German Warrior League
The German War Association of 1873 should not be confused with the "German War Association 1914/18 eV". This was only founded in Leipzig after the First World War , and was banned by law in 1934 and dissolved.
history
Founding thought and development
The formation of the German Warrior League, initiated in spring 1872 and resolved on April 14, 1873 in Weißenfels, gave the signal for the merging of the individual warrior associations into associations. The federal government sought to establish a firm bond with all warrior associations with a common support fund across the entire empire. Under the impression of the events of 1870/71 , the federal government was cheered from all sides, especially from the southern parts of the country. However, the disagreements about the type of structure quickly brought disillusionment. From today's perspective, the German War Association was far ahead of its time in establishing a unified Reich organization; but in his zeal he had forgotten the federal constitution of the empire. In 1873 the time was not yet ripe to think of a unified all-German Reich Warrior League. But on the contrary. First in Saxony , later in Bavaria , voices were strong in favor of an amalgamation of the German war clubs by federal state and an organization similar to the imperial constitution. In Saxony it was already in 1873 the then Crown Prince Albert who recommended this approach to the Saxon associations, in Bavaria King Ludwig II , who in 1874 suggested the formation of a Bavarian regional association. State associations gradually formed in Württemberg , Baden , Hesse and other federal states.
The less the Deutscher Kriegerbund wanted to succeed in uniting all of the warrior associations in northern Germany, the more firmly they came together. Even at the founding meeting in Weißenfels, an agreement could not be reached. Part of the assembly, which only wanted a loose association and rejected a common support system, did not submit to the resolutions of the majority, but formed the so-called "Cartel Alliance", later called "General German Warrior Comradeship", separate from the German Warrior League. All of the negotiations between the German Warrior League, its North German counter-organization and the regional associations that had already been formed , in Leipzig in 1874, in Berlin in 1875, in Munich in 1876, could not bring about an agreement of the diverging opinions. Also the efforts of the general of the infantry z.D. Adolf von Glümer , who in 1878 wanted to bring about the unification of all German warriors with the approval of Kaiser Wilhelm I , had no success.
During this time, the regional associations in Bavaria, Saxony, Württemberg, Baden and Hesse were strengthened and calmly watched the battle of opinions, which raged mainly in northern Germany. Here the German Warrior League and its joint coffers were still facing the opposite tendency towards the general unification. As long as these two views were fighting each other, an agreement was out of the question. Efforts in northern Germany were initially aimed at uniting both currents with one another, integrating the other regional associations. The next attempt was made at the General Warrior Congress in Frankfurt am Main in May 1881. The congress decided, while fully maintaining the independence of the individual state, provincial and district associations, to form an association of all German warriors' associations, which should bear the name "German Warrior Association" and initially adopt the statutes of the German Warrior League.
The “General German Warrior Comradeship” then declared itself dissolved, subject to the approval of its associations. The Congress of Representatives of the German Warrior Association in Heidelberg in June 1881 accepted the resolutions of the Frankfurt Warrior Congress and approved the union's entry into the German Warrior Association. The large regional associations of Bavaria, Saxony, Württemberg and Baden, on the other hand, refused to join the association. In order not to jeopardize the agreement reached in Frankfurt, the German Warrior League invited the state associations to another conference in Eisenach in March 1882. In addition to the provisionally established German Warrior Association and the German Warrior Association, the regional associations of Saxony, Württemberg, Hesse, Oldenburg and Braunschweig were also represented at this conference. For the first time, the principle was clearly stated that a correct structure of the German warrior association is only possible on the basis of regional warrior associations of the individual federal states. The participants then decided to form the German Warrior Association on the basis of state associations. The regional associations that belonged to the German Warrior League at that time were, however, viewed as an integral part of the federal government; the German Warrior League should join the warrior association as a whole. The entry of the Prussian provincial associations, which were not yet part of the German War Association, was considered desirable.
The Congress of Representatives of the German Warrior Association in Gotha in May 1882 authorized the federal executive board to join the German Warrior Association in accordance with the Eisenach resolutions. But the Warrior Day of the provisional German Warrior Association, which met in Berlin in October 1882, decided that the establishment of the German Warrior Association, contrary to the agreement, should take place on the basis of associations. The Württemberg Warrior Association therefore resigned from the Eisenach Agreement in December 1882, as the German Warrior Association had not recognized the decisions made there. It was only through the influence of the Main Association of the Westphalian Warrior and Landwehr Associations, which did not belong to either of the two main streams, that a resolution was passed in March 1884. After that, the German Warrior Association was to be formed on the basis of individual associations. The German Warrior League and the regional associations were considered individual associations. The Prussian provincial and district associations belonging to the German Warrior Association were to join the German Warrior League with full independence. For this purpose, the German Warrior Association should join the German Warrior Association, which would take the name "German Reich Warrior Association". This decision was adopted by the Congress of Representatives of the German Warrior League in June 1884 in Cologne. A joint meeting took place in Berlin at the beginning of July. There 20 Prussian associations joined the German War Association. All Prussian associations were now part of the German Warrior League. In contrast, the state associations only joined the Reichs-Kriegerverband from Braunschweig, Oldenburg, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Hamburg and Bremen.
This failure clearly indicated that the associations of Bavaria, Saxony, Württemberg, Baden and Hesse, which remained outside the Reichs-Kriegerverband, could only be won on the basis of purely state warrior associations. The organization of the German Warrior League and in particular the lack of a Prussian state warrior association prevented this. An application to convert the Federation into a Prussian state association, which was made on the Congress of Representatives of the German Warrior League in Magdeburg in May 1885, was rejected by a majority. In Meiningen in June 1886 a new agreement was proposed to the five associations. In the future, no military association that exists in the territory of the aforementioned regional associations should be included in the German Warrior League. Conversely, this also applied to clubs in the area of the German Warrior League. As a result of this decision, the state associations of Württemberg, Bavaria, Saxony, Baden and Hesse met in Würzburg in November 1886 and decided to enter into negotiations with the German Warrior Association and the Reich Warrior Association to establish a comradely association.
After the German Warrior League had already ceded the clubs that it still had in Württemberg to the Württemberg Warrior League in 1888, the Congress of Representatives in Halle decided in 1891 to allocate the federal territory of the German Warrior League to Prussia, Alsace-Lorraine and those northern German states whose contingents are under Prussian administration, but without forming a closed army. Then the clubs that the federal government still had in Bavaria, Saxony and Baden were eliminated. The German Warrior League was thus also territorially delimited. All that was missing now was an external impetus to bring about the merger.
The idea for the Kyffhäuser Monument
Kaiser Wilhelm I died on March 9, 1888. Already on March 12th, the secretary at the time, the secret government councilor Prof. Dr. Westphal, on the board of the German Warrior League, proposed that the former German warriors and soldiers erect a joint memorial to the founder of the Reich and that the costs would be covered by voluntary contributions from former German soldiers. To this end, the board of directors should unite with the other German warrior associations and propose the Kyffhäuser as the site of the memorial. Because according to legend, Kaiser Weißbart (Wilhelm I) redeemed Kaiser Rotbart (Barbarossa).
The application was accepted in the federal board meeting on March 12th and Dr. Westphal commissioned to work out a draft for the Congress of Representatives in Danzig. This proposal was accepted by an overwhelming majority in Danzig on May 21, 1888 , and a few days later the committee of the Reichs-Kriegerverband, to which the associations of Oldenburg, Braunschweig, Sondershausen, Hamburg and Bremen belonged, as well as the German Warrior League agree to the request. Now the regional warrior associations of Bavaria, Saxony, Württemberg, Baden and Hesse have been invited to a meeting in Berlin. This meeting took place on October 7, 1888. It was the first time that representatives of the German warrior associations from all over Germany were called together for a joint task in which everyone participated. It was decided to erect the Kyffhäuser monument in memory of Kaiser Wilhelm I. From this first joint work of all German warrior associations developed the long-desired alliance of all warrior associations.
The construction was led by a construction committee made up of representatives from the individual associations. When the monument was finished and opened to the public in 1896, the need arose to create a permanent body for its administration. The "Standing Committee of the German National Warrior Associations for the Administration of the Kaiser Wilhelm Monument on the Kyffhäuser" was founded. With effect from January 1, 1900, it renamed itself “Kyffhäuser Bund der Deutschen Landes-Kriegerverband” and became a registered association within the meaning of Par. 21 of the BGB. At the same time the Reichs-Kriegerverband became part of the German Warrior League. On August 15, 1908, he moved his office to Geisbergstrasse. 2 in Berlin W50. This also became the permanent address of the Reichskriegerbund until its dissolution in 1943.
Reorganization and dissolution
The German War Association existed alongside the other regional associations until the end of the war in 1918. After the end of the monarchy, it became necessary to adapt the goals of the association to the new conditions. This happened on the Congress of Representatives in Kassel in 1919 combined with organizational changes within the Kyffhäuserbund .
So far, the warrior association had two headquarters, the Kyffhäuserbund and the German Warrior Association. The German Warrior League was originally supposed to be the headquarters of the warrior association; he gave up this intention as early as 1891. For practical reasons, however, it remained in its former size, even after the Kyffhäuserbund was formed in 1900. His well-chosen, easy-to-remember name, however, often led to mix-ups and errors about the entire Reich headquarters of the warrior association. At the same time, the German Warrior Association also administered the economic and support system of the North German Warrior Associations and the Prussian State Warrior Association. A dissolution of the federal government and a transfer of the assets to the Kyffhäuserbund was out of the question for tax reasons.
After much discussion and deliberation, a solution was finally found: The Kyffhäuserbund is converted under a new name into a permanent federation, which is the only headquarters of the German warrior association. Its constitutional resolutions are binding for all state warrior associations belonging to it. The German War Association gives up its previous name and takes on a new name, it is transformed into a purely economic association. This proposal was accepted by the Kyffhäuserbund and the German Warrior Association. With effect from January 1, 1922, the Kyffhäuserbund was renamed “Deutscher Reichskriegerbund Kyffhäuser” and the German Warrior Association was renamed “Deutsche Krieger-Wohlfahrtsgemeinschaft”.
Affiliated soldiers' associations
- Bavarian Soldiers' Union 1874 (BSB)
- Kyffhäuserbund
literature
- Brößke: Statutes of the German War Association , Zittau 1873, Alban Horn Verlag, 52 pages. Google books digital
Individual evidence
- ^ Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, Volume 11., Leipzig 1907, pp. 660–661.
- ↑ Thomas Rohkrämer: The militarism of the "little people": The war clubs in the German Empire 1871-1914 , Munich 1990, Oldenbourg Verlag, p. 266 ff.
- ^ Diana Maria Friz: Where Barbarossa sleeps - the Kyffhäuser: the dream of the German Empire , Weinheim 1991, Beltz Quadriga Verlag, p. 180 ff.