World War I Having enlisted in the infantry prior to the outbreak of the First World War, Roßbach fought on the Eastern Front as a member of the
175th (8th Prussian) Infantry under
XVII Corps in the
8th,
9th, and finally under the
7th army of the
Imperial German force. This unit moved around quite a bit, which is symptomatic--in the record-keeping system characteristic of Imperial German command--of very heavy casualties being intentionally concealed to maintain morale or otherwise getting lost in their documentation as the war unfolded. In addition to the many battles in which they participated, Roßbach's army group bore responsibility for the defense of Silesia and the Danzig area for significant periods of the war.
Waite writes that, "Whatever one thinks of the man's character, [Roßbach's]...rescue of the Iron Division must remain one of the great feats of military history. Braving an early and unusually harsh Baltic winter, Rossbach led his badly equipped men over a twelve thousand mile trek from Berlin across Eastern Europe. They often marched forty miles a day. As soon as they arrived at Thorensberg, the Rossbach Detachment attacked the Latvian army, cut a path through to the beleagured Iron Division, and held off the Latvians until Bischoff's men could escape." Nazi
Rudolf Höss, a member of the Roßbach's Freikorp involved in this campaign, recalled that mission in his autobiography written while on trial at
Nuremberg: Roßbach's Freikorps went on to participate in the
Kapp Putsch in 1920, at which point the group was banned. They regrouped under numerous changing front organizations, each of which was banned in turn. Most notable amongst these fronts was the Sports and Gymnastics section of the Nazi party, where Roßbach memorably introduced his early version of the Brownshirt into the group's uniforms. In 1921, they participated in paramilitary action in the
Third Silesian Uprising. In the early 1920s, Roßbach was arrested for trying to overthrow the government. Money came from the
Landbund, heavy industry, and arms dealing. In the early 1920s, Roßbach was arrested for trying to overthrow the government. Alumni from the Roßbach Freikorp included
Martin Bormann (later Hitler's personal secretary),
Rudolf Höss (later commandant at Auschwitz), and
Ernst Krull (who was known for his involvement in the murder of
Rosa Luxemburg and was questioned in the matter of
Matthias Ernsberger's assassination).
Kurt Daluege, a major figure in the
Orpo and domestic security elements within the Nazi movement and under the Third Reich, was also a member of the group--and many others besides.
Reputation of the Roßbach Freikorps as Early Nazi "Old Fighters" As technically illegal (but practically or juridically tolerated), the history of the Freikorps is often obscure and ambiguous. The most radical formations within these associations represent, so to speak, the shadow army of a shadow government that came into the public domain only when Hitler cames to power in 1933. As non-state actors operating outside of legal sanction the precise nature of the Freikorps' activities were not
supposed to be recorded, documented or properly defined in a manner that would open them to international scrutiny by the powers of the
Triple Entente. Nevertheless many scholarly works have been written about them,
The Iron Division, for example--extremely active during the immediate aftermath of Germany's defeat in the first World War--was more of an establishment outfit. Its most notable member,
Heinz Guderian, did not join the Nazi party until after Hitler was appointed Chancellor in 1933. Members of the Iron Division who ended up in the early Nazi party did so after the Iron Division disbanded, and they likely found themselves funneled through other Freikorps associations such as those mentioned above. Members of Roßbach's group, on the other hand, became Nazis almost as a matter of course. As crackdowns on the activities of Freikorps followed prominent assassinations--especially the assassination of
Walter Rathenau by members of
Ehrhardt's Freikorps--members of these groups transferred allegiance and wound up bundled together as members of Hitler's SA between the summer of 1921 and the putsch in November 1923. Whereas Epp's group was particularly associated with atrocities in Munich or Bavaria generally and members of Erhardt's group were notorious for extrajudicial killings (especially high-profile political assassinations and killings in the
Ruhr), Roßbach's paramilitary group is especially associated with atrocities during the
Silesian Uprisings. In fact, all of these zones of criminality are actually overlapping domains: members of each group participated in atrocities related to putting down uprisings within the
German revolution, members of all groups participated in political assassinations. It is likely that members of all groups participated on some level in the Silesian Uprisings, but Roßbach's Freikorps is especially associated with the Silesian Uprisings due to their geographical proximity to Silesia. All three groups may be accurately represented as feeders for recruitment or absorption into the early Nazi movement during the early period between the 1921 and the
Beerhall Putsch.
Roßbach's Early Contributions to Nazism In 1921 Roßbach, together with others from the Roßbach circle, took part in a bike ride to
East Prussia. In order to be uniformly equipped for this trip the remaining stock of the East African Lettow shirts, last used by the officers of the Schutztruppe, were bought and then distributed to the cyclists. These shirts were beige-brown, much lighter than the later Hitler shirts and with white mother-of-pearl buttons. Later these shirts were introduced as a community clothing in his society and in 1924 also for the Salzburg Schill Youth. They were then taken over for the German
Schilljugend by
Edmund Heines and were distributed, through the "Schill Sportversand", to the SA. (The SA was initially known as the 'Sports Section' of the Nazi movement--a convenient alias to disguise their real function within Hitler's party.) Roßbach helped start the , a youth organization, to get rid of "intellectual elements" in the youth movements and instill children with "nationalistic, socialistic, authoritative, and militaristic" ideas. He took a special interest in developing its membership. Roßbach organised music festivals which combined folk and classical music to instil national pride and construct radical-nationalist community values. Roßbach also joined the Nazi Party for a time, and was Hitler's representative in Berlin, setting up front organizations when the Nazis were banned in
Prussia. By 1928, he could claim to have killed "a number of
Mecklenburg laborers and
Spartacist sympathizers". He later fell out with Hitler during the latter's rise to power and was arrested, but not killed during the
Night of the Long Knives in 1934.
Roßbach's Memoirs & Postwar Activity According to his own memoirs, following the discovery of
homoerotic photographs in his living quarters on 30 June 1934, he was forced to adopt a new identity and worked for the
Iduna Germania insurance company until the end of
World War II. After
World War II Roßbach operated an import-export company near
Frankfurt and wrote his memoirs in 1950. In his last years he played a prominent role in organising the
Bayreuth Festivals of
Richard Wagner's music. ==References==