Corps (or Korps; "das ~" (n), German pronunciation:[ˈkoːɐ] (sg.), (pl.)) are the oldest still-existing kind of Studentenverbindung, Germany's traditional university corporations; their roots date back to the 15th century. The oldest corps still existing today was founded in 1789. Its members are referred to as corps students (Corpsstudenten). The corps belong to the tradition of student fraternities which wear couleur and practice academic fencing.
Studentenverbindung or studentische Korporation is the umbrella term for many different kinds of fraternity-type associations in German-speaking countries, including Corps, Burschenschaften, Landsmannschaften, Turnerschaften, and Catholic fraternities. Worldwide, there are over 1,600 Studentenverbindungen, about a thousand in Germany, with a total of over 190,000 members. In them, students spend their university years in an organized community, whose members stay connected even after graduation. A goal of this lifelong bond is to create contacts and friendships over many generations and to facilitate networking. The Lebensbund is very important for the longevity of these networks.
In the fourteen years the Weimar Republic was in existence, some forty parties were represented in the Reichstag. This fragmentation of political power was in part due to the use of a peculiar proportional representation electoral system that encouraged regional or small special interest parties and in part due to the many challenges facing the nascent German democracy in this period.
A Burschenschaft is one of the traditional Studentenverbindungen of Germany, Austria, and Chile . Burschenschaften were founded in the 19th century as associations of university students inspired by liberal and nationalistic ideas. They were significantly involved in the March Revolution and the unification of Germany. After the formation of the German Empire in 1871, they faced a crisis, as their main political objective had been realized. So-called Reformburschenschaften were established, but these were dissolved by the Nazi regime in 1935/6. In West Germany, the Burschenschaften were re-established in the 1950s, but they faced a renewed crisis in the 1960s and 1970s, as the mainstream political outlook of the German student movement of that period started leaning more towards the left. Roughly 160 Burschenschaften exist today in Germany, Austria and Chile.
The Union of Catholic German Student Fraternities is a German umbrella organization of Catholic male student fraternities (Studentenverbindung).
The Urburschenschaft was the first Burschenschaft, a form of the German student fraternity known as Studentenverbindung. It was founded in 1815 at the University of Jena and lasted through 1819.
Martin Graf is an Austrian politician. He is a member of the Freedom Party of Austria and former third president of the Austrian Parliament.
The Zeitgeschichtliche Forschungsstelle Ingolstadt e. V. is a historical revisionist association located in Dunsdorf, Bavaria.
Alternative for Germany is a far-right and right-wing populist political party in Germany. The AfD is Eurosceptic, and opposes immigration to Germany – especially of Muslims. The German judiciary has classified the party as a "suspected extremist" party, although it does not reject democracy.
Götz Kubitschek is a German publisher, journalist and far-right political activist. He espouses ethnocentric positions and is one of the most important protagonists of the Neue Rechte in Germany. Hailing from the staff of right-wing newspaper Junge Freiheit, Kubitschek is one of the founders of the Neue Rechte think tank Institut für Staatspolitik. Since 2002, he is the manager of his self-founded publishing house Antaios, since 2003 chief editor of the journal Sezession, as well as editor of the corresponding blog Sezession im Netz.
Christian Wirth is a German politician for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and since 2017 member of the Bundestag.
Diether Dehm is a German singer-songwriter, music producer and left-wing politician. He was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the PDS, and the Left Party.
Enrico Komning is a German lawyer and politician. He is a member of Alternative for Germany (AfD). In 2017 he became a member of the Bundestag.
Uli Grötsch is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as the German Bundestag's Federal Police Commissioner since 2024. He previously was as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Bavaria from 2013 to 2024. Grötsch has been police officer within the Bavarian State Police for 21 years.
Theodor Rudolph Carl Clewing was a German operatic tenor/heldentenor, stage and film actor, composer of the song Alle Tage ist kein Sonntag and professor at the Universität der Künste Berlin.
Simon Katzenstein was a German writer, politician (SPD) and political lecturer. During 1919/20 he was a member of the Weimar National Assembly, mandated to draw up a post-imperial national constitutions, and precursor to the parliament of a newly republican Germany.
Friedrich Johannes Frommann was a German publisher, bookseller and politician.
Garbiele Britz is a German jurist who is currently serving as a justice of the Federal Constitutional Court and is a professor for Public law and European Union law at the University of Giessen.
Otto Steinwender was an Austrian politician and professor, initially of liberal tendency, who later developed more nationalistic and radical ideas like reaction to the government of Eduard Taaffe, 11th Viscount Taaffe. Steinwender became one of the most important figures of the pan-German movement in Austria and collaborated closely with Georg Ritter von Schönerer, from whom he would later move away due to political differences to found the German-National Party and its successor, the German People's Party. He was a member of the Carinthian Landtag and the House of Representatives and a member of the Provisional National Assembly and the Bundesrat. From 1918 to 1919 he was also Secretary of State for Finance in the Renner government.
Torben Braga is a German politician of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), previously FDP. He entered the state parliament of Thuringia after the state elections of 27 October 2019.
