The Birth of the German Freikorps, New Tactics in the Politics of Violence

Following the armistice which ended the combat of the First World War the monarchy of Imperial Germany collapsed.  Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated the throne, fleeing the country and leaving a fledgling republic to deal with returning soldiers, a broken economy and an erupting revolution.

During the war the communist party of Germany grew and gained support throughout the working classes as they felt the deprivations of four years of economic hardship and effective blockades by the British navy.  The German Communist Party -- Kommunistiche Partei Deutschlands (KPD) -- and other smaller offshoots of the party began active protesting.  By January of 1919 the Communists were seizing and securing positions in the industrial cities throughout Germany.  The new German government -- the Reichswehr -- had little control over the returning troops, thus eliminating them as an option for asserting political dominance.  The government then sought out an alternative to the troops, hoping to avoid the dissolution of the country, or watching it succumb to communist forces.

The alternative that the government found came in the form of the Free Corps (Freikorps), units of volunteer soldiers who had no love for democracy, but even less for communism.  Many of these Free Corps soldiers formed units around a charismatic leader, with some of the units being as small as platoons and others as large as divisions.  These soldiers were primarily decorated soldiers, former Stormtroopers and enthusiastic youths who had not been old enough to fight on the front lines of the recently concluded war.  These Freikorps sought a return of the democracy and blamed the communists for the failure of supplies to reach the front in a timely manner.

The Freikorps and KPD clashed in the streets of Berlin and Munich amongst others.  The battles were swift and harsh with the Freikorps using brutal tactics to crush the revolutionary communists as quickly as possible.  Entire city blocks were destroyed and no prisoners were taken during the fighting.  The Freikorps used a combination of Stormtrooper tactics and newly created tactics to effictively end the revolution.  Hans Thanner of the Freikorps von Epp in the battle of Munich, 1919, recorded scenes of violence and the destruction of buildings with light field artillery pieces.

Many of the Freikorps members would join the ranks of the National Socialists -- even Adolf Hitler claimed to have served in Freikorps von Epp during the battle for Munich in 1919 -- and this stigma often colors the perception of historians in regards to the Freikorps.  Regardless of their later political orientations, however, the Freikorps were a much needed stabilizing force in the political chaos of Germany following the end of the First World War.