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The ''Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten'' ("Steel Helmet, League of Front Soldiers", also known in short form as ''Der Stahlhelm'') was one of the many paramilitary organizations that arose after the German defeat of World War I. It was part of the "Black Reichswehr" and in the late days of the Weimar Republic operated as the armed branch of the national conservative German National People's Party (DNVP), placed at party gatherings in the position of armed security guards (''Saalschutz''). ==Weimar Republic== The ''Stahlhelm'' was founded in December 1918 by the industrialist and former German Army reserve officer Franz Seldte in the Prussian city of Magdeburg. After the armistice of 11 November, the Imperial Army had been split up and the newly established German ''Reichswehr'' army according to the 1919 Treaty of Versailles was to be confined to no more than 100,000 troops. 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 (Ebert–Groener pact), the paramilitary organization was meant to form an unofficial reserve force. 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 ''dolchstosslegende'' ("Stab-in-the-back legend") and the "November Criminals" bias against the Weimar Coalition government. Its journal, ''Der Stahlhelm'', was edited by Count Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal, later hanged for his part in the July 20 plot. 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 the ''Stahlhelm'' and quickly rose to Seldte's deputy and long–time rival. 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 Germany. In the 1920s the ''Stalhelm'' received political support from Fascist Italy's ''Duce'' Benito Mussolini.〔Stanley G. Payne. ''Fascism: Comparison and Definition''. University of Wisconsin Press, 1980. ISBN 9780299080648. Pp. 62.〕 Although the ''Stalhelm'' was officially a non-party entity and above party politics, after 1929 it took on an open 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 German expansion to the East. In 1929 the ''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 order to overthrow the government of Chancellor Hermann Müller. As the proposed "Liberty Law" failed to reach a majority, 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 ''Stahlhelm'' candidate against incumbent Paul von Hindenburg and Adolf Hitler. Facing a massive Nazi campaign reproaching him with a non-pure "Aryan" ancestry he only gained 6.8% of the votes cast. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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