Weimar paramilitary groups

Paramilitary groups were formed throughout the Weimar Republic in the wake of Imperial 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 World War I. Others were formed by individuals after the war and were called "Freikorps" (Free Corps). The party affiliated groups and others were all outside government control, but the Freikorps units were under government control, supply and pay (usually through army sources).

After World War I, the German Army was restricted to 100,000 men, so there were a great number of Imperial German Army soldiers suddenly de-mobilized. Many of these men were hardened into a Frontgemeinschaft, a front-line community. It was a spirit of camaraderie that was formed due to the length and horrors of trench warfare of World War I. 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.

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 political parties used their paramilitary groups to protect their party gatherings and to disrupt the marches and meetings of their opponents. Between 1928 and 1932, the Weimar Republic experienced a growth of political violence between these organizations euphemistically called Zusammenstösse (lit. clashes). 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]

Freikorps

In the aftermath of World War I and during the German Revolution of 1918–19, Freikorps consisting largely of World War I veterans were raised as paramilitary militias. Of the numerous Weimar paramilitary groups active during that time, the Freikorps were, and remain, the most notable. While exact numbers are difficult to determine, historians agree that some 500,000 men were formal Freikorps members with another 1.5 million men participating informally.[2]

Amongst the social, political, and economic upheavals that marked the early years of the Weimar Republic, the tenuous German government under Friedrich Ebert, leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD), utilized the Freikorps to quell socialist and communist uprisings.[3] Minister of Defence and SPD member Gustav Noske also relied on the Freikorps to suppress the Marxist Spartacist uprising, culminating in the summary executions of revolutionary communist leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg on 15 January 1919.[4]

The first organizer of a Freikorps unit was General Ludwig Maercker. His unit, the "Maercker Volunteer Rifles", were soon called to help put down socialist uprisings. Because his unit was called upon to many location, 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 Wehrmacht. They were under the command of Dr. Georg Escherich.

Other units were

Groups affiliated to political parties

Similar organisations also existed in the Republic of Austria, most notably the Schutzbund and the Heimwehr.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ Payne, Stanley G. (1995) The History of Fascism 1914-1945. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. p.171. ISBN 9780299148744
  2. ^ "Freikorps | International Encyclopedia of the First World War (WW1)". encyclopedia.1914–1918-online.net. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  3. ^ Jones, Nigel (2004). A brief history of the birth of the Nazis (Rev. & updated ed.). London: Robinson. p. 270. ISBN 1-84119-925-7. OCLC 224053608.
  4. ^ Jones 2004, p. 151.

Bibliography

  • Koepp, Roy G. (2010). Conservative Radicals: The Einwohnerwehr, Bund Bayern Und Reich, and the Limits of Paramilitary Politics in Bavaria, 1918–1928 (PhD thesis). Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska.
  • Payne, Stanley G. (1995). The History of Fascism, 1914–1945. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0299148744.
  • Rosenhaft, Eve (1983). Beating the Fascists?: The German Communists and Political Violence 1929-1933. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521089388.

Further reading

  • Waite, Robert G. L. (1952) Vanguard of Nazism: The Free Corps Movement in Postwar Germany 1918-1923, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
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