Freikorps Lützow

This article deals with the Lützow Freikorps from the time immediately after the First World War. For the Freikorps of the same name from the time of the Wars of Liberation against Napoléon Bonaparte, see Lützowsches Freikorps .

Celebration of the Lützow Freikorps for its one year anniversary in 1920 in Zossen near Berlin.

Memorial plaque commemorating the murder of twelve Perlach citizens by the Lützow Freikorps on May 5, 1919 in the garden of the Hofbräukeller ; Wiener Platz, Munich

The Lützow Freikorps was a right-wing paramilitary association in the uprisings in Germany that followed the November Revolution . It existed from January 1919 to April 1920.

history

The Freikorps was founded on January 17, 1919 in Berlin by the three officers of the imperial army Major Hans von Lützow , Captain Erich von Bibow and Lieutenant Walter Dehn . The name resemblance to the Lützow Freikorps from the Wars of Liberation was based on the name of the commander. The Freikorps were financed by the Anti-Bolshevik Fund of the German Economy, which was founded on January 10, 1919 in Berlin with a nominal amount of 500 million Reichsmarks and a 50 million instant bank loan. In addition to the financing of the military smashing of the German Soviet republics, a lot of money also flowed into anti-Bolshevik-nationalist propaganda as well as resident services and nationalist-socialist workers' parties.

The Freikorps formed a gathering point for soldiers and officers who did not find their way back into civilian life after demobilization and who were opposed to the newly founded Weimar Republic . At its peak, the Freikorps had nearly 1,500 men in its ranks. The Freikorps Lützow was characterized from the beginning by a militant anti-republican-anti-socialist or anti-communist attitude . It was used for the first time in the March fighting in Berlin in 1919, in which at least 1,200 people, including many bystanders, were killed in the street fighting by the Freikorps. The Freikorps was involved in the suppression of the Munich Soviet Republic and then waged a bloody campaign against alleged sympathizers.

In the fight against the workers' uprising in the Ruhr area , voluntary corps associations were also used on a large scale at the behest of the social democratic government. The struggle was waged with the greatest brutality on both sides and the ultimately victorious government troops mercilessly settled accounts with the defeated workers. The Freikorps Lützow suffered heavy losses in the battle for the city of Remscheid in the Ruhr battles against the Red Ruhr Army of the rebellious Ruhr workers and was almost wiped out. It was finally disbanded in April 1920.

literature

• Sebastian Haffner : The German Revolution 1918/19 . Rowohlt-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-61622-X ( Rororo 61622 rororo-Sachbuch ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Assassination of Perlach citizens , describes the shooting of 12 Perlach citizens who were suspected of being “leftists” on May 5, 1919, by the Lützow Freikorps.