Freikorps Oberland

Last updated

Bund Oberland (Nuremberg 1923) Bund Oberland (Nurnberg 1923).jpg
Bund Oberland (Nuremberg 1923)

The Freikorps Oberland ("Highlands Free Corps"; also Bund Oberland or Kameradschaft Freikorps und Bund Oberland) was a voluntary paramilitary organization that, in the early years of the Weimar Republic, fought against communist and Polish insurgents. It was successful in the 1921 Battle of Annaberg and became the core of the Sturmabteilung (SA) in Bavaria while several members later turned against the Nazis.

Contents

The group was founded in April 1919 by Rudolf von Sebottendorf, president of the Thule Society. The cabinet of Johannes Hoffmann (SPD) had fled from the Bavarian Soviet Republic to Bamberg. Major Albert Ritter von Beckh (1870–1958) then assumed military control. Most of the volunteers came from Bavaria, and therefore the symbol of the Edelweiß was chosen. Its direct precursor was the "Kampfbund" within the Thule Society, which also was against the Bavarian Soviet Republic.

In May 1919 the Freikorps Oberland fought against the Bavarian Soviet Republic. Elements of the Freikorps, combined with Freikorps Epp became the Reichswehr Brigade 21, which in 1920 fought in the Occupation of the Ruhr. The Freikorps itself was dissolved on 21 October 1919. and all the members went to Organization Escherich.

In the Silesian Uprisings of 1921 the Freikorps was ready and participated in the conquest of the eponymous hill in Annaberg in Upper Silesia. The Freikorps also had a propaganda unit in Upper Silesia. It is believed to have ordered Feme murders and kidnappings. [1] It had close connections with radical right-wing organizations in Bavaria. The murderers of Matthias Erzberger, Heinrich Tillessen and Heinrich Schulz did not only belong to Organization Consul, but also to "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Oberland".(Committee Oberland). [2] Some members of Oberland were possibly involved with the murder of USPD politician Karl Gareis (1889-1921). [3]

Separation

In summer 1922 the Bund became separated because of the question of whether Bund Oberland should be integrated into Bund Bayern und Reich. The civil wing formed Bund Treu Oberland, later Blücherbund. The military wing was led by veterinarian Friedrich Weber.

In 1922 the Bund Oberland had a few hundred members.By November 1923 there were around 2000 members in Bavaria. Amongst them were many students, employees, members of free professions, and also some workers. Most of the military leaders were young former officers, who were studying. Most of the members were between 20 and 30 years old and had the experience of fighting either in the World War I or in the fights in Bavaria, the Ruhr area, or in Upper Silesia. They had enough weapons, although many were stored and maintained by the Reichswehr. The Bund may have been supported by the father-in-law of Friedrich Weber, national publisher Julius Friedrich Lehmann. [4]

Under the guidance of Weber, Bund Oberland approached continuously to the radical people[ clarification needed ] under Adolf Hitler and Ernst Röhm. Together with the "Wehrverband Reichsflagge" and the SA the Bund formed the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft vaterländischer Kampfverbände" in January 1923 . In September 1923 they joined with the Nazi Party and other national organizations to form the "Deutscher Kampfbund". From 25 September 1923, the Kampfbund was guided by Adolf Hitler.

Beer Hall Putsch

On 8 November 1923 the Bund activated many members and participated actively in the Hitlerputsch. Members of the Bund, led by Ludwig Oestreicher took Jewish people as hostages.

Because of his participation in the coup attempt the Bund Oberland e. V. was banned in Bavaria and, by the end of 1923, across Germany. [5] Gustav Ritter von Kahr dissolved the Bund Oberland on 9 November 1923. Weber was sent to prison the same day and later accused in the Hitler-Process and sentenced to five years in prison. Former members of the Bund worked with extreme-right terror organization Organisation Consul. On 9. January 1924 they killed separatist leader Franz Josef Heinz in the French-occupied Palatinate. [6]

Reestablishment

After the end of the ban, the Bund was re-established in February 1925. By 1930 there were differences within the organization because the strong Austrian branch accepted the leadership of Austrofascist Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg, whose specifically Austrian brand of fascism was in marked contradiction to the Pan-German fascism of Hitler and the Nazis.

Postwar

After the War, in 1951, the old fighters gathered around Ernst Horadam and founded the still-existing traditional community Kameradschaft Freikorps und Bund Oberland. Some authors regard this as an extreme right organization. [7] As late as 2006, a church service took place in Schliersee to commemorate the members of the Freikorps killed in 1921. According to a statement of the president of Landsmannschaft Schlesien the event was regularly monitored by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution. [8] The commemorate became much smaller after 2007.

Members

Literature

Related Research Articles

<i><span title="German-language text"><i lang="de">Obergruppenführer</i></span></i> Paramilitary rank in Nazi Germany

Obergruppenführer was a paramilitary rank in Nazi Germany that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the Sturmabteilung (SA) and adopted by the Schutzstaffel (SS) one year later. Until April 1942, it was the highest commissioned SS rank after only Reichsführer-SS. Translated as "senior group leader", the rank of Obergruppenführer was senior to Gruppenführer. A similarly named rank of Untergruppenführer existed in the SA from 1929 to 1930 and as a title until 1933. In April 1942, the new rank of SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer was created which was above Obergruppenführer and below Reichsführer-SS.

The Kampfbund ("Battle-league") was a league of nationalist fighting societies and the German National Socialist Party in Bavaria, Germany, in the 1920s. It included Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party (NSDAP) and its Sturmabteilung (SA), the Oberland League and the Bund Reichskriegsflagge. Hitler was its political leader, while Hermann Kriebel led its militia.

Paramilitary groups were formed throughout the Weimar Republic in the wake of Imperial Germany's defeat in World War I and the ensuing German Revolution. Some were created by political parties to help in recruiting, discipline and in preparation for seizing power. Some were created before World War I. Others were formed by individuals after the war and were called "Freikorps". The party affiliated groups and others were all outside government control, but the Freikorps units were under government control, supply and pay.

<i>Brigadeführer</i> Generals rank in the Schutzstaffel (SS)

Brigadeführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) that was used between 1932 and 1945. It was mainly known for its use as an SS rank. As an SA rank, it was used after briefly being known as Untergruppenführer in late 1929 and 1930.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marinebrigade Ehrhardt</span> Volunteer military force (Freikorps) in central Germany from 1919 to 1920

The Marinebrigade Ehrhardt, also known as the Ehrhardt Brigade, was a Freikorps unit of the early Weimar Republic. It was formed on 17 February 1919 as the Second Marine Brigade from members of the former Imperial German Navy under the leadership of Hermann Ehrhardt. The Brigade was used primarily in the suppression of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and the First Silesian Uprising, both in the first half of 1919. In March 1920, faced with its imminent disbanding by orders of the government in Berlin, the Marine Brigade was one of the main supporters of the Kapp Putsch that tried to overthrow the Weimar Republic. After the putsch failed and the Brigade was disbanded in May, many of the former members formed the secret Organisation Consul under Ehrhardt's leadership. Before it was banned in 1922, it carried out numerous assassinations and murders in a continuation of the attempts to overthrow the Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gustav Ritter von Kahr</span> German politician (1862–1934)

Gustav Ritter von Kahr was a German jurist and right-wing politician. During his career he was district president of Upper Bavaria, Bavarian minister president and, from September 1923 to February 1924, Bavarian state commissioner general with dictatorial powers. In that role he openly opposed the government of the Weimar Republic in several instances, including by ceasing to enforce the Law for the Protection of the Republic. He was also making plans with General Otto von Lossow and Bavarian police commander Hans von Seisser to topple the Reich government in Berlin. In November 1923, before they could act, Adolf Hitler instigated the Beer Hall Putsch. The three turned against Hitler and helped stop the attempted coup. After being forced to resign as state commissioner general in 1924, Kahr served as president of the Bavarian Administrative Court until 1930. Because of his actions during the Beer Hall Putsch, he was murdered during the Nazi purge known as the Night of the Long Knives in June 1934.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fritz von Scholz</span> Waffen-SS member (1896–1944)

Fritz von Scholz was a high-ranking member of the Nazi Waffen-SS during World War II and a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords of Nazi Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franz Hayler</span> Nazi politician and SS-Gruppenführer (1900–1972)

Franz Hayler was a German self-employed businessman who rose during the Third Reich to become State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Economics and deputy to the Reich Economics Minister. He was a member of the Nazi Party and an SS-Gruppenführer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Organisation Consul</span> German terrorist organization (1920–1922)

Organisation Consul (O.C.) was an ultra-nationalist and anti-Semitic terrorist organization that operated in the Weimar Republic from 1920 to 1922. It was formed by members of the disbanded Freikorps group Marine Brigade Ehrhardt and was responsible for political assassinations that had the ultimate goal of destroying the Republic and replacing it with a right-wing dictatorship. Its two most prominent victims were the former finance minister Matthias Erzberger and Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau. The group was banned by the German government in 1922.

<span title="German-language text"><i lang="de">Roter Frontkämpferbund</i></span> German far-left paramilitary organization

The Roter Frontkämpferbund, usually called the Rotfrontkämpferbund (RFB), was a far-left paramilitary organization affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during the Weimar Republic. A legally registered association, the RFB was banned in 1929 but continued its work illegally.

The Black Reichswehr was the unofficial name for the extra-legal paramilitary formation that was secretly a part of the German military (Reichswehr) during the early years of the Weimar Republic. It was formed in 1921 after the government banned the Freikorps that it had relied on until then to supplement the Reichswehr. General Hans von Seeckt thought that the Reichswehr no longer had enough men available to guard the country's borders, but the army could not be expanded because of the manpower restrictions imposed on it by the Treaty of Versailles. In order to circumvent the limitation, Seeckt created the Black Reichswehr as purportedly civilian "labour battalions" attached to regular Reichswehr units. The Arbeitskommandos received military training, provisioning and orders from the Reichswehr, although ultimately they were never involved in military action. The Black Reichswehr reached a peak membership estimated at 50,000 to 80,000 in 1923 and was dissolved the same year after a group of its members launched the failed Küstrin Putsch. Its existence became widely known in 1925 when its practice of Fememord, the extra-judicial killing of "traitors" among its ranks, was revealed to the public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fritz Katzmann</span> German SS and Police Leader (1906-1957)

Fritz Katzmann, also known as Friedrich Katzmann, was a German SS and Police Leader during the Nazi era. He perpetrated genocide in the cities of Kattowitz, Radom, Lemberg, Danzig, and across the Nazi occupied District of Galicia in the General Government during the Holocaust in Poland, making him a major figure during the Holocaust there.

Josef "Beppo" Römer was a member of the Freikorps Oberland, one of the paramilitary organizations that sprang up around Germany as soldiers returned in defeat from World War I. He was later an organizer for the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). He was involved in German resistance to Nazism and plotted to assassinate Hitler in 1934. Römer was executed in 1944 by the Nazi regime.

Franz Breithaupt was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era. From August 1942 until April 1945, he was chief of the SS Court Main Office (Hauptamt SS-Gericht). Breithaupt was murdered by his SS aide Karl Lang just prior to the end of the war in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anton Dunckern</span>

Anton Leonhard Dunckern was a German SS-Brigadeführer.

Kurt Kaul was an SS-Gruppenführer and a Generalleutnant of Police, who served as the Higher SS and Police Leader in southwest Germany. While serving with the Waffen-SS, he was killed in action in the siege of Budapest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leo von Jena</span> German SS commander (1876–1957)

Leo von Jena, also called Leo Ferdinand von Jena, was a German military officer who became an Schutzstaffel (SS) general during World War II and commander of the Waffen-SS in Berlin. Von Jena joined the German National People's Party and the Sturmabteilung (SA) in 1921. He joined the Nazi Party in 1936. On November 9, 1936, he joined the Schutzstaffel and Heinrich Himmler personally accepted him as an honorary Sturmbannführer, where he rose through the SS ranks. On March 30, 1941, he was promoted to Brigadeführer of the Waffen-SS. On January 30, 1944, he was promoted to Obergruppenführer of the Allgemeine SS and Lieutenant General (Generalleutnant) in the Waffen-SS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walther Schröder</span> SS and Police Leader and SS-Brigadeführer

Walther Schröder was a German Nazi Party politician, SS-Brigadeführer and Police President of Lübeck, who served as an SS and Police Leader in Latvia and Estonia during the Second World War.

Kurt Gustav Ernst Hintze was a Nazi Party politician, SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor of police, who served as the last SS and Police Leader (SSPF) in the Generalbezirk Litauen. He was killed in an air raid six months before the end of the war.

References

  1. ↑ Ulrike Claudia Hofman: Verräter verfallen der Feme! Fememorde in Bayern in den zwanziger Jahren. Böhlau, Köln 2000, S. 125.
  2. ↑ Horst Möller: Die Weimarer Republik. Eine unvollendete Demokratie. dtv, München 2004, S. 152.
  3. ↑ Ulrike Claudia Hofman: Verräter verfallen der Feme! Fememorde in Bayern in den zwanziger Jahren. Böhlau, Köln 2000, S. 118 f.
  4. ↑ Harold J. Gordon jr.: Hitlerputsch 1923. Machtkampf in Bayern 1923–1924. Bernard & Graefe, Frankfurt/M. 1971, S. 94–96.
  5. ↑ Erwin Könnemann: Freikorps Oberland 1921-1930 (1921-1930 Bund Oberland) [BO], in: Fricke, Dieter (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Parteiengeschichte: die bürgerlichen und kleinbürgerlichen Parteien und Verbände in Deutschland (1789-1945), Band 1, Köln: Pahl-Rugenstein, 1984, S. 678 f.
  6. ↑ Ulrich Herbert: Best. Biographische Studien über Radikalismus, Weltanschauung und Vernunft, 1903-1989. Bonn: Dietz, 1996, S. 83. ISBN   3-8012-5019-9
  7. ↑ Oliver Schröm, Andrea Röpke: Stille Hilfe für braune Kameraden, S. 180f; Andreas Angerstorf: Rechte Strukturen in Bayern 2005
  8. ↑ SPD-Kreisvorsitzender fordert Distanzierung vom Dritten Reich. In: Münchner Merkur , 21. Mai 2005
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.