Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold

Meeting in 1929

Right wing and nationalist armed groups, like the nationalist Der Stahlhelm or the nazi Sturmabteilung, as well as the left-wing Roter Frontkämpferbund had continued to radicalize and intensify the political struggle in Germany. The Reichsbanner was initially formed in reaction to the far right's "Beer Hall" Putsch and far left's Hamburg rebellion, both failed coups, which had taken place at the end of 1923.[9] On 22 February 1924 members of the SPD, the German Centre Party, the German Democratic Party and trade unionists in Magdeburg established the Reichsbanner.[10] However the proportion of Social Democrats in the membership clearly outweighed all others, with estimates of up to 90 per cent. In the fall of 1927 the Reichsbanner expelled all members belonging to the Old Social Democratic Party, accusing the party of seeking alliances with fascists.

Reichsbanner was a veterans' federation, in which former soldiers of the First World War enlisted their military experience in the service of the republic. It thus saw its main task as the defense of the Weimar Republic against enemies from the National Socialist, monarchist and Communist camps.[1][11] Social Democratic politician Otto Hörsing designated Reichsbanner in 1931 as a 'non-partisan protection organization of the Republic and democracy in the fight against the swastika and the Soviet star'.[12] Members saw themselves as guardians of the inheritance of Germany's democratic tradition, going back to the Revolutions of 1848, and of the constitutional national colors: black, red and gold.[13]

In the Reichsbanner, two organizational structures existed in parallel: the political as a registered political association and the operational as a fighting force.

The political organization was headed by the Federal Administration comprising a 1st and 2nd chairman, three deputies, the federal treasurer, federal cashier, secretary, technical manager, federal youth leader, the sitting representatives and 15 assessors. The Federal Chairman was from 3 June 1932 Otto Hörsing. His deputy and later successor was Karl Höltermann. Beneath the federal level, Germany was divided up into gaus, circles, districts and finally local associations. The executive committees of all organizational levels were elected from the membership of the all republican parties in concert.

Parallel to it, the operational organization was modeled as a military structure. The smallest unit was the group, with a group leader and eight men. Two to five groups formed a platoon (Zug), two to three courses formed a Kameradschaft, which corresponded to a company of the army, between two and five of which constituted a department (Abteilung) with two to five departments making up a district. At least two districts formed a circle. At Gau and federal level operational and political level structures overlapped so that The Federal Chairman was at the same time also Federal Commander, while each of the 32 Gau chairmen was also Gauführer. The command personnel of the operational organisation were also recognized by badges of rank. The Federal Commander, for example, wore on his lower sleeve the federal eagle (black on a red field, with golden circular border) and two black-red-golden stripes over all.

According to the organization's own records, membership in 1932 was put at three million.[14][15]

Reichsbanner marching 1930.

Following substantial Nazi electoral successes in 1930, the Reichsbanner in September sought to strengthen itself against intensified street violence by SA units with a restructuring of the operational organization. Active members were divided into master formations (Stafo) and the elite units into protection formations (Schufo). In addition there were the "Young Banners". 250,000 men belonged to the Schufos in Spring 1931.[16]

On 16 December 1931, the Reichsbanner, the Workers' Gymnastic and Sporting Federation (ATSB), the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB), and the Social Democratic Party formed the Iron Front,[1][11] within which armed defensive operations were the responsibility of Reichsbanner and which became increasingly important in view of ever more intensifying acts of violence by members of the Nazi SA and the Communist Red Front (RFB).[17]

The last federal general assembly of the Reichsbanner met on 17–18 February 1933 in Berlin. In March Reichsbanner and the Iron Front were banned throughout the Reich. The membership of both organizations were systematically hunted down for deportation to concentration camps and partially exterminated.[6]

Following the banning of the Reichsbanner, some members joined Der Stahlhelm, which led to an incident where a mass signup in Braunschweig was raided by the Nazis, who called it the Stahlhelm Putsch.[18]

In the now illegal underground organisations, the organisation's membership, in particular the former Schufos represented an important component in the Social Democratic resistance to the Nazi regime, for example the groups centred on Theodor Haubach and Karl Heinrich in Berlin and around Walter Schmedemann in Hamburg as well as the Socialist Front in Hanover.

The Reichsbanner was re-formed in 1953 as an association for political education.[19]

• Weimar paramilitary groups
• Iron Front

• Günther Gerstenberg: Freiheit! Sozialdemokratischer Selbstschutz im München der zwanziger und frühen dreißiger Jahre., 2 volumes; Andechs 1997; ISBN 3-928359-03-7
• Helga Gotschlich: Zwischen Kampf und Kapitulation. Zur Geschichte des Reichsbanners Schwarz-Rot-Gold.; Dietz, Berlin (Est), 1987; ISBN 3-320-00785-8
• David Magnus Mintert: "Sturmtrupp der Deutschen Republik“. Das Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold im Wuppertal (= Verfolgung und Widerstand in Wuppertal, vol. 6; Grafenau 2002; ISBN 3-9808498-2-1
• Karl Rohe: Das Reichsbanner Schwarz Rot Gold. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte und Struktur der politischen Kampfverbände zur Zeit der Weimarer Republik. Droste, Düsseldorf 1966.
• Pamela E. Swett: Neighbors and Enemies: The Culture of Radicalism in Berlin, 1929-1933. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2004; ISBN 0-521-83461-9
• Carsten Voigt: Kampfbünde der Arbeiterbewegung. Das Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold und der Rote Frontkämpferbund in Sachsen 1924–1933 (= Geschichte und Politik in Sachsen, Bd. 26). Böhlau, Köln/Weimar/Wien 2009; ISBN 3-412-20449-8

• Official website