Front ban

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Frontbann badge, worn until 1934, on the swastika behind the steel helmet the motto "We want to become free"

The Frontbann was a catch-all organization for various right-wing extremist military associations in the Weimar Republic , which were banned after the failed Hitler coup . The organization as such was set up by Ernst Röhm in May 1924. According to his memoir, Röhm thought of the name “Frontbann” as a name for the new association on May 31, 1924 while traveling to Landsberg. In September of that year, the organization is said to have already had 30,000 members.

The organizational center of the front ban was the high command in Munich , where initially Röhm and from May 1925 Wolf-Heinrich von Helldorff headed the organization. In fact, many of the member organizations remained independent. Affiliated organizations included the Old Reich Flag , Reichsadler, Deutschvölkischer Officers Association, Luitpoldhain Educational Association, Völkischer Wehrring Nürnberg, Frontkampfbund Ost Prussia, the youth organization of the National Socialist Freedom Party and parts of the Sturmabteilung , the Freikorps Oberland , the Freikorps Roßbach and the Wehrwolfs .

The main focus of the activities of the Frontbann was the military training of its members; the teaching of military virtues was more important than training on the weapon. The founding appeal for the Frontbann named the organization's purpose as "preserving the spirit of defense" and "purifying Germany internally" from "criminals and traitors". Erich Ludendorff supported Erich Ludendorff in the election campaign for the 1925 presidential election .

At the end of 1924, proceedings against the leadership of the Frontbann were initiated in Bavaria for secret bundling, but this was discontinued in September 1925 because of an amnesty. However, the procedure had the consequence that the group and district commands of the front ban were separated from the Munich headquarters.

In April 1925 a dispute over the direction of the front had broken out, opposing camps were on the one hand the Volkisch-National Socialist around Ludendorff and on the other hand one around the United Patriotic Associations such as Stahlhelm , Bund Wiking and Olympia. In October of that year, some leaders of the Frontbann-Nord were arrested for being a secret group.

After the re-establishment of the NSDAP in February 1925, the association began to disintegrate very quickly. The bulk of the members streamed back to the NSDAP and SA. Remnants also went to the Tannenbergbund .

organization

At the head of the front ban stood a commander as a representative of the leadership.

The group commands were subordinate to the high command of the front ban as the leading organs of the individual regional front ban groups.

The group commands were subordinate to state commands and these in turn were subordinate to section commands.

The section commands were assault troop commanders and district commanders, with the latter being subordinate to local commanders.

The local commands were again divided into groups , platoons , companies , battalions, etc. according to their strength . structured.

Leaders of the front ban groups

  • Group North (Berlin) for Northern Germany, East Prussia:
  • Group center (hall):
  • Group South (Munich)
    • Commander Lieutenant Colonel von Kapff
    • Chief of Staff: Rittmeister a. D. Baron von Thüngen
  • Group East (Salzburg)
    • Commander: Captain Brooch (later replaced by Engineer Planchel)
    • Chief of Staff (Vienna): Hermann Reschny

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ernst Röhm: History of a high treason, 2nd edition, 1930, p. 292.
  2. ^ A b c d e Martin Schuster: The SA in the National Socialist "seizure of power" in Berlin and Brandenburg 1926-1934. Technical University of Berlin 2005, pp. 31–36.
  3. ^ A b Kurt Finker: "Frontbann", in: Dieter Fricke u. a. (Ed.): The bourgeois parties in Germany . Volume II. The European Book, Berlin 1968, pp. 93–95.
  4. ↑ to this figure, an active Ludendorffer , born. 1883, very detailed Federal Archives (Germany) : Holtzmann