Der Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten (German: 'The Steel Helmet, League of Front-Line Soldiers'), commonly known as Der Stahlhelm ('The Steel Helmet'), was a German First World Warveteran's organisation existing from 1918 to 1935. In the late days of the Weimar Republic, it was closely affiliated to the monarchistGerman National People's Party (DNVP), placed at party gatherings in the position of armed security guards (Saalschutz).[2]
After the failed Kapp Putsch of 1920, the organization gained further support from dissolved Freikorps units. In 1923 the former DNVP politician Theodor Duesterberg joined Der Stahlhelm and quickly rose to Seldte's deputy and long–time rival. In 1923, Stahlhelm units were actively involved in the formally passive resistance struggle of paramilitary formations against the French occupation of the Ruhr area. These units were responsible for numerous acts of sabotage on French trains and military posts. One of the volunteers operating in the Ruhr area was Paul Osthold, who headed the German Institute for Technical Work Training (DINTA) in the 1930s and became one of the leading representatives of German employers' associations in the Federal Republic of Germany.[3] From 1924 on, in several subsidiary organizations, veterans with front line experience as well as new recruits would provide a standing armed force in support of the Reichswehr beyond the 100,000 men allowed. With 500,000 members in 1930, the league was the largest paramilitary organization of Weimar Republic. In the 1920s Der Stahlhelm received political support from Fascist Italy's DuceBenito Mussolini.[4]
Der Stahlhelm propaganda car in Berlin promoting DNVP nominee Theodor Duesterberg for president of the German Reich in the 1932 election
Although Der Stahlhelm was officially a non-party entity and above party politics, after 1929 it took on an anti-republican and anti-democratic character. Its goals were a German dictatorship, the preparation of a revanchist program, and the direction of local anti-parliamentarian action. For political reasons its members distinguished themselves from the Nazi Party (NSDAP) as "German Fascists". Among their further demands were the establishment of a Greater Germanic People's Reich, struggle against Social Democracy, the "mercantilism of the Jews" and the general liberal democratic worldview, and attempted without success to place candidates favorable to the politics of a renewed expansion to the East.
After the Nazi seizure of power on 30 January 1933, the new authorities urged for a merger into the party's Sturmabteilung (SA) paramilitary organization. Seldte joined the Hitler Cabinet as Reich Minister for Labour, prevailing against Duesterberg. Der Stahlhelm still tried to keep its distance from the Nazis, and in the run-up to the German federal election of 5 March 1933 formed the united conservative "Black-White-Red Struggle Front" (Kampffront Schwarz-Weiß-Rot) with the DNVP and the Agricultural League, reaching 8% of the votes.
Flag of Der Stahlhelm post-1933 after aligning with the Nazis
On 27 March 1933, the SA attempted to disarm Stahlhelm members in Braunschweig, who under the command of Werner Schrader had forged an alliance with scattered republican Reichsbanner forces. The violent incident initiated by Nazi Minister Dietrich Klagges and later called Der Stahlhelm Putsch was characteristic of the pressure applied by the Nazis on Der Stahlhelm in this period, mistrusting the organization due to its fundamentally monarchist character. In April Seldte applied for membership in the NSDAP and also joined the SA, from August 1933 in the rank of an Obergruppenführer.
On 27 April 1933, Seldte had officially declared Der Stahlhelm subordinate to Hitler's command. The attempts by the Nazis to integrate Der Stahlhelm succeeded in 1934 in the course of the "voluntary" Gleichschaltung (English: Synchronization) process: the organization was renamed Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher frontkämpfer-Bund (Stahlhelm) (English: National Socialist German Combatants' Federation (Stahlhelm)) (NSDFBSt) while large parts were merged into the SA as Wehrstahlhelm, Reserve I and Reserve II contingents.
The remaining NSDFBSt local groups were finally dissolved by decree of Adolf Hitler on 7 November 1935. Seldte's rival Duesterberg was interned at Dachau concentration camp upon the Night of the Long Knives at the beginning of July 1934, but released soon after.
^Nolan, Mary (1994). Visions of Modernity. American Business and the Modernization of Germany. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 313. ISBN0195088751.
^Stanley G. Payne (1980). Fascism: Comparison and Definition. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN9780299080648. p. 62.
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