Free Corps 1919-1933 (Germany)

Freikorps

Last modified: 2003-11-08 by santiago dotor
Keywords: weimar republic | free corps | freikorps | kapp | ehrhardt brigade | brigade ehrhardt | letter: r |
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• Introduction
• The Kapp Putsch 1920
• Ehrhardt Brigade 1919-1920
• Rossbach Corps 1919

See also:

• Weimar Republic 1919-1933 (Germany)
• Sturmabteilung (SA) (NSDAP, Germany)
• Germany

Several militias (free corps) were created by German military officers to fight against communists. These corps used flags [of their] own that were destructed in World War Two. But some of them were preserved:

• Corps against Poles in Upper Silesia: White flag with white bordered yellow maltese cross;
• Hamburg Corps: Red flag with white castle of Hamburg but above flag a black pennant (meaning the Frison pirates);
• Rossbach Corps: Black flag with two silver diagonal stripes and a silver 'R' in centre;
• Unidentified corps: light blue flag with white-bordered yellow Maltese cross;
• Bermondt's Iron Division:
  1. black flag with white skull; and
  2. black flag with white circle in centre containing a second red circle a bit smaller, and white skull within the red circle.

Jaume Ollé, 22 January 2001

On March 13, 1920, a monarchist group led by a minor official named Wolfgang Kapp, General von Lüttwitz and Captain Ehrhardt, seized Berlin, declared Kapp Chancellor and Lüttwitz commander. They were defeated by a general strike o