Description
Object description
whole: the image is positioned in the upper half. The title is integrated and placed in the upper half, in black gothic
script. The text is separate and located in the lower half, in black. All held within a white inset and set against an orange
background.
image: a half-length depiction of a German soldier struggling with an oversize griffin. The soldier looks back over his left shoulder as he
fights the creature.
text: Kamerad!
hilf mir!
gegen Bolschewismus
Polengefahr und Hungersnot.
Melde Dich sofort bei der
DEUTSCHEN SCHUTZDIVISION
(31. J.D. Abt. Lüttwitz)
Mobile Löhnung . 5,00 Mark Tageszulage . Freie Unterbringung, Verpflegung und Austrüstung
Werbebüro Berlin W
Potsdamer Strasse 25
Werbebüro Berlin SW
Tempelhofer Ufer 221
Hauptwerbebüro Berlin W
Hardenbergstrasse 18
bei der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche Bahnhof Zoologischer Garten
Werbebüro Berlin NW
Rathenower Strasse 8
agegenüber Kriminalgericht
Werbebüro Berlin-Halensee
Westfälische Strasse 50
ENTWURF WISSMANN
F.A. GÜNTHER und SOHN AKT. GES. BERLIN
[Comrade! Help me! Oppose Bolshevism, danger from Poland and starvation. Report immediately to the German Defence Division (31st J.D.,
Lüttwitz Battalion). Mobile pay: 5.00 marks daily supplement. Free board, lodgings and equipment. Recruiting Office, Berlin [address].
Recruiting Office, Berlin [address]. Main Recruiting Office, Berlin [address] near the Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church, 'Zoologischer
Garten' station. Recruiting Office, Berlin [address] opposite the Criminal Court. Recruiting Office, Berlin-Halensee [address]. Designer,
Wissmann. F.A. Günther and Son stock corporation, Berlin.]
Label
The 'Freikorps' were formed in Germany in late 1918 predominantly recruiting from unsettled, often disaffected, First
World War army veterans. They were also joined by students and adventure-seekers with right-wing, nationalist tendencies.
Acting as an auxiliary police force they were assigned to maintain order by the new post-war republican government in Germany. Yet, many
units proved little more than violent private armies, answerable to none but their commanders as they sought to crush communist-inspired
civil unrest. Nevertheless the ruling SDP viewed them as a necessary evil and ordered them to suppress left-wing insurrection in Berlin,
the Ruhr and Munich, as well as to fight in the disputed territory of Upper Silesia.
The more moderate units were eventually merged into the newly formed 'Reichswehr' in 1920. Whereas radical elements went underground, with
some taking part in the Nazi party's 'Munich Putsch' of 1923. Although the failure of the coup brought an end to the 'Freikorps' units,
many of its members formed 'Sturm Abteilung' (SA) to serve under the Nazi's. Others joined veteran's organisations, such as
'Stahlhelm'.
Inscription
NEG: Q71505