Kyffhäuserbund
The Kyffhäuserbund eV is a German soldiers' association. It emerged in 1900 from the standing committee of the united German warrior associations for the administration of the Kaiser Wilhelm monument on the Kyffhäuser and was founded as the umbrella organization of German warrior associations.
history
In 1786, Frederick the Great's fusiliers founded the “Military Rifle Brotherhood” in Wangerin / Pomerania to give the recently deceased Prussian king an honorable escort. The war clubs received their real boost after the military successes of Prussia against Denmark (1864) and Austria (1866) and the victory over France in 1871.
1888 - The building committee of the Kaiser Wilhelm monument
After the death of Wilhelm I , the ranks of the former German soldiers expressed the wish to erect a memorial to their deceased emperor through the joint cooperation of the regional warrior associations. The Kyffhäuser in the Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was chosen as the site of the monument . Under the protectorate of Prince Georg von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt , an executive committee endeavored to collect and administer the financial means necessary for the erection of the monument.
The monument, designed by the architect Professor Bruno Schmitz in Berlin , was inaugurated on June 18, 1896. The original intention of handing over the Kyffhäuser Monument to the protection and administration of the Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt after its completion could not be realized, and so the monument remained subordinate to the German warrior associations. First, to ensure regular catering for the construction workers, a commercial enterprise had to be built near the construction site. The building committee had to give itself a legally appropriate form for a contractually agreed approval for the commercial license.
In the building committee, which was originally founded purely as an administrative body for the construction of monuments, issues relating to the warrior association were increasingly dealt with in addition to purely structural issues. The regional associations examined the expediency of converting the initially temporary construction committee into a permanent committee. This conversion was decided at the May session of 1892. The committee was named "Standing Committee of the United German Warrior Associations for the Administration of the Kaiser Wilhelm Monument on the Kyffhäuser".
1896 - The Standing Committee for the Administration of the Kaiser Wilhelm Monument
The major federal state associations and the “ Deutscher Kriegerbund ” corporation became legally responsible members of this committee . However, the individual regional associations of the German Warrior League were also given the right to represent themselves on the committee. Initially only the state associations Mecklenburg-Schwerin , Gotha , Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Alsace-Lorraine made use of this . At the same time, the Prussian clubs and associations belonging to the Federation now also wanted to represent themselves independently. After a lot of pros and cons, a Prussian state warriors' association was formed within the German Warrior League in 1897 on the Congress of Representatives of the German Warrior League in Cottbus .
With the German Civil Code (BGB) , which came into force on January 1, 1900 , the development towards a common Reich organization was promoted. Because of its provisions on registered associations, the committee had to secure the rights of a legally competent person. For this purpose, the statutes had to be reorganized according to the BGB and the committee had to be given the purpose and name of a permanent association. On this occasion the statutes were extended to the effect that the deliberations of the committee should extend to all questions of the warrior association. That meant the transformation of the original Kyffhäuser building committee into a general association of German war clubs. But only after it had been expressly stated that the new federation should deal with general warrior association issues, but that none of the decisions made by the federation were from the outset binding on the individual regional associations, did the committee members unanimously agree.
On this basis, the new federation was registered in August 1900, with which the "Standing Committee" was converted to the "Kyffhäuserbund der Deutschen Landeskriegerverband" (Kyffhäuserbund der Deutschen Landeskriegerverband). This is also the hour of birth of the Kyffhäuserbund eV, which still exists today
1900 - Kyffhäuser Federation of German State Warrior Associations.
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The "Kyffhäuser Association of German State Warrior Associations" had been using this name since May 2, 1900. As a registered association within the meaning of Par. 21 of the Civil Code, it had its seat in Berlin and consisted of those German State Warrior Associations Associations that have been confirmed by the protectorate of their sovereigns or through the express recognition of their state government as the only official association of the warrior associations of the respective federal state. Each of these state associations had the right to set up the number of voting representatives or to cast votes that its government was entitled to in the Bundesrat in accordance with Article 6 of the Constitution of the German Reich. The total of 61 votes in the “Kyffhäuser Bund” were distributed among 27 German regional associations with 30,651 associations and 2,703,772 members (1913). According to the statutes, the president of the Kyffhäuserbund was the respective president of the Prussian State Warrior Association.
The time of the new Kyffhäuserbund up to the First World War , besides cultivating comradeship and preserving old traditions, was characterized by ideological disputes with the growing social democracy . "For God, King and Fatherland - Against the Socialists". The German war clubs acted according to this motto, and socialism was viewed as an internal national enemy. A publication "Das Deutsche Kriegervereinwesen" published by the board of the German Warrior Association in 1888 described former soldiers who professed their support for social democracy as being unfaithful to their oath of the flag and therefore unworthy of belonging to the warrior associations. After the nationwide establishment of the Kyffhäuserbund in 1901, this basic attitude could also be anchored in the statutes. This struggle, especially after the Social Democrats won the vote in the Reichstag election in 1903 , came more and more to the fore and was ultimately regarded by the war clubs themselves as their most important duty. It was not until the beginning of the First World War that the Kyffhäuserbund repealed this provision in May 1915 with the consent of all regional associations. A concession to the nonpartisan camaraderie on the battlefield.
With the end of the war, the simultaneous dissolution of the monarchy and the chaos of the post-war period, ideological differences revived. Though many ex-soldiers viewed the end of the monarchy as treason and were disappointed and angry about it, the Treaty of Versailles was viewed as a far greater shame . Here even the last ideals should be taken away from them, in domestic politics the soldiery of "unserved" soldiers and in foreign politics their homeland from the former enemies.
The Kyffhäuserbund and its members opposed this development with all their might; it stood by its military and national tradition. On 13./14. In September 1919 the first representatives' meeting after the war took place. With the exception of the former Reichsland Alsace-Lorraine and the occupied territories, representatives of all Gaue were present. In his opening speech, President Josias von Heeringen emphasized that it was the task of the Kyffhäuserbund to preserve faithful memories of the emperor and the princes and to live a national sense of duty. Living German and thinking German was the motto. Field Marshal von Hindenburg was appointed honorary president.
The regional associations realized very quickly that only an even closer union would ensure the survival of the warrior and military associations during this period. The following resolution was passed on the Congress of Representatives of the German Warrior Association in Lübeck (August 1921) and at the representative assembly of the Kyffhäuserbund on the Kyffhäuser (September 1921):
“The Kyffhäuserbund will be converted into a permanent federation under a new name, which will in future be the sole headquarters of the German warrior association and whose statutes will be binding for all regional warrior associations belonging to it. at the same time it changes its statutes according to the new legal relationships. The German Warrior League gives up its previous name and adopts a new name, which excludes the opinion that it is the headquarters of the German warrior association. It is now being transformed into a purely commercial purpose association based on its new statutes. The Kyffhäuserbund is now called the Deutscher Reichskriegerbund "Kyffhäuser", the German Warrior Association is named German Warrior Welfare Association. "
These changes came into effect on January 1, 1922.
1922 - German Reichskriegerbund "Kyffhäuser".
In 1925 an all-German Warrior Day took place for the first time . Leipzig and the Monument to the Battle of the Nations there were chosen as the venue . Due to its remarkable success, the event was repeated in the following years: 1927 in Berlin, 1929 in Munich and 1932 in Dortmund. The 5th Reich Warrior Day was to be held in Kassel from July 7th to July 9th, 1934. Posters, postcards and tickets were printed when the Röhm murders took place on June 30, 1934 . This alleged attempted coup against Hitler caused the federal leader to cancel the Reich Warrior Day in 1934 immediately. It was rescheduled from July 6-8, 1935.
At the Kyffhäusertagung on May 7, 1933 in Berlin, the then President General of the Artillery Rudolf von Horn and the entire Kyffhäuserbund confessed to Adolf Hitler and thus sealed the end of the hitherto independent regional associations. Already on May 21, the first basic leader order and the restructuring of the federal government took place, with the lifting of the previous full independence of the individual regional associations. The parliamentary club management was abolished. The Führer order took the place of the majority decision. On July 1 and 2, 1933, 80,000 members marched through the city at the Kyffhäusertage in Potsdam. At the welcome ceremony at the airship port, the President of the Kyffhäuserbund, Rudolf von Horn, announced the appointment of Lieutenant Colonel Sichting as his deputy at the suggestion of the Reich leadership of the NSDAP.
In August 1933, von Horn made the flag, which had previously been used by the Kyffhäuser Youth, the federal flag, which in future should be used as a uniform federal symbol by every federal association alongside the association flag. The flag was made of red fabric, the entire surface of which was the Iron Cross , with the outline of the Kyffhäuser monument in the center in the white circle. The swastika pennant was attached to this flag. The flagstick was the only jewelry with a gold-plated tip with the iron cross. The German Reichskriegerbund "Kyffhäuser" received in January 1934 in Oberst a. D. Wilhelm Reinhard a new federal leader after von Horn resigned from this office and died on February 4, 1934.
The coordination of the Kyffhäuserbund continued. A national costume with a Kyffhäuser hat and a Kyffhäuser armband was introduced, and the swastika armband had to be worn. With the law on the rebuilding of the Reich of January 30, 1934, the state parliaments were dissolved and sovereign rights were transferred to the Reich. This law also had an impact on the organizational structure of the Reich Warrior League. On March 13, 1934, the Federal Council and Advisory Board of Federal Leader Reinhard were dissolved. Likewise, the previously existing state warrior associations were abolished with effect from July 1, 1934, and 22 new state associations were created in line with the existing SA group division. The previous association became a "warrior comradeship". The women's groups were dissolved, and their tasks were taken over by the NSDAP women's association . By order of May 26, 1934, the Rhineland regional association was dissolved on July 1, 1934 and divided into the Lower Rhine and Westmark regional associations.
The welfare institutions of the federal state warrior associations remained independent until 1935, but were assigned to the German Warrior Welfare Association (the former German Warrior Association) on January 1, 1936. The internal organization was completed on April 1, 1937 with the restructuring of the Kyffhäuserbund, which was divided into 13 regional areas (no longer regional associations). These now corresponded to the SS upper sections .
1938 - NS-Reichskriegerbund ("Kyffhäuserbund") eV
With the ordinance of March 4, 1938, all other soldiers' associations were incorporated into the Nazi Reich Warrior Association. Only the Nazi War Victims Supply (NSKOV) with its special tasks for war victims remained in place alongside the NS-Reichskriegerbund. The NS-Marinebund and the German Colonial Warrior Association were allowed to keep their names, but had to submit to the Reichskriegerbund. On March 4, 1938, the German Reichskriegerbund “Kyffhäuser” was renamed the NS-Reichskriegerbund “Kyffhäuser” by the Führer order .
On March 3, 1943, one month after the defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad , Adolf Hitler dissolved the Kyffhäuserbund at the Reich level. The assets were transferred to the NSDAP and the remaining local associations, which formed the basis for the Volkssturm units in the final phase of the Second World War , were subordinated to the party.
After 1945
Through the Control Council Act No. 2 (dissolution and liquidation of Nazi organizations) of October 10, 1945, all organizations and institutions that served Nazi rule were "abolished and declared illegal," including the Nazi Reich Warrior League.
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1952 began the re-establishment of the association with all regional associations. Today he emphasizes his role as a reservist and shooting sports association . A 1990 article in Spiegel suggested that he was on the far right of the political spectrum. The association sees itself unjustifiably associated with this party through the “Kyffhäusertreffen” of Alternative für Deutschland and emphasizes the defense of the rule of law and the Basic Law as the association's central tasks.
See also
literature
- Dieter Fricke and others: Kyffhäuser Federation of German National Warrior Associations (KB) 1900–1943. In: Dieter Fricke (ed.): The bourgeois parties in Germany . Berlin 1968, pp. 296-312.
- Karl Saul: The "German Warrior League". On the domestic political function of a national association in imperial Germany. In: Military history messages (MGM). 2/1969, pp. 95-159.
- Karl Führer: The "German Reichskriegerbund Kyffhäuser" 1930–1934. Politics, ideology and function of an “non-political” association. In: Military history messages (MGM). 2/1984, pp. 57-76.
- Heinz Kleene: The warrior association in the Emsland at the time of the empire . In: Yearbook of the Emsland. Heimatbundes . Sögel 2005, pp. 137–159.
- Benjamin Schulte: Veterans of the First World War. The Kyffhäuserbund from 1918 to 1933 . transcript, Bielefeld 2020, ISBN 978-3-8376-5089-1 .
Web links
- Kyffhäuserbund eV
- Kyffhäuser Association of the German National Warrior Associations eV (Historical Lexicon of Bavaria)
- German character: New life sprouts on the Kyffhäuser - fed by old thinking. (Der Spiegel, 44/1990)
Individual evidence
- ↑ German character: New life sprouts on the Kyffhäuser - fed by old thinking . In: Der Spiegel . No. 44 , 1990, pp. 85-89 ( online ).
- ↑ On my own behalf: No chance for extremists - Kyffhäuserbund as a strong voice for the rule of law and democracy . In: Kyffhäuser Magazin 8/2019, p. 4.