Freikorps

The word Freikorps (German for "Free Corps") was first used for voluntary armies in Germany. After World War I the term was used for paramilitary units. The Freikorps got famous at the time of the Weimar Republic to fight in some towns against the Communism.

First Freikorps
The first freikorps were started by Frederick II of Prussia in the eighteenth century during the Seven Years' War. Other freikorps were started during the Napoleonic Wars and were commanded by people such as Ferdinand von Schill and later Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow. The freikorps were thought to be not reliable by regular armies and were mostly used as guards and for minor duties.

Post-World War I

The meaning of the word changed over time. After 1918, the word was used for the paramilitary organizations that were started in Germany by soldiers who came home after losing World War I. They were the main paramilitary groups during that time. Many of these returning soldiers were not able to return to a normal life, and joined a Freikorps to again be a part of a military structure. Others were angry at losing the war and joined to fight against Communists or get revenge. They were liked and supported by Minister of Defence Gustav Noske, a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, who used them to stop the German Revolution and the Marxist Spartacist League, and also to murder Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg on 15 January 1919. They were also used to defeat the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919.

In 1920, Adolf Hitler had started his political work as the leader of the very small and unknown German Workers Party (that was soon called the National Socialist German Workers Party, NSDAP (or Nazi Party)) in Munich. Many people who would join this party had been in the Freikorps, including Ernst Röhm, future leader of the Sturmabteilung, or SA, and Rudolf Höß, the future Commander of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Hermann Ehrhardt, who started the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt, and his deputy Commander, Eberhard Kautter, did not want to help Hitler and Erich von Ludendorff in the Beer Hall Putsch.

Hitler Légalité 
Freikorps leaders gave their old battle flags to Hitler's SA and SS on Nov 9, 1933 in a very big ceremony. Historian  Robert Waite said that Hitler had many problems with the Freikorps. Many of the Friekorps had joined the SA, so when the Night of the Long Knives happened, they were targets for being murdered or arrested and this was also done to Ehrhardt and to Röhm. Waite also says that in Hitler's 'Rohm Purge' speech to the Reichstag on July 13, 1934, that Hitler said that the Freikorps were enemies of Germany.

In 1939, in the Polish September Campaign, Freikorps Ebbinghaus, was started to work behind the frontlines. It was not very good at this work and was sent to fight as an army unit but was not good at this either and was ended in less than one year.

Famous Freikorps members

 Rudolph Berthold
 Martin Bormann
 Wilhelm Canaris-Admiral
 Kurt Daluege SS General
 Oskar Dirlewanger-SS Colonel
 Richard Glücks-SS General
 Arthur Greiser-SS General
 Reinhard Heydrich-SS General
 Hans Hinkel-SS Officer
 Heinrich Himmler-Leader of the SS 
 Rudolf Hoess-Commandant of Auschwitz 

 Hans Kammler-SS General
 Wilhelm Keitel
 Wilhelm Friedrich Loeper SS General
 Hans-Adolf Prützmann SS General
 Beppo Römer KPD Member
 Albert Leo Schlageter
 Julius Schreck SS Leader
 Hugo Sperrle Luftwaffe General
 Felix Steiner-SS General
 Gregor Strasser NSDAP Member
 Franz Ritter von Epp

 Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorf SA member
 Manfred Freiherr von Killinger
 Bolko von Richthofen
 Ernst von Salomon

Famous Freikorps units 
 Volunteer Division of Horse Guards (Garde-Kavallerie-Schützendivision)

- murdered Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, 19 January 1919 

- commanded by Captain Pabst 

- disbanded on the order of Defence Minister Gustav Noske, 7 July 1919, after Pabst threatened to kill him 
 Freikorps Maercker (Maercker's Volunteer Rifles, or Freiwillingen Landesjagerkorps) 

- had Reinhard Heydrich as a member 

- started by Ludwig Maercker
 Freikorps Roßbach (Rossbach)

- started by Gerhard Roßbach

- rescued the Iron Division after a 12,000 mile march.
 Marinebrigade Ehrhardt (The Second Naval Brigade)

- took part in the Kapp Putsch of 1920 

- disbanded members started the Organisation Consul, which did hundreds of political murders 
 Iron Division (Eiserne Division, related to Eiserne Brigade)

- Fought in the Baltic.

- was trapped in Thorensberg by the Latvian Army. Was rescued by the Rossbach Freikorps.
 Freikorps Ebbinghaus
 Freikorps Oberland
 Eiserne Brigade (Iron Brigade, later Iron Division)
 Freikorps Epp
 Hamburg Free Corps 
 Lowenfeld Brigade (First Naval Brigade)
 Potsdam Free Corps
 Freikorps Lützow

Related pages
 Freikorps in the Baltic

Notes

Other websites
 Axis History Factbook; Freikorps section – By Marcus Wendel and contributors;  site also contains an apolitical forum
 Freikorps Master list on Axis History Forum {reference only}

Bibliography
 
 
 
 
 
 Waite, Robert G L. Vanguard of Nazism, 1969, W W Norton & Co

Military
Nazi Germany
World War I
World War II
History of Germany