This is a bibliography of the Freikorps, the para-military organizations that existed in the immediate aftermath of the Great War (c. 1918 - 1923). Though this list does include some memoirs from the period it does not include biographies. This bibliography had been compiled during the course of my research from the books I have read, the bibliographies in those books, various library catalogs (primarily Hoover Institution, Library of Congress, University of Chicago). Do note the following:Ernst von Salomon wrote:Anyone who judges Freikorpskämpfers by the standards of the civilization it was their task to help destroy is utilizing the standards of the enemy.
— It does not pretend to be complete. Please post any additions you may have and I will add them to the list.
— It may be wrong. Please post any corrections you may have and I will adjust the list.
— It lacks annotation. Please comment on the books so that we can flesh this out with more information.
• Primary sources are marked: •
Baird, Jay W.
• To Die For Germany : Heroes in the Nazi Pantheon
Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1990
Benoist-Méchin, Jacques Gabriel Paul Michel, baron
• History of the German Army since the Armistice
Translated by Eileen R. Taylor
Scientia a.g., Zurich, 1939
Note: Benoist-Mechin was a minor minister in the Vichy Government and his politics are distinctly right-wing.
Carsten, F. L. (Francis Ludwig)
• Reichswehr und Politik
Kipenheuer & Witsch, Cologne, 1964
• The Reichswehr and Politics: 1918-1933
Translation of “Reichswehr und Politik.”
Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1966
Chickering, Roger P.
• The Reichsbanner and the Weimar Republic 1924 - 1926
Journal of Modern History, December, 1968, pp. 524-534
Note: the Reichsbanner was the SPD paramilitary organization the flourished in the late 1920’s and was composed of war and Freikorps veterans.
Diehl, James M.
• Paramilitary Politics in Weimar Germany
Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 1977
Note: also covers other paramilitary groups, such as the Stahlhelm, the Orgesch, and the Republican Wehr.
Dornberg, John
• The Putsch That Failed
London, 1979
• Munich 1923 : the story of Hitler's first grab for power
Harper & Row, N.Y.C., 1982.
Drage, Charles
• The Amiable Prussian
Anthony Blond, London, 1958
Note: this is the “as told to” auto-biography of Walter Stennis.
Ehrhardt, Hermann
• Kapitän Ehrhardt, Abenteruer und Schicksale
Edited by Friedrich Freska
Berlin, 1924
Note: Kapitän Ehrhardt was the founder both of the Ehrhardt Brigade and Organization Consul. He, Gerhard Roßbach, and Beppo Röhmer were probably the most popular of the Freikorpsfürhers.
Fischer, Ruth
• Stalin and German Communism
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1948
Note: this is the “official Communist” interpretation of these events.
Freiwald, Ludwig
• Der Weg der Braunen Kämpfter: Ein Frontbuch von 1918 - 1933
Munich, 1934
Friedrich, Otto
• Before the Deluge, a Portrait of Berlin in the 1920’S
Harper and Row, New York City, 1972.
Gordon, Harold
• The Reichswehr and the German Republic: 1919-1926
Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1957
• The Beerhall Putsch
Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1972
Groener, Wilhelm
• Lebenserinnerungen
Biblio- Verl., Osnabrück, 1972.
Note: Groener was de facto chief of the German Army during the Freikorps period.
Gruneberger, Richard
• Red Rising in Bavaria
London, 1973
Gürster-Steinhausen, Eugene
• “Picture in Despair: Ernst Jünger, Prophet of German Nationalism”
Social Science Quarterly 48, 1949, pp. 360-372
Haffner, Sebastian
• Die verratene Revolution. Deutschland 1918/19.
Scherz, Bern, München, Wien, 1969
• Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918/19
Translated from the German “Verratene Revolution” by Georg Rapp.
Deutsch, London, 1973.
Note: far left in tone.
• Vollständige Taschenbuchausg.
Knaur, München, 1991.
Harman, Chris
• The Lost Revolution: Germany 1918-1923
Bookmarks, London, 1982
Heinz, Friedrich Wilhelm
• Sprengstoff
Frundsberg-verlag g.m.b.h., Berlin, 1930
Note: Lieutenant Heinz was a member of the Ehrhardt Brigade and Organization Consul, he also participated in the Kapp Putsch.
Hozel, Curt
• Deustsher Aufstand
Stuttgart, 1934
Jones, Nigel
• Hitler's Heralds. The Story of the Freikorps, 1918-1923
Dorset Press, New York City, 1987
• Brief History of the Birth of the Nazis: How the Freikorps Blazed the Trail for Hitler
Carroll & Graff Publishers, N.Y.C., 2004
Note: This is basically a re-issue of the author’s earlier “Hitler's Heralds.”
Jurado, Carlos Caballero
• The German Freikorps 1918 - 1923
Osprey Publishing, London, 2001
Kessler, Harry, Graf
• The Diaries of a Cosmopolitan: Count Harry Kessler, 1918-1937
Translated from the German “Tagebücher, 1918-1937,” and edited by Charles Kessler; introduction by Otto Friedrich.
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1971
Note: Count Kessler was an eye-witness to the fighting in Berlin.
Killinger, Manfred, freiherr von
• Das waren Kerle!
F. Eher nachf., München, 1944
Series: Soldaten Kameraden! ; Bd. 68
Note: fiction.
Note: Killinger was a member of the Ehrhardt Brigade and Organization Consul, participated in the Kapp Putsch.
Koch, Joachim W.
• Der Deutsche Bürgerkrieg
Berlin, 1978
Krüger, Gabriele
• Die Brigade Ehrhardt.
Leibniz-Verlag, Hamburg, 1971
Laqueur, Walter Z.
• Young Germany: A History of the German Youth Movement
Basic Books, N.Y.C., 1962
Note: while this is not actually about the Freikorps, many of those involved in the Youth Movement (the so-called “Wandervögel”) were enthusiastic Freikorpskämpfers.
Ledebur, Ferdinand, Freiherr von
• Geschichte des Deutschen Unteroffiziere
Junker und Dünnhaupt, Berlin, 1939
Maercker, Ludwig Rudolf Georg. von
• Vom Kaiserheer zur Reichswehr; ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der deutschen Revolution.
R.F. Koehler, Leipzig, 1921.
• Vom Kaiserheer zur Reichswehr; Geschichte des freiwilligen Landesjägerkorps; ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der deutschen Revolution.
K.F. Koehler, Leipzig, 1922.
Note: General Maercker was the first of the Freikorpsfürhers.
Messman, Carla
• “Völkish Paramilitarism in the Weimar Republic: A Case Study in Power Relationships.”
Doctoral Dissertation - University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1977.
Note: I am not certain if this actually concerns the Freikorps or their para-military successor organizations.
Mitchel, Allan
• Revolution in Bavaria
Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1969
Nevin, Thomas
• Ernst Jünger and Germany: Into the Abyss 1914 - 45
Duke University Press, Durham, NC., 1997
Noskie, Gustav
• Von Kiel Bis Kapp: zur Geschichte der deutschen Revolution
Berlin, 1920
• Zehn Jahre Deutsche Geschichte, 1918 - 1928
Berlin, 1928
Note: Noskie was the SPD Minister of Defense who initially authorized the raising of the Freikorps.
Oertzen, Friedrich von
• Die Deutschen Freikorps, 1918-1923
F. Bruckmann, Munich, 1936
Note: this is a semi-official account.
• Kamerad, Reich mir die Hände; Freikorps und Grenzschutz, Baltikum und Heimat
Ullstein, Berlin, 1933
Radek, Karl
• “Leo Schlageter - the Wanderer into the Void”
Labour Monthly, September 1923.
Note: this eulogy for Leo Schlageter, a Freikorpskämpfer executed by French occupation authorities, is a primary artifact of the period.
Reissner, Larissa
• Hamburg at the Barricades, and other writings on Weimar Germany
Translated from the Russian and edited by Richard Chappell
Pluto Press, London, 1977
Note: this is a remarkable first-hand account of the Hamburg uprising of 1923.
Röhm, Ernst
• Die Geschichte eines Hochverräters
[“Memoirs of a Man Guilty of High Treason”]
(first edition) Franz Eher, Munich, 1928.
Eher Verlag, Munich, 1933.
Auflage. Eher Verlag, München, 1934
Verlag Frz. Eher Nachf, München, 1934 (fifth edition)
Roßbach, Gerhard
• Mein Weg durch die Zeit: Erinnerungen unt Bekenntnisse [“My Way Across The Era: Recollections And Confessions”]
Vereinigte Weiburger Buchdruckverein, Weiburg an der Lahn, 1950
Note: Gerhard Roßbach was the founder of the famed Freikorps Roßbach that relieved Bischoff’s Eisern Division at Riga. Afterwards he participated in the Munich Putsch and organized the Schilljungend, perhaps the best of the German youth organizations. He, Hermann Ehrhardt, and Beppo Röhmer were probably the most popular of the Freikorpsfürhers.
Ryder, A. J.
• The German revolution of 1918: a study of German socialism in war and revolt
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1967
Salomon, Ernst von
• Die Geächteten
Berlin, 1930
Note: this is a fictionalized account of von Salomon’s adventures as a Freikorpskämpfer.
• Das Buch vom deutschen Freikorpskämpfer, hrsg. im Auftrage der Dreikorpszeitschrift
W. Limpert, Berlin, 1938
Note: a truly massive, lavishly illustrated, compendium of memoirs and histories of all Freikorps campaigns.
• Putsch und verschwörung; kämpfe um Deutschland in schwerer zeit.
M. Diesterweg, Frankfurt a. M., 1938.
• Answers to the 131 Questions of the Allied Military Government “Fragebogen”
Translation of “Der Fragebogen” from the German by Constantine Fitzgibbon
Putnam & Co., Ltd., London, 1954.
• The Outlaws
Translation of “Die Geächteten” (1930) by Ian F.D. Morrow. with a new introduction by Alasdair Stewart.
Kraus Reprint, Millwood, N.Y., 1983.
Schauwecker, Franz
• Im Todesrachen, Die Deutsche Seele im Weltkriege
Heinrich Diekmann, Halle (Saale), 1921.
Note: Schauwecker was a strormtrooper in the Great War.
Schmidt-Pauli, Edgar von
• Geschichte der Freikorps
R. Lutz, Stuttgart, 1936
Note: this is a semi-official account.
Stern, Howard
• The Organization Consul
Journal of Modern History, 35, March 1963, p. 20 - 32.
Note: Organization Consul was the successor organization to the Ehrhardt Brigade.
Strasser, Otto
• History in my Time
translated by Douglas Reed,
Johnathan Cape, Ltd., London, 1941.
Theweleit, Klaus
• Male Fantasies ( V. 1. Women, Floods, Bodies, History -- V. 2. Male Bodies: Psychoanalyzing the White Terror) Translation of “Männerphantasien” from the German by Stephan Conway in collaboration with Erica Carter and Chris Turner, foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich.
University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1987/1989
Note: the truly bizarre thesis of this work is that the Freikorpskämpfers, and subsequently the Nazis, were motivated by a loathing of women and a fear of contamination by “menstrual flow.”
Waite, Robert G.L.
• Vanguard of Nazism: The Freikorps Movement in Post-War Germany 1918-1923
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1952
(revised edition) W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 1969.
Note: this is the best account in English.
Watt, Robert M.
• When Kings Depart: The Tragedy of Germany: Versailles and the German Revolution
London, 1969
Wohl, Robert
• The Generation of 1914
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1979.
Wheeler-Bennett, John W.
• The Nemesis of Power, The German Army in Politics 1918 - 1945
St. Martin’s Press, N.Y.C., 1954
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