Editing Freikorps (section)

== Post–World War I ==
{{Anti-communism|Organisations}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R27092, Berlin, Gustav Noske beim Freikorps Hülsen.jpg|thumb|right|[[Ministry of the Reichswehr|Minister of the Reichswehr]], [[Gustav Noske]], visits the [[Freikorps Hülsen]] in Berlin in January 1919.]]

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1972-033-17, Kapp-Putsch, Panzerfahrzeug, Berlin.jpg|thumb|Provisional Freikorps armored vehicle in Berlin during the [[Kapp Putsch]] of March 1920]]

After [[World War I]], the meaning of the word Freikorps changed compared to its past iterations. After 1918, the term referred to various—yet, still, loosely affiliated—[[paramilitary]] organizations that were established in Germany following the defeat in World War I. Of the numerous [[Weimar paramilitary groups]] active during that time, the Freikorps were, and remain, the most notable. While numbers are difficult to determine, historians agree that some 500,000 men were formal Freikorps members with another 1.5 million men participating informally.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=Freikorps {{!}} International Encyclopedia of the First World War (WW1) |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/freikorps |access-date=2021-12-06 |website=encyclopedia.1914–1918-online.net}}</ref>

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]] ({{lang|de|Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands}}, SPD), used the Freikorps to quell socialist and communist uprisings.<ref name="Jones_2004_p270">{{Cite book|last=Jones |first=Nigel |title=A brief history of the birth of the Nazis |date=2004 |publisher=Robinson |isbn=1-84119-925-7 |edition=Rev. & updated |location=London |page=270 |oclc=224053608}}</ref> Minister of Defence and SPD member [[Gustav Noske]] also relied on the Freikorps to suppress the [[Marxism|Marxist]] [[Spartacist uprising]], culminating in the [[summary execution]]s of revolutionary communist leaders [[Karl Liebknecht]] and [[Rosa Luxemburg]] on 15 January 1919.<ref name="Jones_2004_p151">{{Cite book|last=Jones |first=Nigel |title=A brief history of the birth of the Nazis |date=2004 |publisher=Robinson |isbn=1-84119-925-7 |edition=Rev. & updated |location=London |page=151 |oclc=224053608}}</ref>

=== Freikorps involvement in Germany and Eastern Europe ===
[[File:FreikorpsBerlinStahlhelmM18TuerkischeForm.jpg|thumb|{{lang|de|Freikorps}} paramilitaries in [[Berlin]], 1919]]

==== Bavarian Soviet Republic ====
The [[Bavarian Soviet Republic]] was a short-lived and unrecognized socialist-communist state from 12 April – 3 May 1919 in Bavaria during the [[German Revolution of 1918–1919|German Revolution of 1918–19]]. Following a series of political revolts and takeovers from German socialists and then Russian-backed Bolsheviks, [[Gustav Noske|Noske]] responded from Berlin by sending various Freikorps brigades to Bavaria in late April totalling some 30,000 men.<ref name="Jones_2004_p151" /> The brigades included [[Hermann Ehrhardt|Hermann Ehrhardt's]] second Marine Brigade Freikorps, the [[Görlitz|Gorlitz]] Freikorps under Lieutenant Colonel Faupel, and two [[Swabia]]n divisions from [[Württemberg]] under General Haas and Major Hirl as well as the largest Freikorps in Bavaria commanded by Colonel [[Franz Ritter von Epp]].<ref name="Jones_2004_p151" />

While they were met with little Communist resistance, the Freikorps acted with particular brutality and violence under Noske's blessing and at the behest of Major Schulz, adjutant of the [[Lützow Free Corps|Lützow Freikorps]], who reminded his men that it "[was] a lot better to kill a few innocent people than to let one guilty person escape" and that there was no place in his ranks for those whose conscience bothered them.<ref name="Jones_2004_p151" /> On 5 May 1919, Lieutenant Georg Pölzing, one of Schulz's officers, travelled to the town of [[Ramersdorf-Perlach|Perlach]] outside of [[Munich]]. There, Pölzing chose a dozen alleged communist workers—none of whom were actually communists, but members of the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]]—and shot them on the spot.<ref name="Jones_2004_p151" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|date=2018-05-01|title=Freikorps "Free Corps" in Germany.|url=https://ww2gravestone.com/freikorps-free-corps-in-germany/|access-date=2021-12-08|website=WW2 Gravestone|language=en-US}}</ref> The following day, a Freikorps patrol led by Captain Alt-Sutterheim interrupted the meeting of a local Catholic club, the St Joseph Society, and chose twenty of the thirty members present to be shot, beaten, and bayoneted to death.<ref name="Jones_2004_p151" /> A memorial on Pfanzeltplatz in [[Munich]] commemorates the incident.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |date=2018-05-01 |title=Freikorps "Free Corps" in Germany. |url=https://ww2gravestone.com/freikorps-free-corps-in-germany/ |access-date=2021-12-08 |website=WW2 Gravestone |language=en-US}}</ref> Historian [[Nigel Jones (historian)|Nigel Jones]] notes that as a result of the Freikorps' violence, Munich's undertakers were overwhelmed, resulting in bodies lying in the streets and decaying until mass graves were completed.<ref name="Jones_2004_p151" />

==== Eastern Europe ====
The Freikorps also fought against communists and [[Bolsheviks]] in Eastern Europe, most notably [[East Prussia]], [[Latvia]], [[Silesia]], and [[Poland]]. The Freikorps demonstrated fervent anti-Slavic racism and viewed [[Slavs]] and [[Bolsheviks]] as "sub-human" hordes of "ravening wolves".<ref name="Jones_2004_p270" /> To justify their campaign in the East, the Freikorps launched a campaign of propaganda that falsely positioned themselves as protectors of Germany's territorial hegemony over [[Lithuania]], [[Latvia]], and [[Estonia]] as a result of the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]] and as defenders against Slavic and Bolshevik hordes that "raped women and butchered children" in their wake.<ref name="Jones_2004_p270" /> Historian [[Nigel H. Jones|Nigel Jones]] highlights the Freikorps's "usual excesses" of violence and murder in Latvia which were all the more unrestrained since they were fighting in a foreign land versus their own country.<ref name="Jones_2004_p270" /> Hundreds were murdered in the Freikorps' Eastern campaigns, such as the massacre of 500 [[Latvians|Latvian]] civilians suspected of harbouring [[Bolsheviks|Bolshevik]] sympathies or the capture of [[Riga]] which saw the Freikorps slaughter some 3,000 people.<ref name="Jones_2004_p270" /> [[Summary execution]]s via firing squads were most common, but several Freikorps members recorded the brutal and deadly beatings of suspected communists and particularly communist women.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Theweleit |first=Klaus |title=Male fantasies |date=1987–1989 |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]] |isbn=0-8166-1448-2 |location=Minneapolis |pages=184–191 |oclc=14818459}}</ref>

=== Freikorps identity and ideals ===
Freikorps ranks were composed primarily of former [[World War I]] soldiers who, upon [[demobilization]], were unable to reintegrate into civilian society having been brutalized by the violence of the war physically and mentally. Combined with the government's poor support of veterans, who were dismissed as [[Hysteria|hysterical]] when suffering from [[post-traumatic stress disorder]], many German veterans found comfort and a sense of belonging in the Freikorps.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Blakemore |first=Erin |date=2019-06-24 |title=When Germany Called its Soldiers Hysterical |url=https://daily.jstor.org/when-germany-called-its-soldiers-hysterical/ |access-date=2021-12-08 |website=JSTOR Daily |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last=Bartov |first=Omer |title=Mirrors of destruction: war, genocide, and modern identity |date=2000 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=0-19-507723-7 |location=Oxford |page=20 |oclc=42022246}}</ref> Jason Crouthamel notes how the Freikorps' military structure was a familiar continuation of the frontlines, emulating the ''Kampfgemeinschaft'' (battle community) and ''Kameradschaft'' (camaraderie), thus preserving "the heroic spirit of comradeship in the trenches".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Crouthamel |first=Jason |date=September 2018 |title=Homosexuality and Comradeship: Destabilizing the Hegemonic Masculine Ideal in Nazi Germany |journal=[[Central European History]] |language=en |volume=51 |issue=3 |page=424 |doi=10.1017/S0008938918000602 |doi-access=free |issn=0008-9389}}</ref> Others, angry at [[Stab-in-the-back myth|Germany's sudden, seemingly inexplicable defeat]], joined the Freikorps to fight against communism and socialism in Germany or to exact some form of revenge on those they considered responsible. To a lesser extent, German youth who were not old enough to have served in World War I enlisted in the Freikorps in hopes of proving themselves as patriots and as men.<ref name=":4" />

Regardless of reasons for joining, modern German historians agree that men of the Freikorps consistently embodied post-[[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] masculine ideals that are characterized by "physical, emotional, and moral 'hardness'".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mosse |first=George L. |title=The image of man: the creation of modern masculinity |date=1996 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=1-60256-338-1 |location=New York |oclc=174114386}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Kühne |first=Thomas |date=September 2018 |title=Protean Masculinity, Hegemonic Masculinity: Soldiers in the Third Reich |journal=[[Central European History]] |language=en |volume=51 |issue=3 |page=395 |doi=10.1017/S0008938918000596 |doi-access=free |issn=0008-9389}}</ref> Described as "children of the trenches, spawned by war" and its process of brutalization, historians argue that Freikorps men idealized a militarized [[masculinity]] of aggression, physical domination, the absence of emotion (hardness).<ref name="Jones_2004_p270" /><ref name=":5" /> They were to be as "swift as greyhounds, tough as leather, [and] hard as [[Krupp]] steel" so as to defend what remained of German conservatism in times of social chaos, confusion, and revolution that came to define the immediate [[Interwar period|interwar era]].<ref name="Jones_2004_p268">{{Cite book|last=Jones |first=Nigel |title=A brief history of the birth of the Nazis |date=2004 |publisher=Robinson |isbn=1-84119-925-7 |edition=Rev. & updated |location=London |page=268 |oclc=224053608}}</ref> Although [[World War I]] ended in Germany's surrender, many men in the Freikorps nonetheless viewed themselves as soldiers still engaged in active warfare with enemies of the traditional German Empire such as communists and [[Bolsheviks]], Jews, [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|socialists]], and [[Pacifism|pacifists]].<ref name="Jones_2004_p268" /> Prominent Freikorps member [[Ernst von Salomon]] described his troops as "full of wild demand for revenge and action and adventure...a band of fighter...full of lust, exultant in anger."<ref name="Jones_2004_p270" />

In 1977, German sociologist [[Klaus Theweleit]] published ''Male Fantasies,'' in which he argues that men in the Freikorps radicalized Western and German norms of male self-control into a perpetual war against feminine-coded desires for domesticity, tenderness, and compassion amongst men.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":5" /> Historians [[Nigel H. Jones|Nigel Jones]] and [[Thomas Kühne]] note that the Freikorps' displays of violence, terror, and male aggression and solidarity established the beginnings of the fascist [[New Man (utopian concept)|New Man]] upon which the [[Nazi Party|Nazis]] built.<ref name="Jones_2004_p151" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Kühne |first=Thomas |chapter=The Pleasure of Terror: Belonging through Genocide |date=2011 |title=Pleasure and Power in Nazi Germany |pages=234–255 |editor-last=Swett |editor-first=Pamela E. |editor-link=Pamela E. Swett|place=London |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] UK |language=en |doi=10.1057/9780230306905_11 |doi-access=free |isbn=978-0-230-30690-5 |editor2-last=Ross |editor2-first=Corey |editor3-last=d'Almeida |editor3-first=Fabrice}}</ref>

=== Demobilization ===
The extent of the Freikorps' involvement and actions in [[Eastern Europe]], where they demonstrated full autonomy and rejected orders from the [[Reichswehr]] and [[Weimar Republic|German government]], left a negative impression with the state.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |title=Freikorps {{!}} International Encyclopedia of the First World War (WW1) |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/freikorps |access-date=2021-12-11 |website=encyclopedia.1914–1918-online.net}}</ref> By this time, the Freikorps had served [[Friedrich Ebert|Ebert's]] purpose of suppressing revolts and communist uprisings. After the failed [[Kapp Putsch|Kapp-Lütwitz Putsch]] in March 1920 that the Freikorps participated in, the Freikorps' autonomy and strength steadily declined as [[Hans von Seeckt]], commander of the Reichswehr, removed all Freikorps members from the army and restricted the movements' access to future funding and equipment from the government.<ref name=":7" /> Von Seeckt was successful, and by 1921 only a small yet devoted core remained, effectively drawing an end to the Freikorps until their resurgence as far-right thugs and street brawlers for the [[Nazi Party|Nazis]] beginning in 1923.

=== Affiliation with the Nazi Party ===
The rise of the [[Nazi Party]] led to a resurgence of Freikorps activity, as many members or ex-members were drawn to the party's marrying of military and political life and extreme nationalism by joining the ''[[Sturmabteilung]]'' (SA) and ''[[Schutzstaffel]]'' (SS).<ref name="Jones_2004_p270" /> Unlike in the [[German Revolution of 1918–1919|German Revolution of 1918–19]] or their involvement in Eastern Europe, the Freikorps now had almost no military value and were instead utilized by the Nazis as thugs to engage in street brawls with communists and to break up anarchist, communist and socialist meetings alongside the [[Sturmabteilung|SA]] to gain a political edge.<ref name=":3" /> Moreover, the Nazis elevated the Freikorps as a symbol of pure German nationalism, anti-communism, and militarized masculinity to co-opt the lingering social and political support of the movement.<ref name=":3" />

Eventually, [[Adolf Hitler]] came to view the Freikorps as a nuisance and possible threat to his consolidation of power. During the [[Night of the Long Knives]] in 1934, an internal purge of Hitler's enemies within the [[Nazi Party]], numerous Freikorps members and leaders were targeted for killing or arrest, including Freikorps commander [[Hermann Ehrhardt]] and [[Sturmabteilung|SA]] leader [[Ernst Röhm]]. In Hitler's [[Reichstag (Nazi Germany)|Reichstag]] speech following the purge, Hitler denounced the Freikorps as lawless "moral degenerates...aimed at the destruction of all existing institutions" and as "pathological enemies of the state...[and] enemies of all authority," despite his previous public adoration of the movement.<ref name="Jones_2004_p270" />

=== Nazi legacy ===
Numerous future members and leaders of the Nazi Party served in the Freikorps. [[Martin Bormann]], eventual head of the Nazi Party Chancellery and Private Secretary to Hitler, joined [[Gerhard Roßbach#Roßbach Freikorps|Gerhard Roßbach's Freikorps]] in [[Mecklenburg]] as a section leader and quartermaster.<ref name="Jones_2004_p270" /> Reich Farmers' Leader and Minister of Food and Agriculture [[Richard Walther Darré]] was part of the Berlin Freikorps.<ref name="Jones_2004_p270" /> [[Reinhard Heydrich]], future chief of the [[Reich Security Main Office]] (including the [[Gestapo]], [[Kriminalpolizei|Kripo]], and [[Sicherheitspolizei|SD]]) and initiator of the [[Final Solution]], was in [[Georg Ludwig Rudolf Maercker]]'s Freikorps as a teenager.<ref name="Jones_2004_p270" /> Leader of the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] [[Heinrich Himmler]] enlisted in the Freikorps and carried a flag in the [[Beer Hall Putsch|1923 Beer Hall Putsch]].<ref name="Jones_2004_p270" /> [[Rudolf Höss]] joined the [[East Prussia]]n Volunteer Freikorps in 1919 and eventually became commander of the [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz extermination camp]].<ref name="Jones_2004_p270" /> [[Ernst Röhm]], eventual leader of the [[Sturmabteilung|SA]], supported various [[Bavaria]]n Freikorps groups, funnelling them arms and cash.<ref name="Jones_2004_p270" /> Although many high-ranking National Socialists were former Freikorps fighters, recent research shows that former Freikorps fighters were no more likely to be involved in National Socialist organisations than the average male population in Germany.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pomplun |first=Jan-Phliipp |title=Deutsche Freikorps. Sozialgeschichte und Kontinuitäten (para)militärischer Gewalt zwischen Weltkrieg, Revolution und Nationalsozialismus |publisher=Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht |year=2022 |isbn=978-3-525-31146-2 |location=Göttingen |pages=217–276 |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Pomplun |first=Jan-Philipp |title=From World War One to the Vanguard of Nazism? A Statistical Approach to the History of German Paramilitarism. In: Christian Gerlach/Clemens Six (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Anti-Communist Persecutions |publisher=Palgrave Mcmillan |year=2020 |isbn=978-3-030-54962-6 |pages=347–361 |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:WWIposter9.jpg|thumb|right|A recruitment poster for the Freikorps Hülsen]]

=== Freikorps groups and divisions ===
* '''[[Eiserne Division|Iron Division]]''' ("Eiserne Division", formerly [[Eiserne Division#Eiserne Brigade|Eiserne Brigade]], related to the [[Baltische Landeswehr]])
** Fought in the [[Baltic states|Baltics]]
** Defeated by the Estonian Army and Latvian Army in the [[Battle of Cēsis (1919)|Battle of Cēsis]]<ref> ''The German Freikorps 1918–23''. Elite 76. Osprey, 2001. p. 20.</ref>
** Trapped in [[Thorensberg]] by the Latvian Army. Rescued by the Rossbach Freikorps{{sfn|Waite|1969|pp=131, 132}}
* '''Volunteer Division of Horse Guards''' (Garde-Kavallerie-Schützendivision)
** Killed [[Rosa Luxemburg]] and [[Karl Liebknecht]], 15 January 1919{{sfn|Waite|1969|p=62}}
** Led by Captain [[Waldemar Pabst]]{{sfn|Waite|1969|p=62}}
** Disbanded on order of Defence Minister [[Gustav Noske]], 7 July 1919, after Pabst threatened to kill him{{sfn|Waite|1969|p=145}}
* '''[[Freikorps Caspari]]'''
** Fought against the [[Bremen Soviet Republic]]
** Fought under the command of [[Walter Caspari]]
* '''[[Freikorps Lichtschlag]]'''
** Fought against the [[Red Ruhr Army]]
** Fought under the command of [[Oskar von Watter]]
* '''{{ill|Freikorps Epp|de}}'''
** Under the command of [[Franz Ritter von Epp]]{{sfn|Davidson|2004|p=59}}
** Members include: [[Ernst Röhm]],{{sfn|Davidson|2004|p=59}} [[Rudolf Hess]],{{sfn|Padfield|2001|p=13}} [[Eduard Dietl]],{{sfn|Hürter|2007|pp=624–625}} [[Hans Frank]],{{sfn|Geiss|Jacobmeyer|1980|p=11}} [[Gregor Strasser]] and [[Otto Strasser]]{{sfn|Childers|2017|p=71}}
* '''{{ill|Freikorps Lützow|de}}'''
** Occupied Munich following the revolution of April 1919
** Commanded by Major Schulz{{sfn|Waite|1969|p=89}}
* '''[[Marinebrigade Ehrhardt]]''' (The Second Naval Brigade)
** Participated in the Kapp Putsch of 1920{{sfn|Waite|1969|pp=140–142}}
** Disbanded members eventually formed the [[Organisation Consul]], which performed hundreds of political assassinations{{sfn|Waite|1969|pp=203, 216}}
* '''[[Marinebrigade Loewenfeld]]''' (The Third Naval Brigade){{sfn|Waite|1969|p=38}}
** Participated in the Kapp Putsch of 1920
* '''{{ill|Freikorps Maercker|de}}''' (Maercker's Volunteer Rifles, or {{lang|de|Freiwilliges Landesjägerkorps}}){{sfn|Waite|1969|pp=33–37}}
** Founded by [[Ludwig Maercker]]
** Members include: [[Reinhard Heydrich]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=5788 |title=Axis History Factbook |access-date=3 January 2009}}</ref><ref>Mueller, p 61</ref> [[Eggert Reeder]], [[Ernst von Salomon]], [[Alfred Toepfer]] and [[Walter Warlimont]]
* '''[[Freikorps Oberland]]'''
** Kurt Benson
* [[Gerhard Roßbach#Roßbach Freikorps|'''Freikorps Roßbach''']] (Rossbach)
** Founded by [[Gerhard Roßbach]]
** Rescued the [[Iron Division]] after an extremely long march across Eastern Europe{{sfn|Waite|1969|pp=131, 132}}
** Members include: [[Kurt Daluege]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Wistrich |first=Robert |year=2001 |title=Who's Who In Nazi Germany |location=New York |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-11888-0 |page=35}}</ref> [[Rudolph Hoess]], [[Martin Bormann]], and Ernst Krull (who was tried for his involvement in [[Rosa Luxemburg#Execution and aftermath|the murder of Rosa Luxemburg]])<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sauer |first=Bernard |url=http://www.bernhard-sauer-historiker.de/rossbach.pdf |title=Roßbach – Hitlers Vertreter für Berlin. Zur Frühgeschichte des Rechtsradikalismus in der Weimarer Republik |date=2002 |publisher=ZfG |pages=6}}</ref> 
* '''{{lang|de|[[Sudetendeutsches Freikorps]]}}'''
** Formed by Czech German nationalists with Nazi sympathies which operated from 1938 to 1939
** Part of Hitler's successful effort to absorb Czechoslovakia into the Third Reich
<!--
* Freikorps Ebbinghaus
* Freikorps Oberland
* Eiserne Brigade (Iron Brigade, later Iron Division)
* Hamburg Free Corps <ref>[[#Waite1969|Waite]], p.&nbsp;111.</ref>
* Lowenfeld Brigade (First Naval Brigade)
* Potsdam Free Corps<ref>[[#Waite1969|Waite]], p.&nbsp;145.</ref>
-->