What role did the Freikorps play in the Weimar Republic?

What role did the Freikorps play in the Weimar Republic? PDF Author: Michael Gärtner
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 363819499X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 18

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Book Description
Essay from the year 2003 in the subject History of Germany - World War I, Weimar Republic, grade: 62%, University of Wales, Aberystwyth (Department of History), language: English, abstract: In this essay I shall examine the role of the Freikorps in the Weimar Republic and show how they changed from loyal government troops in 1918 – 1920, to reactionary forces by 1923. To some historians, the Freikorps have no place in political history, but rather in military history. They seem to ignore the fact that civil wars were sometimes more important than conventional wars. The politically motivated soldiers of the 20th century conflicts were decisive from the Red Guards of the October Revolution in Russia to the Vietminh of the 1950s and 1960s, and up to the Mujjahedin in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The Freikorps fought and defeated the large threat from Communism, minimised territorial losses on the borders and prevented national secession. The movement started with honest aims, but once routine crept in and disappointment rose very high, the soldiers became disillusioned by the government which they felt had “betrayed” them. When we look at the Freikorps, we have to distinguish between the time up to their official disbanding and the time afterwards, when they were just underground fighters with the ultimate aim of crushing the Republic. The Freikorps can be split into three groups. The first group had generals or wartime officers as their superiors; these were conservatives who had no enthusiasm for the democratic republic, but in most cases they had moderate political views and disbanded their units when the main dangers to the state had been warded of. Usually these units ended up in the Reichswehr. The second group, which were the majority of the Freikorps, were local defence groups, or units, which were formed and disbanded within weeks or months. But in these units, there were many officers whose political views changed over the years. This will be the third group. It is here that the most radical leaders can be found. They and their soldiers could not accept that Germany had been defeated on the front line – they detested the left wing parties for the “stab in back”1 and hated the government who signed the Armistice. [...] 1 Field Marshall v. Hindenburg, when asked why Germany lost the war, brought up this legend.

What role did the Freikorps play in the Weimar Republic?

What role did the Freikorps play in the Weimar Republic? PDF Author: Michael Gärtner
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 363819499X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 18

Get Book Here

Book Description
Essay from the year 2003 in the subject History of Germany - World War I, Weimar Republic, grade: 62%, University of Wales, Aberystwyth (Department of History), language: English, abstract: In this essay I shall examine the role of the Freikorps in the Weimar Republic and show how they changed from loyal government troops in 1918 – 1920, to reactionary forces by 1923. To some historians, the Freikorps have no place in political history, but rather in military history. They seem to ignore the fact that civil wars were sometimes more important than conventional wars. The politically motivated soldiers of the 20th century conflicts were decisive from the Red Guards of the October Revolution in Russia to the Vietminh of the 1950s and 1960s, and up to the Mujjahedin in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The Freikorps fought and defeated the large threat from Communism, minimised territorial losses on the borders and prevented national secession. The movement started with honest aims, but once routine crept in and disappointment rose very high, the soldiers became disillusioned by the government which they felt had “betrayed” them. When we look at the Freikorps, we have to distinguish between the time up to their official disbanding and the time afterwards, when they were just underground fighters with the ultimate aim of crushing the Republic. The Freikorps can be split into three groups. The first group had generals or wartime officers as their superiors; these were conservatives who had no enthusiasm for the democratic republic, but in most cases they had moderate political views and disbanded their units when the main dangers to the state had been warded of. Usually these units ended up in the Reichswehr. The second group, which were the majority of the Freikorps, were local defence groups, or units, which were formed and disbanded within weeks or months. But in these units, there were many officers whose political views changed over the years. This will be the third group. It is here that the most radical leaders can be found. They and their soldiers could not accept that Germany had been defeated on the front line – they detested the left wing parties for the “stab in back”1 and hated the government who signed the Armistice. [...] 1 Field Marshall v. Hindenburg, when asked why Germany lost the war, brought up this legend.

A Brief History of the Birth of the Nazis

A Brief History of the Birth of the Nazis PDF Author: Nigel H. Jones
Publisher: Running PressBook Pub
ISBN: 9780786713424
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
The author chronicles the rise of the Freikorps, a paramilitary organization with roots in the First World War that was later co-opted by Hitler's Nazi Party and used as tool for political repression and intimidation. Original.

The Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic PDF Author: John Hiden
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Book Description
This text argues that the Weimar Republic was not doomed from its conception at the Treaty of Versailles and therefore it was a complex set of factors which allowed Hitler to rise to power. This edition features an updated and extended bibliography and rev

Dispatches from the Weimar Republic

Dispatches from the Weimar Republic PDF Author: Morgan Philips Price
Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
'This is a superb text which is relevant for anyone who has an interest in the turbulent post war years of Germany and the Weimar period ... It is very accessible ad easy to read, bolstered by the clarity of its language and organisation.' History Teaching ReviewThe period immediately following the First World War was one of great turbulence in Germany. The widespread dislocation throughout the country left morale crushed, and the economy crippled by Allied demands for reparations. Russia was in the hands of the Bolsheviks and Germany seemed on the brink of falling to working-class revolutionaries. Writing between 1919 and 1923 as special correspondent for the Manchester Guardian, Price was one of the very few British journalists in Weimar Germany during these important years. His unique position as an outsider allowed him to record what he saw with an objective eye, and his sympathy with the Bolsheviks gave him an understanding of the deeper implications behind the unfolding of events. These remarkable writings, reprinted for the first time in 80 years, cover the key events in postwar Germany. Price witnesses the establishment of the Weimar Republic, the emergence of Hitler and the Nazi Party, the inflammatory violence in the south of the country, which threatened civil war, and the signing of the Versailles Treaty.

The Outlaws

The Outlaws PDF Author: Ernst Von Salomon
Publisher: Arktos
ISBN: 1907166491
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
It is November 1918. Germany has just surrendered after four years of the most savage warfare in history. It is teetering on the brink of total social and economic collapse, and the German people now lie at the mercy of new, liberal politicians who despise everything Germany once stood for. The Communists are rioting in the streets, threatening to topple the new government in Weimar and bring about their own revolution. The frontline soldiers are returning from the hell of the war to find an unrecognizable land, the principles and traditions they had sacrificed so much to defend now the stuff of mockery. The narrator of The Outlaws, a 16-year-old military cadet, is too young to have served in the trenches, but feels the sting of this betrayal no less than they. Since Germany's armies have been all but disbanded, he joins the paramilitary Freikorps - groups of veterans who refuse to lay down their arms, and who have pledged to stop the Communists - and begins fighting, first in the streets of Germany's cities, and then in the Baltic states, defending Germany's eastern frontiers from Communist subversion while ignoring the calls to disengage by the meek politicians at home. After months of intense fighting abroad, the Freikorps soldiers return to settle scores with their enemies in Germany, dreaming of a nationalist counter-revolution, and, their trigger fingers still itchy, fix their sights on bringing down the hated new government once and for all... The Outlaws is a chronicle of the experiences of the men who fought in the Freikorps, but it is also an adventure and a war story about an entire generation of soldiers who loved their homeland more than peace and comfort, and who refused to accept defeat at any price. "What we wanted we did not know; but what we knew we did not want. To force a way through the prisoning wall of the world, to march over burning fields, to stamp over ruins and scattered ashes, to dash recklessly through wild forests, over blasted heaths, to push, conquer, eat our way through towards the East, to the white, hot, dark, cold land that stretched between ourselves and Asia - was that what we wanted? I do not know whether that was our desire, but that was what we did. And the search for reasons why was lost in the tumult of continuous fighting." - p. 65 Ernst von Salomon (1902-1972) was one of the writers of the German Conservative Revolution of the 1920s. Like the narrator of The Outlaws, he was a military cadet at the end of the First World War, and joined the Freikorps, participating in many of the events described in the book, including the assassination of Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau, for which he was imprisoned. He went on to write many books and film scripts.

The Fourteen Points Speech

The Fourteen Points Speech PDF Author: Woodrow Wilson
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781548159412
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
This Squid Ink Classic includes the full text of the work plus MLA style citations for scholarly secondary sources, peer-reviewed journal articles and critical essays for when your teacher requires extra resources in MLA format for your research paper.

Founding Weimar

Founding Weimar PDF Author: Mark Jones
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107115124
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 405

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Book Description
The first study to reveal the key relationship between violence and fears of violence during the German Revolution of 1918-1919.

Weimar and Nazi Germany

Weimar and Nazi Germany PDF Author: Fiona Reynoldson
Publisher: Heinemann
ISBN: 9780435308605
Category : Germany
Languages : en
Pages : 104

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Book Description


Fascism: A Very Short Introduction

Fascism: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Kevin Passmore
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191508551
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
What is fascism? Is it revolutionary? Or is it reactionary? Can it be both? Fascism is notoriously hard to define. How do we make sense of an ideology that appeals to streetfighters and intellectuals alike? That is overtly macho in style, yet attracts many women? That calls for a return to tradition while maintaining a fascination with technology? And that preaches violence in the name of an ordered society? In the new edition of this Very Short Introduction, Kevin Passmore brilliantly unravels the paradoxes of one of the most important phenomena in the modern world—tracing its origins in the intellectual, political, and social crises of the late nineteenth century, the rise of fascism following World War I, including fascist regimes in Italy and Germany, and the fortunes of 'failed' fascist movements in Eastern Europe, Spain, and the Americas. He also considers fascism in culture, the new interest in transnational research, and the progress of the far right since 2002. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Germany After the First World War

Germany After the First World War PDF Author: Richard Bessel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198219385
Category : Germany
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
A social history of Germany in the years following the First World War, this book explores Germany's defeat and the subsequent demobilization of its armies, events which had devastating social and psychological consequences for the nation. Bessel examines the changes brought by the War to Germany, including those resulting from the return of soldiers to civilian life and the effects of demobilization on the economy. He demonstrates that the postwar transition was viewed as a moral crusade by Germans desperately concerned about challenges to traditional authority; and he assesses the ways in which the experience of the War, and memories of it, affected the politics of the Weimar Republic. This is an original and scholarly book, which offers important insights into the sense of dislocation, both personal and national, experienced by Germany and Germans in the 1920s, and its damaging legacy for German democracy.