Weimar Republic (1918–1933) Der Stahlhelm was formed on 25 December 1918 in
Magdeburg,
Germany, by the factory owner and First World War–disabled
reserve officer
Franz Seldte. After the
11 November armistice, the Army had been split up and the newly established German
Reichswehr, according to the
Treaty of Versailles, was to be restricted to no more than 100,000 men. Similar to the numerous
Freikorps, which upon the
Revolution of 1918–1919 were temporarily backed by the
Council of the People's Deputies under Chancellor
Friedrich Ebert,
Der Stahlhelm ex-servicemen's organization was meant to form a
paramilitary organization. The league was a rallying point for
revanchist and
nationalistic forces from the beginning. Within the organization a worldview oriented toward the prior
imperial regime and the
Hohenzollern monarchy predominated, many of its members promoting the
stab-in-the-back legend (
Dolchstosslegende), the charge that the democratic politicians who had accepted the
Kaiser's abdication and sued for peace had betrayed an undefeated German army. Its journal,
Der Stahlhelm, was edited by Count
Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal, later hanged for his part in the
20 July plot of 1944. Financing was provided by the
Deutscher Herrenklub, an association of German industrialists and
business magnates with elements of the
East Elbian landed gentry (
Junker).
Jewish veterans were denied admission and formed a separate
Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten. 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, becoming Seldte's deputy and leadership 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. 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
Duce Benito Mussolini. 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. In 1929
Der Stahlhelm supported the "Peoples' Initiative" of DNVP leader
Alfred Hugenberg and the Nazis to initiate a
German referendum against the
Young Plan on
World War I reparations. In 1931 they proposed another
referendum for the dissolution of the Prussian Landtag. After both these referendums failed to reach the 50% necessary to be declared valid, the organization in October 1931 joined another attempt of DNVP, NSDAP and
Pan-German League to form the
Harzburg Front, a united
right-wing campaign against the Weimar Republic and Chancellor
Heinrich Brüning. However, the front soon broke up and in the first round of the
1932 German presidential election, Theodor Duesterberg ran as
Der Stahlhelm candidate against incumbent
Paul von Hindenburg and
Adolf Hitler. Facing a massive Nazi campaign reproaching him with having Jewish ancestry he only secured 6.8% of the votes cast.
Nazi Germany (1933–1935) 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. , 1933-1935|leftOn 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 () process: the organization was renamed
Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher frontkämpfer-Bund (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.
Postwar association In 1951,
Der Stahlhelm e. V. was re-founded as a registered association in
Cologne, under the patronage of
field marshal Albert Kesselring. Active in the right-wing extremist scene, it later became "The Stahlhelm – Association of Front Soldiers - Combat League for Europe" (
Der Stahlhelm e. V. – Bund der Frontsoldaten – Kampfbund für Europa) with a central training center in
Jork,
Lower Saxony. Members of
Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's
Christian Democratic Union and of the liberal
Free Democrats recognised the association as a legitimate part of an anti-Communist
Cold War coalition. However, from the end of the 1950s, as the association began to organize itself in an explicitly paramilitary manner, mainstream politicians withdrew their support. Many meetings were banned because members wore uniforms. In the 1960s and 70s, as membership declined, the association identified increasingly with nationalist political parties including the
German People's Union (Deutsche Volksunion
) and the
National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD). In the 1980s, many members joined the banned Hoffman Military Sports group
(Wehrsportgruppe Hoffmann). Negative press reports about the demonstrations against the
Wehrmacht exhibition, weapons finds, and various criminal investigations, accompanied a further disintegration of the organisation. In 2000, the
Jork group dissolved itself. ==Ranks and insignia==