page_title: Freikorps
section_title: Freikorps units
hierarchical_section_title: Freikorps / Post-World War I / Freikorps units
context_page_description: Freikorps were irregular German and other European military volunteer units, or paramilitary, that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenary or private armies, regardless of their own nationality. In German-speaking countries, the first so-called Freikorps were formed in the 18th century from native volunteers, enemy renegades, and deserters. These sometimes exotically equipped units served as infantry and cavalry, sometimes in just company strength, sometimes in formations up to several thousand strong. There were also various mixed formations or legions. The Prussian von Kleist Freikorps included infantry, jäger, dragoons and hussars. The French Volontaires de Saxe combined uhlans and dragoons.
  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 right-wing paramilitary militias. They were ostensibly mustered to fight on behalf of the government against the Soviet-backed German Communists attempting to overthrow the Weimar Republic. But, the Freikorps largely despised the Republic and were involved in assassinations of its supporters.
context_section_description: Iron Division (Eiserne Division, related to Eiserne Brigade and Baltische Landeswehr)
  Fought in the Baltic.
  Defeated by the Estonian Army and Latvian Army in the Battle of Cēsis
  Trapped in Thorensberg by the Latvian Army. Rescued by the Rossbach Freikorps.
  Volunteer Division of Horse Guards (Garde-Kavallerie-Schützendivision)
  Killed Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, 15 January 1919
  Led by Captain Waldemar Pabst
  Disbanded on order of Defence Minister Gustav Noske, 7 July 1919, after Pabst threatened to kill him
  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
  Freikorps Epp
  Under the command of Franz Ritter von Epp
  Members include: Ernst Röhm, Rudolf Hess, Eduard Dietl, Hans Frank, Gregor Strasser and Otto Strasser.
  Freikorps Lützow
  Occupied Munich following the revolution of April 1919.
  Commanded by Major Schulz
  Marinebrigade Ehrhardt (The Second Naval Brigade)
  Participated in the Kapp Putsch of 1920
  Disbanded members eventually formed the Organisation Consul, which performed hundreds of political assassinations
  Marinebrigade Loewenfeld (The Third Naval Brigade)
  Participated in the Kapp Putsch of 1920
  Freikorps Maercker (Maercker's Volunteer Rifles, or Freiwilliges Landesjägerkorps)
  Had Reinhard Heydrich as a member
  Founded by Ludwig Maercker
  Freikorps Oberland
  Kurt Benson
  Freikorps Roßbach (Rossbach)
  Founded by Gerhard Roßbach
  Rescued the Iron Division after an extremely long march across Eastern Europe.
  had Rudolph Hoess as a member.
  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
caption: Freikorps howitzer in 1919.
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