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==Introduction==__NOTOC__[[File: Freikorps 3.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Mutinous German sailors in 1918]]The period after the end of WWI in Germany has fascinated historian historians for several decades. This is because it was this period which turbulent era saw the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi National Socialist Party. In After the near anarchy that engulfed Germany after 1918, the country was deeply divided between left and right. The Freikorps were to play played a vital key part in the drama that unfolded in post-war Germany.  These paramilitaries were only active for a brief period, but they changed the history of Germany and even beyond. This article will argue that the The Freikorps were instrumental in defeating the radical left and the communist Communist revolutions in Germany. They Then they became the main greatest threat to the Weimar Republic, especially during the Kapp Putsch. The Freikorps can also be regarded as paving paved the way for the rise of the Nazi Hitler's National Socialist Party. [[====Background====[[File: Freikorps 3Two.jpg|200px250px|thumb|left|Mutinous German sailors Freikorps in 1918Bavaria (1919)]]==Background==As the Allies were advancing on the Western Front, morale on the German Homefront collapsed. Sailors refused orders at Kiel, to launch a suicidal attack and mutinied and this . This initiated a series of events that led to the German Revolution (1918). The Revolution forced the Kaiser to abdicate and to go into exile. The left-wing Social Democrats, under the leadership of Ebert came to power and they, with the support of other democratic parties established what came to be known as the Weimar Republic.<ref> Richard M. Watt: , <i>The Kings Depart: The Tragedy of Germany – Versailles and the German Revolution </i> (New York, Simon and Schuster 1968), p 56 </ref>.  In the aftermath of the armistice that ended World War One, Germany was in endured a state of crisisseries crises. The economy had collapsed, and the allies were blockading continued to blockade the country even after the official end of hostilities and many civilians starvedGerman citizens faced serious food shortages.<ref>Watt, p, 34</ref>. The Weimar Republic was faced with an array of challenges, from the collapsing economy, food shortages, labor unrest and and to add to their difficulties they had to manage the complex peace negotiations at Versailles. Perhaps the greatest challenge that the new Weimar government faced was the threat from the extreme left. Emboldened by the example of the Russian Revolution (1917), German Communists believed that they could seize power and give power to the workers and peasants and create a Socialist Republic. Into this volatile environmentThe communist uprising represented the greatest threat to the infant Weimar government faced.  As the German communists began clamoring for a socialist, large groups of battle-hardened veterans of the trenches returned from the Western Front.<ref>Watt, p.18</ref>. Many of these men were frustrated by the nature of the German defeat and blamed it on the Social Democrats, . Many of these men believed that they subscribed to had been ‘stabbed in the myth of back’ by the ‘stab in the back’Social Democrats.<ref>Watts, p. 21</ref>. This myth erroneously claimed that the Weimar politicians were responsible for the defeat and that German Germany could have continued the war.  Many of these veterans had no few job prospects and were rootless. Soon after many veterans had returned from France, they They began to band together in into paramilitary groups and became known as the Freikorps. The groups were composed mainly of ex-soldiers along with unemployed men and even some criminals.<ref> Jones, Mark <i>Founding Weimar. Violence and the German Revolution of 1918-19, </i> Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2016), p. 78</ref>. The Freikorps were led by former officers and soon established links with hardline Conservative groups. They began to spread all over Germany in during the hard and hungry winter of 1918 and by . By the spring of 1919, there were dozens of these bands who were well-armed and disciplined. There was no centralized command for directing the Freikorps, but the various bands coordinated their activities. They had a all shared an ideology that was anti-communist, anti-democratic and they believed in the efficacy of political violence.  ====Freikorps 1918-1923====[[File: Freikorps TwoOne.jpg|200px300px|thumb|left|Freikorps in Bavaria the Saar (1919)]]==Freikorps 1918-1923==By 1919 the socio-economic situation was so dire, and that the communists and other extreme leftists believed that the time had arrived for revolution. All over Germany - workers, councils and revolutionary committees seized control of cities in the period from late 1918 to mid-1919. From Bremen to Munich there were mini Communist Revolutions.<ref> Waite, Robert <i>Vanguard of NazismN.azism: The Free Corps Movement in Post-War Germany, 1918–1923 </i> (New York, Norton & Company, 1997), p. 14 </ref>.  The Spartacist Revolt, was led by Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht and it sought to seize Berlin in January 1919 and it . It was the most serious left-wing revolt of the Weimar era. The revolutionaries occupied public buildings all over the city. The Social Democratic government did not have sufficient forces to put down the revolt and so they turned turned to the Freikorps in the city and in the surrounding districts. The veterans easily quelled the revolt and murdered its leaders in cold blood. There followed a Soon after the Freikorps put down the revolt they took part in wave of terror in the city and beyond when the . The Freikorps targets and killed many left-wingersin and around Berlin. This  Instead of quelling the leftist revolt, it provoked other left-wing rebellions in other regions of across Germany. For approximately six months there were Socialist Republics established in Bremen, Saxony, Hamburg, the Rhineland and the Ruhr region. These were all suppressed ultimately by the army, police and especially by the Freikorps, who soon . The Freikorps earned themselves a reputation for violence and lootingduring these revolts. The Bavarian Soviet Republic was the last attempt to start a Revolution in Germany in 1919 , but this was suppressed mainly they were crushed by the local Freikorps in May 1919of that year. The Freikorps remained active for the rest of 1919.<ref> Waite, p. 89</ref>.  New units of Freikorps paramilitaries were formed to fight the Poles in Silesia and communists in the Baltic States. In the latter Here, they helped local Estonian and Lithuanian Latvian units to defeat communist forces. However, the Freikorps attempted to seize control of these Baltic states for Germany, but were eventually expelled by the Latvians and Lithuanians local forces with the help of the British. By late 1919 , the communist threat had ended and the Freikorps, were no longer needed by the Weimar government.<ref> Waite, p. 111</ref>The Weimar Defense Minister Noske set a deadline for the Freikorps to disband. Many conservatives They refused to do so, and nationalists hated the Weimar Republic especially after the Social Democrats had signed Berlin Freikorps joined in the Versailles Agreementso-called Kapp Putsch. A group of  Kapp Putsch was a right-wing conspirators attempted coup that sought to reverse end the German RevolutionWeimar Republic in March 1920. The government had set a deadline for the Freikorps to disbandrevolt was initially successful. They refused to do so, The rebels and Freikorps seized control of much of Berlin Freikorps joined in the so-called Kapp Putsch. The revolt was initially successful and the rebels with the Freikorps support seized control of much of the German capital and they were about to impose and sought to impose a right-wing dictatorship on the country. However, the population of Berlin refused rejected the attempt to support reverse the rebels German Revolution and the launched a general strike and this . The strike led to the collapse of the Putschcoup. The Freikorps in Berlin the German capital disbanded, and others quickly followed suit. The Putsch led to had also provoked a communist revolt in the Ruhr, which that was in part suppressed by local Freikorps unitsdetachments. By now the Freikorps were seen as an unreliable and lawless and they lost the support of their conservative sympathisers and were denounced even in right-wing papers. The  The various units officially disbanded, and they but the individual Freikorps members went undergroundand formed a clandestine terrorist network. They had always despised attempted to undermine the Weimar Republic and they assassinated , by assassinating leading democratssupporters of the democracy. Among their victims was Walther Ratheneau, a leading prominent German-Jewish industrialist , and statesman. In generalHowever, right wing terrorists such as these terrorist outrages did not seriously destabilize the Freikorps received lighter sentences than their left-wing opponentsWeimar Republic. By 1925 as the Weimar entered its most stable period and the Freikorps largely ceased their violence. [[<dh-ad/> ====The Freikorps and the Communist Revolt====[[File: Freikorps One5.jpg|200px250px|thumb|left|Freikorps in Fighting during the Saar Spartacist Revolt (1919)]]==The Freikorps and the Communist Revolt==In 1919 In 1919, the German government was very weakhobbled. The army was in disarray and under the terms of the armistice with the allies the numbers in the army were number of troops was severely restricted. The Social Democrats who controlled the government knew that many in the police and the army were not sympathetic to them and were therefore ultimately unreliable. The Weimar government wanted to safeguard the gains of the German Revolution and . Initially, they saw the main threat coming from the left, in the form of the ‘Bolsheviks’. The Defence Minister, Gustave Noske was in a dilemma he had little resources available to him to defeat the Reds Communists and he feared that the Communists they would seize power in Berlin. He decided to use the Freikorps even though he knew that they were not loyal to the government.  Noske realized that the Freikorps hated the communists even more than the Social Democrats and decided that they could be used to prevent to suppress the Revolutionaries. The Freikorps paramilitaries played a critical role in the suppression of the Red revolts (1919-1920). They played the major role in the defeat of the Spartacist Revolt. This was perhaps the most dangerous point for the Weimar Republic if they the Freikorps had not intervened then the Spartacists could have seized Berlin and all of Germany. It must be remembered that the The radical left was actually very popular especially among the working class and even among the German navy. The armed intervention by the right-wing paramilitaries ensured that the revolt led by Luxembourg and Liebknecht would collapse. The Freikorps would play a similar role in eight other revolutions that erupted across Germany in the period 1919-1920. The Freikorps were played a decisive role in the defeat of the various uprisings by communists and others’ radicals in the immediate post-war period. [[File: ====The Freikorps 5.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Fighting during the Spartacist Revolt (1919)]]and the radical right==Freikorps and the radical right==By the end of 1919 the Freikorps had become a threat to the Weimar government. The paramilitaries were openly contemptuous of the democratic system and they brazenly defied the authorities. This alienated many of their conservative supporters including the German war hero General Paul Von Hindenburg. The government aware that the Freikorps had lost public support was encouraged to order that they disband. The paramilitaries lend their support to Kapp , a right-wing fanatic who was , in reality , a puppet of the German military.  The Kapp Putsch received the full backing of the Freikorps and their strength was decisive, especially give in the fact that early stages of the insurrection. The army did not intervene despite receiving ordersstop the paramilitaries, to do so from, Defence Minister Noskeindeed they secretly supported the coup. Only But for the courage of the local Berliners , the Kapp Putsch could have overthrown the Weimar Republic. The Freikorps had played a major role in the defeat of the ‘Red’ revolts that broke out in the aftermath of the German Revolution. After they had achieved this , they became the most serious threat to the Weimar Republic and almost helped to destroy itin 1920.  ====The Freikorps and the rise of the NaziNational Socialist Party====Many historians have claimed that the Freikorps were the heralds of the Nazi party National Socialist Party and that they inspired Hitler in his tactics and ideology. Historians have argued that Hitler somehow modelled modeled his movement on the paramilitaries. The Nazis National Socialists were influenced to a degree by the Freikorps and this is most evident in the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary wing of the Nazi National Socialist party, often called popularly known as the Brown Shirts. The SA played a crucial role in the Nazi National Socialists Party seizure of power and acted as Hitler’s private army.<ref> Payne, Stanley G. , <i>The History of Fascism, 1914–1945 9Wisonsin</i> (Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Press, 1995), p. 125</ref>. They intimidated those who challenged Hitler and fought violent street battles with Communists. The Freikorps are often regarded as the model for the SA.  Many members of the Freikorps after the collapse of the Kapp Putsch in 1920 gravitated towards the NazisHitler's party. These included Ernst Rohm who was instrumental in the founding of the SA. He was not alone and among the other former Freikorps members who became leading Nazis National Socialists were Himmler and the future Commandant of Auschwitz Hoss.<ref>Payne, p. 134</ref>. The disbandment of the Freikorps helped to swell the ranks of the Nazi Hitler's movement in the early years. In many ways the paramilitaries were unlike the NazisNational Socialists, they were not overtly racist or antisemitic.<ref> Payne, p. 127</ref>. Furthermore, Hitler was suspicious of the paramilitaries especially after they failed to join him in his Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. He believed that they were too conservative and too close to the old elite, whom he did not trust. On balance , the Freikorps did influence the NazisNational Socialists, but this should not be overstated, something which too many historians have done, in the past.  ====Conclusion====The Freikorps were a paramilitary force that was born out of the defeat of the German army in WWI. These mainly ex-soldiers played a critical role in the early years of the Weimar Republic. The paramilitaries ideology was conservative and nationalistic. The weak Weimar Republic was faced with a series of Communist-inspired revolts and they had to rely on these paramilitariesto control them. The Social Democrats were forced to rely on the paramilitaries, even though they hated the Weimar Republic to defeat its left-wing enemies.  These ex-soldiers and extreme nationalists suppressed the Communist-inspired revolts and helped to save the young democracy. However, the unlikely defenders of the Weimar Republic became its greatest foe. They almost helped in the overthrow of the German Revolution in 1920. In the past, historians regarded the Freikorps as the decisive influence on the Nazis National Socialist Party and their forerunners. The relationship between the paramilitaries and the Nazis National Socialist Party was complex. Hitler was not influenced by the beliefs or the tactics of the paramilitaries. However, the former Freikorps helped to swell the ranks of the Nazis National Socialist Party and inspired the development of the SA. ====References====<references/> [[Category:Wikis]][[Category:German History]][[Category:European History]][[Category:20th Century History]]