Everything about The Marinebrigade Ehrhardt totally explained
The
Marinebrigade Ehrhardt was a
Free Corps (
Freikorps) group of around 6,000 men formed by
Captain (
Korvettenkapitän)
Hermann Ehrhardt in the
aftermath of World War I, also known as
II Marine Brigade or the
Ehrhardt Brigade. It took part in the fighting for the cities of central
Germany and the northwestern ports, in addition to participating in the
Kapp Putsch.
The Brigade was formed from former
Naval personnel in the area of
Generalkommando des Garde-Korps (
Berlin). It was commanded by the conservative Nationalist Hermann Ehrhardt and fought alongside the
Freiw.Landesschützenkorps under General von Roeder in the retaking of Northwest German ports such as
Bremen,
Cuxhaven and
Wilhelmshaven in early
1919. After the defeat of the northern revolutionary forces the Brigade marched to the industrial cities of central Germany (along with the
Freiw.Landesjägerkorps,
I Marine Brigade,
Freikorps Hülsen,
Freikorps Görlitz and
Freikorps von Oven) to defeat the local communist uprisings.
After the defeat of the uprisings, the Brigade went on to fight the
Bavarian Soviet Republic during the spring of 1919. It made up only a small fraction of the total
Freikorps forces, which totaled to around 30,000 men. At the end of
April the
Freikorps closed in on
Munich. The
Red Guards began arresting suspected "counterrevolutionaries" and on
April 29, eight men, including the well-connected Prince von
Thurn und Taxis, were executed as right-wing spies. Soon after, on
May 3, the
Freikorps attacked and defeated the insurgent forces after bitter street fights in which over 1,000 communist fighters were killed. About 800 men and women were arrested and executed by the victorious
Freikorps.
In
August 1919, the Brigade went to
Upper Silesia, where
Polish nationalists had attempted to forcibly annex the region to
Poland. Local
Freikorps, reinforced by groups such as the Brigade and the
III Marine Brigade, easily repressed the
First Silesian Uprising.
After the signing of the
Treaty of Versailles, the new
Weimar Republic had friends neither in the
Freikorps nor the old
Imperial army and many conspiracies blossomed. The
Marinebrigade Ehrardt was involved in one of them, the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch.
In March
1920, orders were issued for the disbandment of the Brigade. Its leaders were determined to resist dissolution and appealed for support to General
Walther von Lüttwitz, commander of the
Weimar Republic's Armed Forces (
Reichswehr) in Berlin. Lüttwitz, an organiser of
Freikorps units in 1918-19 and a fervent
monarchist, responded by calling on President
Ebert and Defence Minister
Noske to stop the disbandment. When Ebert refused, Lüttwitz ordered the Brigade to march on Berlin. It occupied the capital on
March 13. Lüttwitz, therefore, was the driving force behind the putsch. Its nominal leader, though, was
Wolfgang Kapp, an irresolute and indecisive
East Prussian civil servant, though a fervent nationalist.
The
Reichswehr, under orders from
Chef der Heeresleitung General
Hans von Seeckt, one of the
Reichswehr's senior commanders, didn't try to confront the rebels, but their only other support came from some small
Freikorps groups, and the only one that made a serious move was the
III Marine Brigade, under Von Löwenfeld, in Silesia, who took the regional capital,
Breslau. The government issued a proclamation calling on Germany's unions to defeat the putsch by means of a general strike. The strike call received massive support and by
March 18, the Putsch had been a massive failure.
After the Putsch, the
Marinebrigade Ehrhardt was ordered to be disbanded by General von Seeckt, but it continued to function under different covers such as
Bund ehemaliger Ehrhardtoffiziere,
Organisation Consul and
Sportverein Olympia.
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