Editing Militia (section)

=== Germany ===
The earliest reports of Germanic militias was the system of [[Hundred (division)|hundreds]] described in AD 98 by the Roman historian [[Tacitus]] as the ''centeni.'' They were similar in nature to the [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] ''[[fyrd]]''.

[[File:Luetzows verwegene jagd aquarellreproduktion 1900.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Lützow Free Corps]] during the [[Napoleonic Wars]]. During the Napoleonic Wars, the [[Freikorps]] referred to volunteer forces that fought against the French.]]

[[Freikorps]] ([[German language|German]] for "Free Corps") was originally applied to voluntary armies. The first ''Freikorps'' were recruited by [[Frederick II of Prussia]] during the [[Seven Years' War]]. These troops were regarded as unreliable by regular armies, so they were mainly used as sentries and for minor duties. During the Napoleonic occupation, organizations such as the [[Lutzow Free Corps]] fought against the occupiers and later joined the allied forces as regular soldiers.

However, after 1918, the term was used for [[nationalist]] [[paramilitary]] organizations that sprang up around [[Germany]] as soldiers returned in defeat from [[World War I]]. They were one of the many [[Weimar paramilitary groups]] active during that time. They received considerable support from [[Gustav Noske]], the German Defence Minister who used them to crush the [[Spartakist League]] with enormous violence, including the murders of [[Karl Liebknecht]] and [[Rosa Luxemburg]] on January{{nbsp}}15, 1919. Militia were also used to put down the [[Bavarian Soviet Republic]] in 1919. They were officially "disbanded" in 1920, resulting in the ill-fated [[Kapp Putsch]] in March 1920. The ''Einwohnerwehr'', active in Germany from 1919 to 1921 was a paramilitary citizens' militia consisting of hundreds of thousands of mostly former servicemen.<ref>Campbell, Bruce: ''The SA Generals and the Rise of Nazism'', Page 99. University Press of Kentucky, 1998. {{ISBN|0-8131-9098-3}}</ref> Formed by the Prussian Ministry of the Interior on April{{nbsp}}15, 1919, to allow citizens to protect themselves from looters, armed gangs, and revolutionaries, the ''Einwohnerwehr'' was under the command of the local ''Reichswehr'' regiments, which supplied its guns. In 1921, the Berlin government dissolved the ''Einwohnerwehr''. Many of its members went on to join the [[Nazi Party]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.radix.net/~bbrown/police_unit_marks.html |title= German Police Unit Marks, 1920-1937|website=www.radix.net |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605123951/http://www.radix.net/~bbrown/police_unit_marks.html |archive-date=June 5, 2013}}</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1971-033-15, Vorbeimarsch des Volkssturms an Goebbels, Berlin.jpg|thumb|The [[Volkssturm]] was a national militia formed by [[Nazi Germany]] in the last months of [[World War II]].]]

In 1921 the Nazi Party created the ''[[Sturmabteilung]]'' (SA; Storm Detachment; Brownshirts), which was the first paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party and served as a Nazi militia whose initial assignment was to protect Nazi leaders at rallies and assemblies. The SA also took part in street battles against the forces of rival political parties and violent actions against Jews. From the SA sprung the [[Schutzstaffel]] (SS; Protective Squadron) which grew to become one of the largest and most powerful groups in [[Nazi Germany]], which Reichsführer-SS [[Heinrich Himmler]] (the leader of the SS from 1929) envisioned as an elite group of guards. The [[Waffen-SS]], the military branch of the SS, became a de facto fourth branch of the [[Wehrmacht]].<ref name="Benz">{{cite book|author=Wolfgang Benz|title=A Concise History of the Third Reich |date=2007|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0520253834}}</ref>

In 1944–1945, as [[World War II]] came to a close in Europe, the [[Oberkommando der Wehrmacht|German high command]]  deployed increasing numbers of [[Volkssturm]] units to combat duties. These regiments were composed of men, women and children too old, young or otherwise unfit for service in the Wehrmacht (German Regular Army).<ref>Yelton, David K., ''Hitler's Volkssturm: The Nazi Militia and the Fall of Germany, 1944–1945''. University Press of Kansas, 2002. {{ISBN|0700611924}}</ref> Their primary role was assisting the army with fortification duties and digging [[Anti-tank trench|anti-tank ditches]]. As the shortage of manpower became severe, they were used as front line infantry, most often in [[Urban area|urban]] settings. Due to the physical state of members, almost non-existent training and shortage of weapons, there was not much the ''Volkssturm'' could do except act like shields for regular army units.