitary Groups

Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten (Steel Helmet, League of Front Soldiers) led by Theodor Duesterberg. It had about 500,000 members. It was loosely tied to the DNVP and the DVP. It was the largest nationalist ex-servicemen’s organization. The Stahlhelm organized an employment service for its unemployed working-class members and a housing program. The Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten (German: Steel Helmet, League of Frontline Soldiers) was one of the many paramilitary Freikorps organizations that arose after the defeat of World War I in the Weimar Republic. ... Theodor Duesterberg (October 19, 1875-November 4, 1949) was a leader of the Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten in Germany prior to the Nazi seizure of power. ...

Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund (Pan-German Folk Defense and Offense League)

Jungdeutscher Orden Led by Artur Mahraun. He distanced his group from the Nazis because his group was fundamentally hostile to political parties.

Kampfbund (Battle League) was an umbrella group involving NSDAP paramilitary groups and a freikorp group. It was created on 30 September 1923. The Kampfbund was a league of patriotic fighting societies and the German National Socialist party in Bavaria, Germany in the 1920s. ... The Nazi swastika The National Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), better known as the NSDAP or the Nazi Party was a political party that was led to power in Germany by Adolf Hitler in 1933. ...

References

1. The History of Fascism 1914-1945, Stanley G. Payne, University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. pg 171

See also

• Glossary of the Weimar Republic
• Weimar political parties
• Oskar von Hutier

These are terms, concepts and ideas that are useful to understanding the political situation in the Weimar Republic. ... The Weimar Republic was in existence for thirteen years. ... Jump to: navigation, search Oskar von Hutier (August 27, 1857-December 5, 1934) was one of Germanys most successful and innovative generals of World War I. Hutier spent the first year of the war as a divisional commander in France, performing well but not distinguishing himself until the spring...

Bibliography

• Vanguard of Nazism: The Free Corps Movement in Postwar Germany 1918-1923, Robert G. L. Waite, Cambridge, Mass., 1952.