Freiwillige Vor! [Volunteers Step Forward!]

whole: the image is positioned in the centre. The title is separate and positioned in the upper right and upper left, in red. The text is separate and occupies the remainder, in black and red. All held within a red border and set against a white background. image: a portrait of a German 'Freikorps' soldier. text: Landes-Schützen-Korps Freiwillige vor! Wir schützen die jetzige Regierung! Wir schützen die Nationalversammlung! E. F. Wir kämpfen gegen den Bolschewismus u. spartakistischen Terror! Tretet uns bei! Mobile Löhnung, 5 M. tägl. Zulage freie Unterbringung u. Verpflegung. Gemeinsames Abzeichen: Silberner Eichenkranz auf beiden Kragenecken u. auf der Mütze. Es werden auch ungediente Freiwillige angenommen. NAUCK und HARTMANN. BERLIN. C.19. [Regional Defence Corps. Volunteers step forward! We are defending the present government! We are defending the National Assembly! We are fighting against Bolshevism and Spartacist terror! Join us! Mobile service pay, 5 marks daily supplement, free lodgings and board. Shared badge: silver oak wreath on both points of the collar and on the cap. Volunteers with no service record are also accepted.]

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'.

34311