Galerie

Danzig in the First World War.
By Gliles du Boulay.

After the Armistice of 11 November 1918, various volunteer units outsde the Imperial Army operated for a short time. Known as 'Freikorps' and led mainly by officers & NCOs, they recruited ex-servicemen, students, and the unemployed. The recruits were generally loyal to the Weimar Republic without being convinced Republicans. Extremeist Freikorps units carried out subversive acts against the state as well as members of the communist party. There were 200 units in strengh from company to division size, with some even aquipped with airplanes and artillery. The name was taken from the first Freikorps, a volunteer group organized by a Major Lüzow in 1913 as a core of a movement designed to defeat Napoleon. After the new group of national extremists became more beligerent, they began to lose the support of both the government and the public. Many of the tactics of the early nazi movement can be traced to the Freicorps.

*- The postcard below was sent on 21.6.18 by a trainee solder in Danzig-Langfuhr to his mother in Neukölln. He writes about his arrival after a 27 hour train journey and a welcome sleep in the barracks. With less than five months to go before the Armistice he might be lucky...
*- ...Now he is trained and is a Grenadier in a reserve Grenadier campany stationed in Danzig. He writes again to his mother with less than two months to go before the Armistice.
*- The Fieldpost card above was sent on 23.11.18 from a Grenadier in an infantry battalion stationed in Danzig. Bacause of the date of sending after the Armiistice, the battalion could be considered a Freikorps unit.
By the Treaty od Versailles, signed on 28 June 1919, Danzig became a 'Free City' on 10 January 1920. Tehe seeds for the second world war were sown.