Sudetendeutsches Freikorps

Background

From 1918 to 1938, after the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, more than 3 million ethnic Germans were living in the Czech part of the newly created state of Czechoslovakia.

In 1933, as Adolf Hitler assumed power in Germany, Sudeten German pro-Nazi leader Konrad Henlein founded Sudeten German Party (SdP) that served as the branch of the Nazi Party for the Sudetenland. By 1935, the SdP was the second largest political party in Czechoslovakia. Shortly after the anschluss of Austria to Germany, Henlein met with Hitler in Berlin on 28 March 1938, where he was instructed to raise demands unacceptable to the Czechoslovak government led by president Edvard Beneš. On 24 April, the SdP issued a series of demands upon the government of Czechoslovakia, that were known as the Carlsbad Program. Among the demands, Henlein demanded autonomy for Germans living in Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovakian government responded by saying that it was willing to provide more minority rights to the German minority but it refused to grant them autonomy.

By June 1938, the party had over 1,3 million members, i.e. 40,6% of ethnic-German citizens of Czechoslovakia (40% of that women). During last free democratic elections before the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the May 1938 communal elections, the party gained 88% of ethnic-German votes, taking over control of most municipal authorities in the Czech borderland. The country's mass membership made it one of the largest fascist parties in Europe at the time.

The first major crisis took place in May 1938 after partial Czechoslovak army mobilization. Activities of pro-Nazi ethnic Germans in the area led to large flight of ethnic-Czech civilians and especially Jews. Hitler's increasing threats of attacking Czechoslovakia led to full mobilization on 22 September 1938. Many ethnic-Germans refused to follow the Czechoslovak army mobilization order and either ran across the border to Germany and joined Freikorps, continuing cross border raids from there, or established Grün Freikorps units which were operating from Czechoslovak forests, receiving arms and equipment from Germany, and continuing raids against Czechoslovak authorities, Jews and Czechs, up until the German occupation of the Czechoslovak border areas following the Munich agreement.

Forming of the organization

Immediately after establishing the Sudetendeutsche Heimatfront (later Sudeten German Party, SdP) in 1933, the party started forming its informal Ordnungsdienst (Order Service, its members called in German Ordners) which was officially supposed to preserve order during meetings and assemblies of the party and protect it against its political adversaries. In reality, however, these were from the beginning attack squads with potentially terrorist assignments, following the example of Sturmabteilung (a.k.a. "Brown shirts" or "Storm Troopers"), the original paramilitary wing of the German Nazi Party. More systematic build-up of the paramilitary wing started before the 1935 elections, when the SdP's leadership decided that each local SdP organization should establish its own squad of Ordners.

On 14 May 1938, the Ordnersgruppe was formally transformed into new official organization called the Freiwilliger Schutzdienst (FS) which was openly built up following the example of the Nazi Sturmabteilung. SdP's chief Konrad Henlein was the Schutzdienst's Führer, with Fritz Köllner becoming its secretary and Willi Brandner the chief of staff, also responsible for the buildup of squad groups. By 17 May 1938, the date of the organization's official registration, Schutzdienst had over 15.000 members.

Schutzdienst started a wide recruitment program in June 1938. Its members were divided into three categories:

FS squads were being built up as militias with local, district and regional formations and central staff. FS further created special squads: communication, medical and rear. FS's squad leaders were trained directly by Nazi Sturmabteilung in Germany.

FS became instrumental for the psychological warfare of the operation Fall Grün, smuggling weapons through "green border" from Germany, conducting various provocations of Czechoslovak armed forces and provocations on the borderline with Germany.

Attempted putsch

German Nazi Party was convening its 10th congress between 5–12 September 1938 in Nuremberg, where it was expected that Hitler will make clear his further plans as regards Czechoslovakia. FS squads were kept in state of high alert, ready to conduct any orders that may come from "higher up". On 10 September 1938, all FS district headquarters received order to start large scale demonstrations, which escalated to a number of wounded members of Czechoslovak law enforcement as well as FS members in numerous cities already the next day. FS Vice-Führer Karl Hermann Frank was in direct contact with Hitler, receiving instructions for the following days.

Immediately after the highly anticipated Hitler's final speech on 12 September 1938, in which Hitler claimed to take care of German interests "under any circumstances" and to "prevent creation of second Palestine in the heart of Europe where the poor Arabs are defenseless and abandoned, while Germans in Czechoslovakia are not defenseless, nor abandoned", FS initiated widespread violence in the whole borderland. In Cheb alone, K.H.Frank's hometown, ethnic-German mob plundered 38 Czech and Jewish shops. Other main targets included buildings of the German Social Democratic Party and Czechoslovak authorities, including schools. FS conducted over 70 armed assaults against Czechoslovak authorities and assaulted also selected Czechs and ethnic-German anti-fascists. Czechoslovak law enforcement was meanwhile ordered not to intervene in order not to further fuel up Hitler's propaganda.

As it became clear that SdP was attempting to push the Czechoslovak authorities out of the towns in borderland and replace them with own governance, and with rising death toll that included, inter alia, murder of four Gendarme officers by FS in Habartov, the Czechoslovak government responded by declaring martial law in 13 worst struck districts and by dispatching military. Major assaults on Czechoslovak law enforcement as well as military continued throughout 14 September 1938, with the last one taking place on 15 September in Bublava. Altogether, the violence led to 13 dead and numerous injuries on 12–13 September and culminated with 23 dead (13 Czechoslovak authorities personnel, 10 ethnic Germans) and 75 seriously wounded (of that 14 ethnic Germans) on 14 September, however the attempted putsch was thwarted.

On 14 September 1938, SdP's leadership ran across border to Selb, Germany, where K.H. Frank unsuccessfully demanded immediate military intervention from Hitler. The leadership's flight had chilling effect on the FS members, especially those that had taken part in the violence and now feared criminal prosecution. On 15 September 1938, German radio broadcast Henlein's speech, who was purportedly speaking live from Aš in Czechoslovakia. By this time, the SdP's flight to Germany had become public knowledge and according to the then German ambassador in Prague, instead of stimulating SdP's members to further actions, it led to a serious rift in its ranks.

On 16 September 1938, Czechoslovak authorities banned and dissolved SdP as well as FS. Large number of its functionaries as well as members that were wanted for arrest in connection with the preceding violence fled to Germany, while a number of town mayors elected for SdP compelled FS members to keep calm and expressed their support to the commanders of Gendarme stations situated in their towns.

Formation

Czechoslovakia conducted partial mobilization in May 1938. Many young ethnic-Germans didn't follow the mobilization order and deserted across the border to Germany instead. Thousands more fled as they were receiving mobilization orders after 12 September 1938. Wehrmacht first initiated a plan of including Czechoslovak ethnic-Germans of 20–35 years of age, who had previously undergone military training in the Czechoslovak army, into its own ranks. This was however abandoned as soon as Hitler ordered the establishment of the Sudetendeutsches Freikorps on 17 September 1938. Konrad Henlein was formally named the Freikorp's commanding officer, with Wehrmacht's liaison officer lieutenant colonel Friedrich Köchling, previously serving as liaison officer at Hitler Jugend, being Freikorp's de facto commander. The official purpose of Freikorps, as stated in telegram to the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, was the "protection of Sudeten Germans and maintaining further unrest and armed clashes." Wehrmacht was further instructed to conceal its cooperation with Freikorps due to "political reasons".

The Freikorp's ranks were filling up rather fast. It had 10.000-15.000 members by 20 September 1938, 26.000 members by 22 September 1938, with many more deserters coming after the general Czechoslovak mobilization that took place on 23 September 1938. Apart from Konrad Henlein, its leadership consisted of K.H.Frank (vice-commander in chief), Hans Blaschek (2nd vice-commander in chief), until-then SdP's senator Anton Pfrogner (chief of staff). Freikorp's headquarters was situated in a castle near Bayreuth, Germany. Freikorp's was divided into 4 groups alongside the whole German-Czechoslovak border. Groups were further divided into battalions and companies. Depending on the border length and local conditions, there were also sometimes "sections" as an interstage between the battalion and companies.

Companies had 150-200 men each and were stationed in German towns and villages along the German-Czech border, each of them being fully equipped for independent cross border raids and assaults. Although the official directive allowed only ethnic-Germans with Czechoslovak citizenship to be part of the Freikorps, due to low number of officers among the deserters their places were filled with members of Nazi Sturmabteilung. SA was further providing training, material support and equipment to Freikorps. All members were getting regular pay for their service. Most members did not have any standardized uniform and were only distinguished by armband with swastika. Formally, they were not part of Wehrmacht and were prohibited from wearing Wehrmacht uniforms.

Members of Freikorps were trained and hosted in Nazi Germany but operated across the border in Czechoslovakia attacking the infrastructure, administrative, police and military buildings and personnel, as well as the pro-government and antifascist ethnic-German civilians, Jews, Jewish owned businesses and ethnic Czech civilians. They committed assassinations, robberies and bombing attacks, retreating over the border to Germany when faced with serious opposition. They murdered more than 110 and abducted to Germany more than 2000 Czechoslovak personnel, political opponents or their family members.

Intelligence service

Freikorps also had its own intelligence service, established on 19 September 1938 with headquarters in Selb, Germany. It was headed by Richard Lammel. The intelligence was gathering information for Freikorps as well as for Abwehr, Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and Gestapo.

Green Cadres

Many ethnic-Germans who deserted after receiving mobilization order didn't go across the border to Germany, but rather established own guerrilla units. Operating from forests in Czechoslovakia, they received name the Green Cadres, sometimes being referred to as Green Freikorps, although they were not officially incorporated as part of German Freikorps.

Armaments

In order to conceal the level of cooperation between Wehrmacht and Freikorps, the original orders stated that Freikorps should be armed only with weapons from warehouses of the former Austrian army. This however led to delays in arming of Freikorps and became outright impossible as regards ammunition and explosives, which were being delivered from Wehrmacht's own supplies. Most common weapons were Mannlicher 1895 8×56 Msch., K98k 8×56 JS, pistols P08 9mm Parabellum, Bergmann machine guns and sub-machine guns and German hand grenades. Due to the initial Czechoslovak orders forbidding use of firearms apart from self-defense, Freikorps also captured Czechoslovak weapons, mostly vz.24 rifles and vz.26 machine guns.

Meanwhile, the Green Cadres as well as other ordners that didn't join Freikorps were armed with variety of hunting rifles and shotguns, pistols, as well as large number of sub-machine guns that had been previously supplied by Germany to the Ordnersgruppe/Freiwilliger Schutzdienst. Scoped hunting rifles in hands of skilled ordners proved especially deadly.

Czechoslovak security forces

Following the Remilitarization of the Rhineland, Czechoslovak authorities came to the conclusion that any future war will most probably take place by a sudden attack without formal declaration of war. At the time, protection of borders was mostly vested into the authority of the Financial Police, which was controlling the border crossings and collecting customs duties, while Gendarme officers were taking care of general law enforcement mainly within towns. This was deemed insufficient as the Financial Police could merely enforce the custom duties and general order at border crossings, but not security along the whole border. In 1936,the State Defense Guard was established. Normally, SDG would function only in a very limited way necessary to ensure full readiness of its structure (under authority of Ministry of Interior), with its ranks being filled up with personnel in case of emergency (under military command). Its main task was protecting the Czechoslovak border and it was supposed to be able to immediately close and defend the border for the time that would be necessary for the army to reach the attacked areas in full combat readiness. Initially, the State Defense Guard was composed of selected members of Financial Police, Gendarme and State Police, but later its ranks were filled also with reliable civilians. In case of any unrest, its squads were further boosted by army soldiers. State Defense Guard included also ethnic-Germans that were deemed loyal to Czechoslovak state (mostly Social Democrats and communists). The State Defense Guard has thus became the main target of the Freikorps' activities.

Up to 22 September 1938 the Czechoslovak security forces were under general orders not to use their firearms apart from self-defense.

Republikanische Wehr

Republikanische Wehr was Czechoslovak ethnic-German anti-fascists militia with several thousand members. Known also as Rote Wehr (Red Defense), its members also took part in the fights, supporting the Czechoslovak authorities. Several of its members were killed by the Nazi forces during the clashes, with thousands more being interned in concentration camps following the Munich Agreement and occupation of Czechoslovakia.

Terrorism

The first Freikorps assaults took place already in the night from 17 to 18 September 1938 in the area of Aš. Other major Freikorps assaults included, inter alia:

20 September 1938

On 20 September 1938, Freikorps headquarters issued Order No. 6 signed by Henlein. According to the order, each of the groups was supposed to undertake at least 10 major raids into Czechoslovak before morning of 21 September. The order further specified that Freikorps should shall take no regard to any aversion to the armed assaults that it had previously encountered from some ethnic-German civilians. Moreover, each group was ordered to establish its own intelligence staff that would be providing information to the center in Selb. In line with the order, Freikorps attacks increased both in their frequency as well as brutality.

22 September 1938

On the night of 21 September 1938, German radio broadcast a false information that Czechoslovakia agreed to secede its border areas to Germany. Next day, most ethnic-German majority towns were full of German Nazi flags and Hitler's portraits, while Freikorps and ethnic-German mobs unleashed a wave of attacks against state authorities and non-German civilians. By 24 September 1938, Freikorps conducted over 300 raids against Czechoslovak authorities.

30 September 1938

They halted their operations after the Nazis took control of the rump of Czechoslovakia in March 1939.