Home > Freikorps

However, the meaning of the word has changed over time. After 1918, the term was used for the far-right paramilitary organizations that sprung up around Germany as soldiers returned in defeat from World War I. It was one of the many Weimar paramilitary groups active during that time. Many German veterans felt profoundly disconnected from civilian life, and joined the Freikorps in search of stability within a military structure. Others, angry at their sudden, apparently inexplicable defeat, joined up in an effort to put down Communist uprisings or exact some form of revenge (see Dolchstoßlegende). 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 LiebknechtKarl Liebknecht ( August 13, 1871 January 15, 1919) was a German socialist and a co-founder of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany. Born in Leipzig, he was the son of Wilhelm Liebknecht, one of the founders of the Social Democratic Pa and Rosa LuxemburgRosa Luxemburg ( March 5, 1870 or 1871 January 15, 1919) was a Polish and German Jewish Marxist politician, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary. She was a social democratic theorist of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, and later the Independent. They were also used to put down the Munich Soviet RepublicMunchner Raterepublik known as the Munich Soviet Rupublic or Bavarian Soviet Republic (Bayerische Raterepublik), was a short-lived communist country, organized in Bavaria of the year 1919. After Bavaria overthrew its monarch on 7 November 1918, Kurt Eisne in 1919Events January January 1 Edsel Ford succeeds his father as head of the Ford Motor Company January 5 Spartacist uprising Socialist demonstrations in Berlin turn into attempted communist revolution with Spartacist League in the forefront January 9 Spartacus.

Several Freikorps fought in the Baltic, Silesia, and Prussia after the end of World War I, sometimes with significant success even against regular troops.

They were officially 'disbanded' in 1920, although former members later backed the Kapp PutschThe word 'Putsch' literally means a thrust or blow. In political terms a 'putsch' is an attempt to seize power. The Kapp Putsch or more accurately the Kapp-Luttwitz Putsch was an extreme right-wing attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic which resulted d in March 1920 (which ended in disaster).

Some future members and, indeed, leaders of the Nazi Party were members of the Freikorps, including Ernst RöhmErnst Rohm (or Roehm ( November 28, 1887 — July 1, 1934) was a German military officer, decorated in World War I. At the end of the war, he founded the " Freikorps", a militia in Munich. In 1920, he became a Nazi-party member and the Freikorps became Hitl, future head of the Sturmabteilung or SA, and Rudolf Höß, the future Kommandant of Auschwitz.

Most Freikorps members, however, remained outsiders during the Third Reich. A frequent conversational topic amongst Freikorps veterans was, "Where was Hitler back in 1919/ 20, when we fought the Communists?" (in 1919-1920, Hitler had just begun his political career, as the leader of a tiny and as-yet-unknown party in Munich).