|
|
|
|
Freikorps
|
| |
|
| |
The designation of Freikorps (German for "Free Corps") was originally applied to voluntary armies formed in German lands from the middle of 18th century onwards. After World War I the term was used for the paramilitary organizations that sprang up around Weimar Germany and fought against Weimar enemies (internal and external).
first freikorps were recruited by Frederick II of Prussia in the eighteenth century during the Seven Years' War.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Freikorps' Start a new discussion about 'Freikorps' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
The designation of Freikorps (German for "Free Corps") was originally applied to voluntary armies formed in German lands from the middle of 18th century onwards. After World War I the term was used for the paramilitary organizations that sprang up around Weimar Germany and fought against Weimar enemies (internal and external).
First Freikorps
The first freikorps were recruited by Frederick II of Prussia in the eighteenth century during the Seven Years' War. Other known freikorps appeared during the Napoleonic Wars and were led for example by Ferdinand von Schill and later Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow. The freikorps were regarded as unreliable by regular armies, so that they were mainly used as sentries and for minor duties.
Post-World War I
However, the meaning of the word changed over time. After 1918, the term was used for the paramilitary organizations that sprang up around Germany as soldiers returned in defeat from World War I. They were the key Weimar paramilitary groups active during that time. Many German veterans felt disconnected from civilian life, and joined a Freikorps in search of stability within a military structure. Others, angry at their sudden, apparently inexplicable defeat, joined up in an effort to put down Communist uprisings or exact some form of revenge (see Dolchstoßlegende). They received considerable support from Minister of Defense Gustav Noske, a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, who used them to crush the German Revolution and the Marxist Spartacist League, including the murder of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg on 15 January 1919. They were also used to defeat the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919.
On 5 May 1919 twelve workers (most of them members of the Social Democratic Party, SPD) were arrested and killed by members of Freikorps Lützow in Perlach near Munich based on a tip from a local cleric saying they were communists. A memorial on Pfanzeltplatz in Munich today commemorates this atrocity.
Freikorps also fought in the Baltic, Silesia, and Prussia after the end of World War I, sometimes with significant success.
Though officially 'disbanded' in 1920, many Freikorps attempted, unsuccessfully, to overthrow the government in the Kapp Putsch in March 1920.
In 1920, Adolf Hitler had just begun his political career as the leader of the tiny and as-yet-unknown German Workers Party (soon renamed the National Socialist German Workers Party, NSDAP) in Munich. Numerous future members and leaders of the Nazi Party had served in the Freikorps, including Ernst Röhm, future head of the Sturmabteilung, or SA, and Rudolf Höß, the future Kommandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Hermann Ehrhardt, founder and leader of Marinebrigade Ehrhardt, and his deputy Commander Eberhard Kautter, leaders of the Viking League, refused to help Hitler and Erich von Ludendorff in their Beer Hall Putsch and conspired against them.
Hitler Légalité
Freikorps leaders symbolically gave their old battle flags to Hitler's Sturmabteilung and Schutzstaffel on November 9, 1933 in a huge ceremony. . Historian Robert Waite claims that Hitler had many problems with the Freikorps. Many of the Freikorps had joined the SA, so when the Night of the Long Knives came, they were among those targeted for killing or arrest, including Ehrhardt and Röhm. He claims that in Hitler's 'Rohm Purge' speech to the Reichstag on July 13, 1934, the third group of "pathological enemies of the state" that Hitler lists are, in fact, the Freikorps fighters. Hitler talks of the revolutionaries of 1918, who wanted permanent revolution, hated all authority, and were nihilistic. .
In 1939, during the Polish September Campaign, Freikorps Ebbinghaus, a sabotage unit, consisting of German Silesians, was created to operate behind the frontlines. Having failed in most of its tasks, however, it was relegated to normal military duties, before being disbanded later that year.
Notable Freikorps members
Notable Freikorps
- Volunteer Division of Horse Guards (Garde-Kavallerie-Schützendivision)
- murdered Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, Jan 19, 1919
- led by Captain Pabst
- disbanded on order of Defense Minister Gustav Noske, Jul 7, 1919, after Pabst threatened to kill him
- Freikorps Maercker (Maercker's Volunteer Rifles, or Freiwillingen Landesjagerkorps)
- had Reinhard Heydrich as a member
- founded by Ludwig Maercker
- Freikorps Roßbach (Rossbach)
- founded by Gerhard Roßbach
- rescued the Iron Division after a 12,000 mile march.
- participated in the Kapp Putsch of 1920
- disbanded members eventually formed the Organisation Consul, which performed hundreds of political assassinations
- Iron Division (Eiserne Division, related to Eiserne Brigade)
- Fought in the Baltic.
- Got trapped in Thorensberg by the Latvian Army. Was rescued by the Rossbach Freikorps.
See also
Freikorps in the Baltic
External links
- – By Marcus Wendel and contributors; site also contains an apolitical forum
-
Bibliography
- Blanke, Richard. , University Press of Kentucky, 1993, ISBN 081311803
- Hoess, Rudolf. Constantine Fitzgibbon, and Primo Levi. , Sterling Publishing Co., 2000. Translated by Constantine Fitzgibbon, Joachim Neugroschel. ISBN 1842120247, 9781842120248
- Morris, Douglas G. , 2005, University of Michigan Press, ISBN 047211476X
- Mueller, Michael. , Naval Institute Press, 2007
- Read, Anthony. , W. W. Norton & Company, 2004. ISBN 0393048004, 9780393048001
- Waite, Robert G L. Vanguard of Nazism, 1969, W W Norton & Co
|
| |
|
|
