Editing Police Statism (section)

====[[File:Freikorps.png]] Freikorps====

'''Freikorps''' (meaning ''volunteer corps'' or ''free regiments'') were irregular German and other European military volunteer units, or paramilitary, that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries, which fought as mercenaries or private armies, for governments and people of high status. In Germany, in the aftermath of World War I, Freikorps consisted largely of World War I veterans who fought on behalf of the [[File:GerSPD.png]] [[Reformist Marxism|SPD-led government]] of [[File:Ebert.png]] [[Machiavellianism|Friedrich Ebert]] to crush [[File:Cball-USSR.png]] [[Leninism|Soviet-backed]] [[Marxism|communist uprisings]] [[File:Commie.png]] which attempted to overthrow the Weimar Republic. Minister of Defence and SPD member Gustav Noske also relied on the Freikorps to suppress the German Revolution of 1918-19 as well as the Marxist Spartacist League, culminating in the summary execution of revolutionary communist leaders Karl Liebknecht and [[File:Rozalia.png]] [[Classical Social Democracy|Rosa Luxemburg]] on 15 January 1919. 

After the Freikorps' decline in influence in the 1920s, the rise of the [[File:Nazi.png]] [[Nazism|Nazis]] would see a renewed rise in Freikorps activity, as many members or ex-members were drawn to the party's marrying of military and political life and extreme nationalism by joining the [[File:SA.png]] Sturmabteilung (SA) and [[File:Waffen SS.png]] [[Esoteric Fascism|Schutzstaffel (SS)]]. The Freikorps were used by the Nazis as thugs to engage in street brawls with communists and to break up communist and socialist meetings. 

Eventually, [[File:Hitler.png]] Adolf Hitler came to view the Freikorps as a nuisance and possible threat to his consolidation of power. During the Night of the Long Knives in 1934, an internal purge of Hitler's enemies within the Nazi Party, numerous Freikorps members and leaders were targeted for killing or arrest, including Freikorps commander Hermann Ehrhardt and SA leader [[File:PinkFash.png]] [[Homofascism|Ernst Röhm]].