White Movement (Germany)

The **White Movement** (German: *Weiße Bewegung*) was an anti-communist movement in Germany that fought against the communist Spartacists in the German Civil War from 1919 to 1920. The term "White" is loaned from the similar movement in Russia that arose to fight the Bolsheviks, and was never a label officially used by the movement's supporters. The movement was composed of different groups with differing ideals, ostensibly loyal to the Weimar Republic but in reality only united by their shared anti-communist ideals.

The military wing of the Whites was technically united under the official Weimar army known as the Reichswehr, but they suffered from a lack of cohesion in practice. The Freikorps, autonomous military formations formed shortly after the end of the Great War, formed the largest section, and were of a monarchist and conservative outlook. The extent to which Freikorps formations were willing to subordinate themselves to the command varied greatly. Other formations were more directly subordinated and loyal to the Reichswehr command and, by extension, the republican government. Additional formations were organized under the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, an organization formed shortly after the start of the war to mobilize liberal republican-minded Germans. However, following the December Putsch in 1919 the autonomous Reichsbanner formations were disbanded and forcibly integrated into the Reichswehr. Through these actions the republican influence in the White Movement was crushed, and its ideological character was definitively established along conservative extremist lines.

## History

At the time of the May Uprising the military command and Weimar authorities had turned to the Freikorps to fight against socialist insurrectionists. However, the previous month they led the April Putsch, which briefly toppled the Social Democratic government led by Friedrich Ebert. The socialist-minded parties rallied to call for a mass strike to topple the putschist government, leading to bloody clashes with the Freikorps that escalated to a revolution in May. The Freikorps, which had previously been successful in putting down socialist revolts, were paralyzed by a lack of cohesion and proved incapable of suppressing a mass uprising. The newly formed Reichswehr was forced to reorganize and strengthen to fight the Spartacists, which proved challenging in the face of mass defections to the Spartacists by soldiers. After the putschists stood down and the Ebert government returned to power the army command under Wilhelm Groener began this reorganization, but the Freikorps continued to act distantly from the government, still opposing the republican model. After the December Putsch in 1919, the new government under Major Kurt von Schleicher was led by right-wing military figures and thus proved capable of reeling in the Freikorps, but at the expense of the loyalty of republicans.

Now in a strengthened position after months of building up by both sides, the Whites took the initiative and launched the Schleicher Offensive in January 1920. The Whites initially made significant gains, isolating the Ruhr and conquering the Spartacist strongholds in Thuringia, Brunswick and Bremen, and then pushing into Saxony and Berlin. However, their progress was slowed as the Spartacists lured them into a costly campaign of urban warfare, buying time until forces could be transferred from the campaign in the east. After months of little progress and heavy losses, the Spartacists launched a counteroffensive known as the Summer Offensive in June, which sent the Whites reeling back. They suffered a devastating defeat in Berlin after thousands of troops were captured by a Spartacist pincer movement, and cohesion subsequently broke down. Although the Whites were able to reorganize in some sectors of the front for a time and attempt to stabilize the situation, the momentum they had once held had practically vanished, and their retreat pattern proved to be permanent.

After months of fighting, the temporary seat of government in Stuttgart was conquered by the Spartacists on 15 October. Shortly afterwards on 23 October the bastion of Königsberg, long the center of power in the White stronghold of East Prussia, was captured in a joint Spartacist-Soviet offensive, marking the fall of the last major White-controlled city, thereby marking the end of the Weimar Republic. However, thousands of White forces continued fighting in East Prussia as they withdrew to the Baltics, and small pockets of White troops fought for a brief time in the Rhineland and the northwest. However, most notably tens of thousands of White forces in Baden-Württemberg were reorganized by the French to fight the Spartacists after they intervened on 17 October in the Baden-Württemberg Offensive. With the end of this intervention on 19 November the German Civil War ended, and with it the White Movement ceased to exist. However, the Whites would be used by the French to form the new state of Baden-Württemberg, a conservative monarchy, and many Whites would go on to join the Baltic German state of Livonia. Additionally, right-wing Whites have gone on to form the Organisation Consul, a shadowy anti-communist and anti-republican group that has been responsible for many high profile attacks. Republican whites went on to form the German government-in-exile on 21 December 1920, which is recognized as the rightful German government by the United Kingdom and its dominions and colonies, as well as Japan.