Organization Consul
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Organisation Consul (O.C.) was an ultra-nationalist and anti-Semitic terrorist organization that operated in the
Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
from 1920 to 1922. It was formed by members of the disbanded
Freikorps (, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps") were irregular German and other European military volunteer units, or paramilitary, that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenary or private armies, rega ...
group Marine Brigade Ehrhardt and was responsible for political assassinations that had the ultimate goal of destroying the Republic and replacing it with a right-wing dictatorship''.'' The group was banned by the German government in 1922.


Origins

The Organisation Consul (O.C.) grew out of the Marine Brigade Ehrhardt, a
Freikorps (, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps") were irregular German and other European military volunteer units, or paramilitary, that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenary or private armies, rega ...
unit that had been officially disbanded in 1920. Its namesake commander, Hermann Ehrhardt, formed the O.C. from the ranks of the Brigade after the failure of the 1920
Kapp Putsch The Kapp Putsch (), also known as the Kapp–Lüttwitz Putsch (), was an attempted coup against the German national government in Berlin on 13 March 1920. Named after its leaders Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz, its goal was to undo th ...
, an attempted coup against the German national government in Berlin. His fighters formed the Association of Former Ehrhardt Officers which then became the Oganisation Consul. The O.C. was a militarily organized cadre group whose members were recruited largely from former mostly front-line officers of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Navy and the Freikorps. It was initially tolerated by the Reich government and
Reichswehr ''Reichswehr'' () was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first years of the Third Reich. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army () was dissolved in order to be reshape ...
leadership, which hoped to use it and similar associations to undermine the arms restrictions of the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
.


Organization

With liaison officers throughout the Reich, the Organisation Consul could draw from a pool of an estimated 5,000 men. Eventually it came to have districts encompassing large areas of the nation. They were particularly active in Berlin, where many of their crimes were committed. One of the best known members was the Freikorps fighter and post-war author Ernst von Salomon. The average age of the members was between 20 and 30. They were motivated by anti-bourgeois sentiments, extreme nationalism, anti-Semitism and opposition to Marxism. Jews were excluded from participation, and every member had to affirm that he was of "German descent". The O.C.'s statutes listed their goal as "the fight against everything anti-national and international, Judaism, social democracy and radical left-wing parties". They also took part in the so-called "
Feme murders The Feme ('fā-mə) murders (German: ) were a series of politically motivated murders in Weimar Germany from 1919 to 1923 that were committed by elements of the German far right against political opponents they considered treasonous. The practice ...
" against anyone, even members of their own group, who they believed to have betrayed their cause. Their statues stated that "traitors fall to the Feme". The O.C. operated out of Munich where its presence was tacitly tolerated or covered up by Munich police chief Ernst Pöhner. As a front, the organization created the Bavarian Wood Products Company headquartered in Munich. About 30 full-time employees worked there under the de facto leadership of Ehrhardt's chief of staff, Alfred Hoffmann. The O.C. had seven main districts (Hamburg, Hanover, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Dresden, Breslau and Tübingen), each with up to three sub-districts. The establishment of planned additional districts was prevented by the organization's ban in 1922. It financed itself through illegal arms trafficking, including with the
Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief th ...
. The eponymous "consul" was Ehrhardt himself, who ran the organization in a tautly militarily manner. Through the O.C. he oversaw a network of other paramilitary organizations. Members of the O.C. took part in the 1920 referendum campaign that preceded the
Upper Silesia plebiscite The Upper Silesia plebiscite was a plebiscite mandated by the Versailles Treaty and carried out on 20 March 1921 to determine ownership of the province of Upper Silesia between Weimar Germany and Poland. The region was ethnically mixed with ...
and, as ''Sturmkompanie Koppe'', in the suppression of the Third Polish Uprising which attempted to have the territory ceded to Poland. The strategic goal of the O.C. was to provoke the political left into an uprising, which they then wanted to put down together with the Reichswehr in order to use the position of power thus gained to crush the Weimar Republic and install a right-wing dictatorship. The organization played a significant role in the formation of the
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
Sturmabteilung (SA) when in 1921 O.C. Lieutenant Hans Ulrich Klintzsch took over the military leadership of the former Gymnastic and Sports Division of the Nazi Party (NSDAP).
Julius Schreck Julius Schreck (13 July 1898 – 16 May 1936) was an early senior Nazi official and close confidant of Adolf Hitler. Born in Munich, Schreck served in World War I and shortly afterwards joined right-wing paramilitary units. He joined the Nazi ...
and
Joseph Berchtold Joseph Berchtold (6 March 1897 – 23 August 1962) was an early senior Nazi Party member and a co-founder of both the (SA) and (SS). Berchtold served in World War I and upon Germany's defeat joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), a small ex ...
, later Adolf Hitler's bodyguards, also came from its membership. In the Organisation Consul's mission statement it defined its spiritual aims as "the cultivation and dissemination of nationalist thinking; warfare against all anti-nationalists and internationalists; warfare against Jewry, social democracy and leftist radicalism; fomentation of internal unrest in order to attain the overthrow of the anti-nationalist Weimar Constitution." Its material aims were "The organization of determined, nationalist-minded men . . . local shock troops for breaking up meetings of an anti-nationalist nature; maintenance of arms and the preservation of military ability; the education of youth in the use of arms . . . Only those men who have determination, who obey unconditionally and who are without scruples . . . will be accepted. . . . The organization is a secret organization. " The O.C. was financed by industrialists and enemies of the Weimar Republic in the bourgeoisie, nobility and military, who, like Erhardt, wanted to force a violent change in the political situation.


Prominent assassinations

On 26 August 26 1921
Matthias Erzberger Matthias Erzberger (20 September 1875 – 26 August 1921) was a German writer and politician (Centre Party), the minister of Finance from 1919 to 1920. Prominent in the Catholic Centre Party, he spoke out against World War I from 1917 and as a ...
, a Centre Party politician hated by the right wing as one of the signers of the
armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the ...
between Germany and the Allied Powers at the end of World War I, was murdered by Heinrich Schulz and Heinrich Tillessen near Bad Griesbach in the Black Forest. The police investigation quickly led to the perpetrators and finally to the Organisation Consul to which the two belonged. Following additional investigations, 34 members of the O.C. were arrested across Germany. Most of them had to be released soon after because the suspicion that the O.C. had planned and carried out Erzberger's murder as an organization could not be sufficiently supported by the evidence. Some of the members were nevertheless charged with membership in a secret society. On 24 June 1922 members of the O.C. assassinated German Foreign Minister
Walther Rathenau Walther Rathenau (29 September 1867 – 24 June 1922) was a German industrialist, writer and liberal politician. During the First World War of 1914–1918 he was involved in the organization of the German war economy. After the war, Rathenau s ...
. One of those involved was Ernst von Salomon, who described his membership in the O.C. in his popularly successful autobiographical work ''The Questionnaire'' (), published in 1951. Members of the O.C. were also responsible for the attempted assassination of
Philipp Scheidemann Philipp Heinrich Scheidemann (26 July 1865 – 29 November 1939) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In the first quarter of the 20th century he played a leading role in both his party and in the young Weimar ...
using prussic acid on 4 June 1922, and probably also for the murder of Karl Gareis, a member of the Bavarian parliament, on 9 June 1921.


Ban and successor organizations

During the investigation of the Erzberger murder, the headquarters of the O.C. was raided. On the basis of the Law for the Protection of the Republic () enacted on 21 July 1922, the Organisation Consul was banned. The Viking League was founded as a successor organization. During the Nazi era, the members of the O.C. were assigned to the
Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe duri ...
(SS). They were celebrated as "heroes of the national resistance" even though the O.C. had been in competition with the NSDAP. Ehrhardt clashed several times with Adolf Hitler in Munich in the 1920s, accusing him among other things of breaking his word. He fled to Austria in 1934 and died there in 1971.


Notable members

*
Joseph Berchtold Joseph Berchtold (6 March 1897 – 23 August 1962) was an early senior Nazi Party member and a co-founder of both the (SA) and (SS). Berchtold served in World War I and upon Germany's defeat joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), a small ex ...
: co-founder of the '' Sturmabteilung'' (SA) and ''
Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe duri ...
'' (SS) * Günther Brandt: anthropologist at the SS Race and Settlement Office * Leonardo Conti: Nazi Reich Health Leader involved in involuntary euthanasia programs * Hermann Willibald Fischer: accomplice in the murder of Walther Rathenau * Manfred Freiherr von Killinger: mastermind of the assassination of
Matthias Erzberger Matthias Erzberger (20 September 1875 – 26 August 1921) was a German writer and politician (Centre Party), the minister of Finance from 1919 to 1920. Prominent in the Catholic Centre Party, he spoke out against World War I from 1917 and as a ...
and later Nazi functionary * Hans Ulrich Klintzsch: supreme commander of the Nazi Sturmabteilung (SA) 1921–1923 * Ernst Pöhner: Munich chief of police 1919–1922 * Ernst von Salomon: novelist and screenwriter involved in the assassination of
Walther Rathenau Walther Rathenau (29 September 1867 – 24 June 1922) was a German industrialist, writer and liberal politician. During the First World War of 1914–1918 he was involved in the organization of the German war economy. After the war, Rathenau s ...
*
Julius Schreck Julius Schreck (13 July 1898 – 16 May 1936) was an early senior Nazi official and close confidant of Adolf Hitler. Born in Munich, Schreck served in World War I and shortly afterwards joined right-wing paramilitary units. He joined the Nazi ...
: first leader of the ''
Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe duri ...
'' (SS) *
Franz Walter Stahlecker Franz Walter Stahlecker (10 October 1900 – 23 March 1942) was commander of the SS security forces ('' Sicherheitspolizei'' (SiPo) and the ''Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD) for the '' Reichskommissariat Ostland'' in 1941–42. Stahlecker commanded '' ...
: commander of SS security forces and
Sicherheitsdienst ' (, ''Security Service''), full title ' (Security Service of the '' Reichsführer-SS''), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence organization ...
(SD) in the Baltic region of Russia *
Ernst Werner Techow Ernst Werner Techow (12 October 1901 – 9 May 1945) was a German right-wing assassin. In 1922, he took part in the assassination of the Foreign Minister of Germany Walther Rathenau. After his release from prison Techow initially joined the Nazi p ...
: accomplice in the assassination of Walther Rathenau * Philipp Wurzbacher: SA official and Nazi Party Reichstag member


References


Bibliography

* * . 356 pages. {{Authority control Organizations based in the Weimar Republic Paramilitary organisations of the Weimar Republic Terrorism in Germany Antisemitism in Germany Anti-communism in Germany Anti-communist organizations 20th-century Freikorps Secret societies in Germany