Elliott, CJ; (1971) Ex-servicemen's organisations and the Weimar Republic. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

The history of the ex-servicemen's associations during the Weimar Republic is one of social and political disunity. Losing its monopoly, semi-establishment role in 1918, the KyffhHuserbund had to fight for its survival against the new more definitely political organisations of Right and Left, together with the new 'glitist' OffiziersverbHnde. The Bund retrenched its position between 1919 and 1923 and adhered closely to its statutory "Uberparteilichkeit", refraining from attacks on the Republic. No so with the OffiziersverbHnde, particularly the National- verband deutscher Offiziere, who joined the hostile "patriotic" opposition from the outset. Between 1923 and 1928 even the KyffhHuserbund "moved to the Right". Despite close links re-established with the government, especially in the fields of military training and militarist propaganda, contacts with "right radical" associations tended to blur the distinctions between them. General von Horn tried, albeit hesitantly, to redefine the Bund's ethical position after 1928, mainly by dropping ties with political societies, criticising the radical agitation of the NSDAP, and even by taking up contacts with the Evangelical Church. His opposition to Hitler in the 1932 presidential elections played an important part in deferring the Nazi "Machtergreifung". Nevertheless the bulk of the propaganda of the veterans' associations tended in the long run to serve the ends of the DNVP and NSDAP, and Horn failed to maintain his moderate policy in the face of strenuous opposition from within the Bund. In view of the size and prestige of the KyffhHuserbund it could well have made a more positive contribution to the cause of moderate conservatism, even to that of constitutional monarchy. Nevertheless, the Kriegervereine differed from the KampfbUnde in the important question of motivation: Ex-servicemen generally joined them looking for comradeship and economic security, NOT for political or military activity.

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