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Freikorps (German:[ˈfʁaɪˌkoːɐ̯], "FreeCorps" or "Volunteer Corps"[1]) wereirregular German and other Europeanparamilitaryvolunteer units that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively served asmercenaries orprivate military companies, regardless of their own nationality. InGerman-speaking countries, the first so-calledFreikorps ("free regiments",Freie Regimenter) were formed in the 18th century from native volunteers, enemy renegades, anddeserters. These sometimes exotically equipped units served as infantry and cavalry (or, more rarely, as artillery); sometimes in justcompany strength and sometimes in formations of up to several thousand strong. There were also various mixed formations or legions. ThePrussianvon Kleist Freikorps included infantry,jäger,dragoons andhussars. The FrenchVolontaires de Saxe combineduhlans and dragoons.
In the aftermath ofWorld War I and during theGerman Revolution of 1918–19,Freikorps, consisting partially of World War I veterans, were raised asparamilitary militias. They were ostensibly mustered to fight on behalf of the government[2] against theGerman communists attempting to overthrow theWeimar Republic.[3][4] However, manyFreikorps also largely despised the Republic and were involved in assassinations of its supporters, later aiding theNazis in their rise to power.[5][6][7]
The firstFreikorps appeared during theWar of the Austrian Succession and especially during the Seven Years' War, when France, Prussia, and theHabsburg monarchy embarked on an escalation ofpetty warfare while conserving their regular regiments. Even during the lastKabinettskrieg, theWar of the Bavarian Succession,Freikorp formations were formed in 1778. Germans, Hungarians, Poles, Lithuanians, andSouth Slavs, as well as Turks,Tatars andCossacks, were believed by all warring parties to be inherently good fighters. The nationality of many soldiers can no longer be ascertained as the ethnic origin was often described imprecisely in the regimental lists. Slavs (Croats, Serbs) were often referred to as "Hungarians" or just "Croats", and Muslim recruits (Albanians, Bosnians, Tatars) as "Turks".
Inspired by the Slavic troops in Austrian service, France, the Dutch Republic and other nations began employing "Free Troops", usually consisting of infantry and cavalry units. The Dutch Republic employed a number of "Vrij compagnieën"(Free Companies), raised between 1745 and 1747 and made up of volunteers and French deserters, such as the Walloon Grenadier Company. Although mostly used for reconnaissance and harassing enemy columns, the companies were organised into a battalion and engaged at the engagement at Wouw and the Battle of Lauffelt.[8] Some companies were accompanied by a company of Dragons or Hussars, such as Roodt's Company and Cornabé's Legion. And in late 1747, a French company of Miners was captured and taken into service of the Republic.[9]
France also made extensive use of Free Companies and Legions. At theBattle of Fontenoy, deployment of the British attack column was hampered by the French 'Harquebusiers de Grassins'. After the Battle of Lauffelt, French light troops pursued the retreating allies, but were engaged in a bloody guerilla war with Austrian and Dutch light troops and Free Companies for the remainder of the campaign.[10][11]
For Prussia, thePandurs, who were made up ofCroats andSerbs, were a clear model for the organization of such "free" troops. On 15 July 1759,Frederick the Great ordered the creation of a squadron of volunteerhussars to be attached to the 1st Hussar Regiment (von Kleist's Own). He entrusted the creation and command of this new unit to Colonel Friedrich Wilhelm von Kleist. This first squadron (80 men) was raised inDresden and consisted mainly ofHungarian deserters. This squadron was placed under the command of Lieutenant Johann Michael von Kovacs. At the end of 1759, the first four squadrons ofdragoons (also called horse grenadiers) of theFreikorps were organised. They initially consisted of Prussian volunteers from Berlin, Magdeburg, Mecklenburg and Leipzig, but later recruited deserters. TheFreikorps were regarded as unreliable by regular armies, so they were used mainly as sentries and for minor duties.[citation needed] During the war, 14 "free infantry" (Frei-Infanterie) units were created, mainly between 1756 and 1758, which were intended to be attractive to those soldiers who wanted military "adventure", but did not want to have to do military drill. A distinction should be made between theFreikorps formed up to 1759 for the final years of the war, which operated independently and disrupted the enemy with surprise attacks, and the free infantry which consisted of various military branches (such as infantry, hussars, dragoons,jäger) and were used in combination. They were often used to ward offMaria Theresa's Pandurs. In the era oflinear tactics, light troops had been seen necessary for outpost, reinforcement andreconnaissance duties. During the war, eight such volunteer corps were set up:
Because, some exceptions, they were seen as undisciplined and less battleworthy, they were used for less onerous guard andgarrison duties. In the so-called "petty wars", theFreikorps interdicted enemy supply lines withguerrilla warfare. In the case of capture, their members were at risk of being executed as irregular fighters. In Prussia theFreikorps, which Frederick the Great had despised as "vermin", were disbanded. Their soldiers were given no entitlement to pensions or invalidity payments.
In France, many corps continued to exist until 1776. They were attached to regular dragoon regiments asjägersquadrons. During theNapoleonic Wars, Austria recruited variousFreikorps of Slavic origin. TheSlavonic WurmserFreikorps fought inAlsace. The combat effectiveness of the sixVienneseFreikorps (37,000 infantrymen and cavalrymen), however, was low. An exception were the border regiments of Croats and Serbs who served permanently on the Austro-Ottoman border.
TheSerbian Free Corps was established in 1788 and was used in theAustro-Turkish War (1788–1791).
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During Napoleon's 1812invasion of Russia, the hussarDenis Davydov, awarrior-poet, formed volunteer partisan detachments functioning asFreikorps during the Frenchretreat from Moscow. These irregular units operated in conjunction with Field MarshalMikhail Kutuzov's regularRussian Imperial Army and AtamanMatvei Platov'sCossack detachments, harassing the French supply lines and inflicting defeats on the retreatingGrande Armée in the battles ofKrasnoi and theBerezina.
Freikorps in the modern sense emerged in Germany during the course of the Napoleonic Wars. They fought not so much for money but for patriotic reasons, seeking to shake off the FrenchConfederation of the Rhine. After the French under EmperorNapoleon had either conquered the German states or forced them to collaborate, remnants of the defeated armies continued to fight on in this fashion. Famous formations included theKing's German Legion, who had fought for Britain inFrench-occupied Spain and mainly were recruited from Hanoverians, theLützow Free Corps and theBlack Brunswickers.
TheFreikorps attracted many nationally disposed citizens and students.Freikorps commanders such asFerdinand von Schill,Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow orFrederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, known as the "Black Duke", led their own attacks on Napoleonic occupation forces in Germany. Those led by Schill were decimated in theBattle of Stralsund (1809); many were killed in battle or executed at Napoleon's command in the aftermath. TheFreikorps were very popular during the period of theGerman War of Liberation (1813–15), during which von Lützow, a survivor of Schill'sFreikorps, formed his Lützow Free Corps. The anti-Napoleonic Freikorps frequently conducted operations behind French lines, functioning as a form of commando or guerrilla force.
Throughout the 19th century, these anti-NapoleonicFreikorps were greatly praised and glorified by German nationalists, and a heroic myth built up around their exploits. This myth was invoked, in considerably different circumstances, in the aftermath of Germany's defeat inWorld War I, then misused by theThird Reich.
France later raised its own free corps. On 5 January 1814, at the start of the invasion of France, Napoleon decreed the formation ofcorps francs for territorial defense in the border departments.[13] They were dissolved by an ordinance ofLouis XVIII on 15 April 1814.[13] Thecorps francs were restored on 22 April 1815, following Napoleon's return to power, and participated in the defense of France during theHundred Days.[13] They were again dissolved by Louis XVIII on 20 July 1815.[13]
The anti-Napoleonic guerrilla movements in Germany, Russia and Spain in the early 1810s also produced their own style of poetry,hussar poetry orFreikorps poetry, written by soldier-poets. In Germany,Theodor Körner,Max von Schenkendorff andErnst Moritz Arndt were the most famous soldier-poets from the Freikorps. Their lyrics were for the most part patriotic, republican, anti-monarchical and anti-French. In Russia, the leader of the guerrilla army, Davydov, invented the genre of hussar poetry, characterised by hedonism and bravado. He used events from his own life to illustrate such poetry. Later, whenMikhail Lermontov was ajunker (cadet) in the Russian Imperial Army, he also wrote such poetry.
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Even in the aftermath of theNapoleonic era,Freikorps were set up with varying degrees of success.[14][verification needed] During the March 1848 riots, studentFreikorps were set up in Munich.
InFirst Schleswig War of 1848 theFreikorps ofvon der Tann,Zastrow and others distinguished themselves.
In 1864 in Mexico, the French formed the so-calledContreguerrillas under former Prussianhussar officer, Milson. InItaly,Giuseppe Garibaldi formed his famousFreischars, notably the "Thousand of Marsala", which landed inSicily in 1860.
Even before theFranco-Prussian War of 1870/71,Freikorps were developed in France that were known asfranc-tireurs.
AfterWorld War I, the meaning of the word Freikorps changed compared to its past iterations. After 1918, the term referred to various—yet, still, loosely affiliated—paramilitary organizations that were established in Germany following the defeat in World War I. Of the numerousWeimar paramilitary groups active during that time, the Freikorps were, and remain, the most notable. While numbers are difficult to determine, historians agree that some 500,000 men were formal Freikorps members with another 1.5 million men participating informally.[15]
Amongst the social, political, and economic upheavals that marked the early years of theWeimar Republic, the tenuous German government underFriedrich Ebert, leader of theSocial Democratic Party of Germany (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD), used the Freikorps to quell socialist and communist uprisings.[5] Minister of Defence and SPD memberGustav Noske also relied on the Freikorps to suppress theMarxistSpartacist uprising, culminating in thesummary executions of revolutionary communist leadersKarl Liebknecht andRosa Luxemburg on 15 January 1919.[16]
TheBavarian Soviet Republic was a short-lived and unrecognized socialist-communist state from 12 April – 3 May 1919 in Bavaria during theGerman Revolution of 1918–19. Following a series of political revolts and takeovers from German socialists and then Russian-backed Bolsheviks,Noske responded from Berlin by sending various Freikorps brigades to Bavaria in late April totalling some 30,000 men.[16] The brigades includedHermann Ehrhardt's second Marine Brigade Freikorps, theGorlitz Freikorps under Lieutenant Colonel Faupel, and twoSwabian divisions fromWürttemberg under General Haas and Major Hirl as well as the largest Freikorps in Bavaria commanded by ColonelFranz Ritter von Epp.[16]
While they were met with little Communist resistance, the Freikorps acted with particular brutality and violence under Noske's blessing and at the behest of Major Schulz, adjutant of theLützow Freikorps, who reminded his men that it "[was] a lot better to kill a few innocent people than to let one guilty person escape" and that there was no place in his ranks for those whose conscience bothered them.[16] On 5 May 1919, Lieutenant Georg Pölzing, one of Schulz's officers, travelled to the town ofPerlach outside ofMunich. There, Pölzing chose a dozen alleged communist workers—none of whom were actually communists, but members of theSocial Democratic Party—and shot them on the spot.[16][17] The following day, a Freikorps patrol led by Captain Alt-Sutterheim interrupted the meeting of a local Catholic club, the St Joseph Society, and chose twenty of the thirty members present to be shot, beaten, and bayoneted to death.[16] A memorial on Pfanzeltplatz inMunich commemorates the incident.[18] HistorianNigel Jones notes that as a result of the Freikorps' violence, Munich's undertakers were overwhelmed, resulting in bodies lying in the streets and decaying until mass graves were completed.[16]
The Freikorps also fought against communists andBolsheviks in Eastern Europe, most notablyEast Prussia,Latvia,Silesia, andPoland. The Freikorps demonstrated fervent anti-Slavic racism and viewedSlavs andBolsheviks as "sub-human" hordes of "ravening wolves".[5] To justify their campaign in the East, the Freikorps launched a campaign of propaganda that falsely positioned themselves as protectors of Germany's territorial hegemony overLithuania,Latvia, andEstonia as a result of theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk and as defenders against Slavic and Bolshevik hordes that "raped women and butchered children" in their wake.[5] HistorianNigel Jones highlights the Freikorps's "usual excesses" of violence and murder in Latvia which were all the more unrestrained since they were fighting in a foreign land versus their own country.[5] Hundreds were murdered in the Freikorps' Eastern campaigns, such as the massacre of 500Latvian civilians suspected of harbouringBolshevik sympathies or the capture ofRiga which saw the Freikorps slaughter some 3,000 people.[5]Summary executions via firing squads were most common, but several Freikorps members recorded the brutal and deadly beatings of suspected communists and particularly communist women.[19]
Freikorps ranks were composed primarily of formerWorld War I soldiers who, upondemobilization, were unable to reintegrate into civilian society having been brutalized by the violence of the war physically and mentally. Combined with the government's poor support of veterans, who were dismissed ashysterical when suffering frompost-traumatic stress disorder, many German veterans found comfort and a sense of belonging in the Freikorps.[20][21] Jason Crouthamel notes how the Freikorps' military structure was a familiar continuation of the frontlines, emulating theKampfgemeinschaft (battle community) andKameradschaft (camaraderie), thus preserving "the heroic spirit of comradeship in the trenches".[22] Others, angry atGermany's sudden, seemingly inexplicable defeat, joined the Freikorps to fight against communism and socialism in Germany or to exact some form of revenge on those they considered responsible. To a lesser extent, German youth who were not old enough to have served in World War I enlisted in the Freikorps in hopes of proving themselves as patriots and as men.[21]
Regardless of reasons for joining, modern German historians agree that men of the Freikorps consistently embodied post-Enlightenment masculine ideals that are characterized by "physical, emotional, and moral 'hardness'".[23][24] Described as "children of the trenches, spawned by war" and its process of brutalization, historians argue that Freikorps men idealized a militarizedmasculinity of aggression, physical domination, the absence of emotion (hardness).[5][24] They were to be as "swift as greyhounds, tough as leather, [and] hard asKrupp steel" so as to defend what remained of German conservatism in times of social chaos, confusion, and revolution that came to define the immediateinterwar era.[14] AlthoughWorld War I ended in Germany's surrender, many men in the Freikorps nonetheless viewed themselves as soldiers still engaged in active warfare with enemies of the traditional German Empire such as communists andBolsheviks, Jews,socialists, andpacifists.[14] Prominent Freikorps memberErnst von Salomon described his troops as "full of wild demand for revenge and action and adventure...a band of fighter...full of lust, exultant in anger."[5]
In 1977, German sociologistKlaus Theweleit publishedMale Fantasies, in which he argues that men in the Freikorps radicalized Western and German norms of male self-control into a perpetual war against feminine-coded desires for domesticity, tenderness, and compassion amongst men.[19][24] HistoriansNigel Jones andThomas Kühne note that the Freikorps' displays of violence, terror, and male aggression and solidarity established the beginnings of the fascistNew Man upon which theNazis built.[16][25]
The extent of the Freikorps' involvement and actions inEastern Europe, where they demonstrated full autonomy and rejected orders from theReichswehr andGerman government, left a negative impression with the state.[26] By this time, the Freikorps had servedEbert's purpose of suppressing revolts and communist uprisings. After the failedKapp-Lütwitz Putsch in March 1920 that the Freikorps participated in, the Freikorps' autonomy and strength steadily declined asHans von Seeckt, commander of the Reichswehr, removed all Freikorps members from the army and restricted the movements' access to future funding and equipment from the government.[26] Von Seeckt was successful, and by 1921 only a small yet devoted core remained, effectively drawing an end to the Freikorps until their resurgence as far-right thugs and street brawlers for theNazis beginning in 1923.
The rise of theNazi Party led to a resurgence of Freikorps activity, as many members or ex-members were drawn to the party's marrying of military and political life and extreme nationalism by joining theSturmabteilung (SA) andSchutzstaffel (SS).[5] Unlike in theGerman Revolution of 1918–19 or their involvement in Eastern Europe, the Freikorps now had almost no military value and were instead utilized by the Nazis as thugs to engage in street brawls with communists and to break up anarchist, communist and socialist meetings alongside theSA to gain a political edge.[15] Moreover, the Nazis elevated the Freikorps as a symbol of pure German nationalism, anti-communism, and militarized masculinity to co-opt the lingering social and political support of the movement.[15]
Eventually,Adolf Hitler came to view the Freikorps as a nuisance and possible threat to his consolidation of power. During theNight of the Long Knives in 1934, an internal purge of Hitler's enemies within theNazi Party, numerous Freikorps members and leaders were targeted for killing or arrest, including Freikorps commanderHermann Ehrhardt andSA leaderErnst Röhm. In Hitler'sReichstag speech following the purge, Hitler denounced the Freikorps as lawless "moral degenerates...aimed at the destruction of all existing institutions" and as "pathological enemies of the state...[and] enemies of all authority," despite his previous public adoration of the movement.[5]
Numerous future members and leaders of the Nazi Party served in the Freikorps.Martin Bormann, eventual head of the Nazi Party Chancellery and Private Secretary to Hitler, joinedGerhard Roßbach's Freikorps[broken anchor] inMecklenburg as a section leader and quartermaster.[5] Reich Farmers' Leader and Minister of Food and AgricultureRichard Walther Darré was part of the Berlin Freikorps.[5]Reinhard Heydrich, future chief of theReich Security Main Office (including theGestapo,Kripo, andSD) and initiator of theFinal Solution, was inGeorg Ludwig Rudolf Maercker's Freikorps as a teenager.[5] Leader of theSSHeinrich Himmler enlisted in the Freikorps and carried a flag in the1923 Beer Hall Putsch.[5]Rudolf Höss joined theEast Prussian Volunteer Freikorps in 1919 and eventually became commander of theAuschwitz extermination camp.[5]Ernst Röhm, eventual leader of theSA, supported variousBavarian Freikorps groups, funnelling them arms and cash.[5] Although many high-ranking National Socialists were former Freikorps fighters, recent research shows that former Freikorps fighters were no more likely to be involved in National Socialist organisations than the average male population in Germany.[27][28]
DuringWorld War II, there existed certain armed groups loyal toGermany that went under the name "Freikorps". These include:
InFrance, a similar group (but unrelated to the Freikorps) were the "Corps Franc". Starting in October 1939, the French Army raised a number of Corps Franc units with the mission of carrying out ambush, raid, and harassing operations forward of theMaginot Line during the period known as thePhoney War (Drôle de Guerre). They were tasked with attacking German troops guarding theSiegfried Line. FutureVichycollaborationist,Anti-Bolshevik andSSMajorJoseph Darnand was one of the more famous participants in these commando actions.
In May 1940, the experience of the Phoney War-era Corps Franc was an influence in creating theGroupes Francs Motorisé de Cavalerie (GFC) who played a storied role in the delaying operations and last stands of theBattle of France, notably in the defenses ofthe Seine andthe Loire. Between April – September 1944, theCorps Franc de la Montagne Noire unit operated as part of theFrench Resistance.
On 25 November 1942, in the immediate aftermath of theAllied Invasion of Vichy French North Africa theCorps Francs d'Afrique (CFA) (African Corps Franc) was raised inFrench Morocco within theFree French Forces byGeneral Giraud. Giraud drew the members of the all-volunteer unit from residents of Northern Africa of diverse religious backgrounds (Christian, Jew, and Muslim) and gave them the title ofVélite, a name inspired by the elite light infantry ofNapoleon'sImperial Guard, who were named after theRomanVelites. Much of the Corps was drawn fromHenri d'Astier de la Vigerie andJosé Aboulker'sGéo GrasFrench Resistance Group which had been responsible for theAlgiers Insurrection where the Resistance seized control of Algiers on the night of 8 November 1942 in coordination with theAllied landings happening that same night. In taking over Algiers, they managed to capture bothAdmiral Darlan andGeneral Juin, which led to theDarlan Deal whereinVichy French forces came over to the Allied side.Darlan was later assassinated byFernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, an early member of the Corps Francs d'Afrique. They functioned as theFree French equivalent to theBritishCommandos. The Corps also included many Spanish and International old combatants of theSpanish Republican Army, which had sought refuge in Northern Africa in 1939.
The Corps Francs d'Afrique, under command ofJoseph de Goislard de Monsabert, went on to fightRommel'sAfrikakorps inTunisia with the U.S.5th Army. They fought alongside theBritish 139th Brigade atKassarine andSidi Nasr, where they famously conducted a heroic bayonet charge, facing two to one odds, against theItalian34th Battalion of the 10th Bersaglieri near the mountain ofKef Zilia on the road toBizerte, taking 380 prisoners, killing the Italian battalion commander, and capturing the plans forOperation Ausladung. They participated inthe capture of Bizerte in May 1943.
For its actions, the Corps Franc d'Afrique was awarded theCroix de Guerre.
The CFA formally was dissolved on 9 July 1943, with its members and equipment forming the corps of the newly createdAfrican Commando Group (GCA) on 13 July 1943 inDupleix,Algeria, today seen as a forebear to the postwarParachutist Shock Battalions and the modern day13th RDP. The GCA went on to fight atPianosa,Elba,Salerno,Provence,Belfort,Giromagny,Alsace,Cernay,Guebwiller,Buhl, and theInvasion of Germany.
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