Talk:Freikorps
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Just a question
Whats the vehicle next to the soldiers in the first picture? R34p3r2006 (talk) 09:56, 30 July 2020 (UTC)
- The annotation of the bottom says "Panzerwagon". To me it looks like a "do it yourself" armored vehicle. 2600:6C63:647F:673D:A3F2:499D:D93E:A233 (talk) 01:25, 7 March 2023 (UTC)
Untitled
I am wondering should this article be melded into Weimar paramilitary groups and have [Freikorps] as a redirect page? It is good that someone sees alltogether all the paramilitary groups and shows the disintegration of German society during the Weimar period.WHEELER 18:31, 22 Jul 2004 (UTC)
I believe the Friekorps actually existed before Weimar was formally estabished. They were really at their strongest in the period of the provisional government between the fall of the monarchy and the adoption of the Weimar constitution.
So the answer to your question is no.216.209.78.47 20:07, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)
I agree with the first poster, this page needs a merge. RomanK79 (talk) 08:11, 8 September 2014 (UTC)
- No, this page should not be merged. The Freikorps had a distinct identity that marked them out. More importantly, and this is something this page does not explain at all, the Freikorps were created by the German state. The other paramilitary groups were loyal to political parties. Nowhere would you know that from reading this page that the Freikorps were founded in December 1918 by General Wilhelm Groner and his right-hand man, General Kurt von Schleicher. The statement about the Freikorps being right-wing is a little inaccurate. In December 1918, much of Berlin was under the control of elements of the radical left, and there was believed to be a shortage of reliable soldiers to defend the new republic from the threat of a Communist putsch. The Freikorps were supposed to be volunteers who could be depended upon to defend the new republic. The Freikorps were not supposed to be a political force; it just happened that sort of men who tended to volunteer for the Freikorps were usually on the extreme right. What this article should say is that the Freikorps were created by the state and became a sort of Frankenstein's monster that ultimately turned against its creators, in a certain way. --A.S. Brown (talk) 20:22, 17 May 2015 (UTC)
Innacurate early history
Historically, a "Friekorps" -- usualy used in English as "Free Regiment" was NOT a militia but a mercenary unit. They were "free" to change their allegience if their employer, whether a duke, a margrave or a prince ("furstin") or even an urban republic, decided that it could no longer afford to pay them.
German military law recognized them as legal soldiers, even when traveling from one country to a new job in another, and I read a book of military law, carried in the late 1800's, that required a Friekorps be allowed to pass unhindered through neutral countries.
Look up the history of the Thirty Years War.68.5.64.178 20:04, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
I would think a merger would work better as well. This article only talks about a very specific group. 2001:4C28:4000:721:185:26:182:30 (talk) 08:09, 8 September 2014 (UTC)
Freikorps members -- outsiders during the Third Reich?
Source for this? It doesn't sound very credible that nationalistic, anti-communist ex-soldiers would be uninterested in Nazi aims (or of no use to Nazis).
If I'm not mistaken, part [probably individual members rather than a specific formation] of the Garde-Kalvarie later ended up in the SA. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bill Vick (talk • contribs) 16:47, 8 September 2014 (UTC)
Merger proposal
I have proposed that Weimar paramilitary groups#Freikorps be merged into this article.
- no - look to the top of the page. Freikorps were at least 100 years older than the ill-fated republic. --89.49.142.139 (talk) 09:45, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
- This discussion is clearly moribund, so I have removed the merger template. ---RepublicanJacobiteThe'FortyFive' 03:32, 12 February 2008 (UTC)
most ended up as ss genrals — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.210.198.140 (talk) 15:29, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
Perhaps a comparison would be interesting
As I noted above, the Freikorps were founded in December 1918 to defend the new republic from being overthrown by Communists. The Freikorps were volunteers whose only job was to defend the government; in no way were the Freikorps intended to be a political force. But a very particular sort of men tended to volunteer for the Freikorps, namely the World War I veterans who could not adjust to civilian life and still craved for the carnage and mayhem of war. The sort of men who loved killing people during the war, and still longed to go on killing understandably had a lot of trouble adjusting to civilian life. That sort of veteran who could not fit into civilian life almost always were on the extreme right. It should noted that not all German veterans of World War I were like this; the pacifistic League of the War Wounded had three times the total membership of the Freikorps. The sort of veteran who loved war and could not get enough of it were the ones who joined the Freikorps; the ones who had enough of war did not. Furthermore, this was not unique to Germany. There are striking resemblances between the sort of German veteran who joined the Freikorps and the sort of British veteran who joined the Black and Tans. The sort of British veteran who wanted to go on killing and could not fit into post-war British society usually ended up in the Blacks and Tans; much of the brutality of that force seems to be due to the sort of men who volunteered as opposed to some sort of innate anti-Irish racism within British society. This is something that historians have often commented upon, and perhaps this article should mention that. A.S. Brown (talk) 20:59, 17 May 2015 (UTC)
Communist uprisings
This is unclear - which communist uprisings?
This reference seems incongruous with what's stated in the lead:
Freikorps were raised to fight against the newly formed Weimar Republic, as well as their left-wing counterparts, through the early 1920s. These paramilitary organizations "roamed the countryside, killing with impunity." "They engaged in bloody confrontations with republican loyalists and engineered some of the more notorious assassinations" of the Weimar period, and are widely seen as a "precursor to Nazism".
I added the clarification tag for now:
Others, angry at their sudden, apparently inexplicable defeat, joined up in an effort to put down communist uprisings[clarification needed] or exact some form of revenge.
Not sure if this article is monitored or not. If yes, please provide clarification. If not, I'd like to remove "communist uprisings" or add to read "so-called communist uprisings." --K.e.coffman (talk) 22:11, 27 November 2015 (UTC)
- You need to read around the subject before proposing to delete material you're unsure of. In the wake of the First World War, revolution broke out in Germany inspired by the success of the Bolsheviks in Russia. The German Communist Party was founded in Dec 1918 and immediately launched the Spartacist uprising of 1919 in Berlin. They were put down by the Freikorps. Similarly the Munich Soviet Republic was overthrown by Freikorps troops in 1919. Just two examples. Bermicourt (talk) 09:10, 28 November 2015 (UTC)