Freikorps Lichtschlag

{{unreferenced, date=February 2010 The Freikorps Lichtschlag was a paramilitary unit in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

that was established on 14 December 1918 just after the end of World War I. After the

German Revolution of 1918–1919 The German Revolution or November Revolution (german: Novemberrevolution) was a civil conflict in the German Empire at the end of the First World War that resulted in the replacement of the German federal constitutional monarchy with a dem ...

, the corps command of the ''VII. Armeekorps'' based in

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state distr ...

under General

Oskar von Watter Oskar Walther Gerhard Julius Freiherr von Watter (born 2 September 1861 in Ludwigsburg; died 23 August 1939 in Berlin) was a German ''Generalleutnant'' who came from an old Pomerania, Pomeranian noble family. World War I In April 1913, von Wat ...

began to establish

Freikorps (, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps") were irregular German and other European military volunteer units, or paramilitary, that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenary or private armies, regar ...

units out of troops returning from the Western Front. Thus the Freikorps Lichtschlag was created in the area around

Hagen Hagen () is the Largest cities in Germany, 41st-largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany. The municipality is located in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the R ...

. It was under the command of

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Otto Lichtschlag (1885–1961) and had a strength of about 2500 men. In early 1919 the unit was deployed against the so-called

Red Ruhr Army The Ruhr Red Army (13 March – 12 April 1920) was an army of between 50,000 and 80,000 left-wing workers who conducted what was known as the Ruhr Uprising (''Ruhraufstand''), in the Weimar Republic. It was the largest armed workers' uprising in ...

in the Ruhr area, on the orders of

. On 15 February the force acted against striking workers in the town of

Dorsten Dorsten (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Dössen'') is a town in the district of Recklinghausen (district), Recklinghausen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and has a population of about 75,000. Dorsten is situated on the western rim of ...

with severity. Subsequently the supporters of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

(KPD) and the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) declared a general strike in the Ruhr area. This was suppressed, however. Subsequently, the situation remained tense and was further heated up through the actions of the Freikorps. On 15 April 1919, soldiers of the Freikorps Lichtschlag shot into a gathering of striking workers in the district of Mettmann, resulting in some deaths and injuries. During the

Kapp Putsch The Kapp Putsch (), also known as the Kapp–Lüttwitz Putsch (), was an attempted coup against the German national government in Berlin on 13 March 1920. Named after its leaders Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz, its goal was to undo the ...

, the unit did not support the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...

, but was a supporter of the putschists. The unit was against the workers who refused to call off their general strike after the end of the Putsch. In March 1920 the unit marched into Wetter, in order to enter the Ruhr area from the east. On 16 March its advance was stopped near

Aplerbeck Aplerbeck is a borough (''Stadtbezirk'') of the city of Dortmund in the Ruhr district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Since 1929, it has been a suburb of Dortmund, located in the city's south-east. The river Emscher, a tributary of the Ruhr ( ...

by 10,000 men of the Red Ruhr Army, ad one day later the Freikorps was defeated. 20th-century Freikorps Organizations of the German Revolution of 1918–1919 Anti-communist organizations