Freikorps Epp
German Freikorps unit (1919–1920)
Freikorps Epp or Freikorps Ritter von Epp, also called the Bayerisches Schützenkorps (English: Bavarian Rifle Corps), was a paramilitary Freikorps of the Weimar Republic, which was raised in February 1919 by Franz Ritter von Epp to suppress the Bavarian Soviet Republic following the German revolution of 1918–1919. The unit was absorbed into the Reichswehr, the armed forces of the republic, and was later used to suppress the Ruhr Red Army during the Ruhr uprising. Notable members of the unit included Ernst Röhm, Rudolf Hess, Eduard Dietl, Hans Frank, Gregor Strasser and Otto Strasser.
History
Franz Ritter von Epp was a career officer of the Imperial German Army who fought in the Herero Wars, the Boxer Rebellion, and World War I. Epp was awarded the Military Order of Max Joseph for heroism displayed in 1916 and was ennobled with the title of Ritter by Wilhelm, German Crown Prince. By 1918, Epp was promoted to the rank of Oberst and commanded the Royal Bavarian Life Guards.
Following the 1918 Armistice, the German Empire was dissolved after the declaration of the Weimar Republic which plunged much of Germany into the German revolution of 1918–1919. During this time, many Freikorps were created to suppress the numerous revolutionary outbreaks, which included the Spartacist uprising and the Bavarian Soviet Republic among others. Freikorps were a way for the new republic to establish and maintain order during its early years. They also demonstrated the ineptitude of the provisional Reichswehr and its inability to maintain law and order.
Organization
Freikorps Epp was founded in February 1919 at Ohrdruf in Freistaat Sachsen-Gotha (today, part of Thuringia) at the behest of Gustav Noske, the soon-to-be Reichsminister of Defense, in order to suppress the Bavarian Soviet Republic.
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This entry incorporates text from “Freikorps Epp” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.