STAHLHELM
Publié le 22/02/2012
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STAHLHELM; Germany's largest postwar veterans' organization. Founded
by Franz Seldte* on Christmas Day, 1918, the Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten,
began with three basic principles: comradeship, support of law and order,
and reconstruction. Although it was opposed to the November Revolution,* it
was initially neither reactionary nor antirepublican. Membership was open to
socialists and Jews* so long as they had served a minimum of six months at
the front. But law and order soon eclipsed the emphasis on comradeship; by
1920 the Stahlhelm stood too far to the Right to be deemed a pillar of the
Republic. Rapid growth resulting from the partial dissolution of the Freikorps*
in March 1920 served to radicalize the Stahlhelm: in March there were only
thirty local chapters; by the end of 1921 the number had grown to three hundred.
The organization's newspaper,* Der Stahlhelm, exposed this heightened radicalization
as criticism of the Republic increasingly overshadowed veterans' issues.
Acknowledging that its membership criteria must lead to decline, the Stahlhelm
organized a youth auxiliary, the Jungstahlhelm, in October 1923. During
1924 youth chapters were located throughout northern and eastern Germany.
The auxiliary accepted young men aged seventeen through twenty-one. Upon
their twenty-second birthday members could join the Ring-Stahlhelm so long as
they had two years in the Jungstahlhelm.
From a brotherhood of about 2,000 in 1920, the Stahlhelm grew to more than
100,000 in 1924. When post-1923 stability led many paramilitary associations
to either fold or convert into political combat leagues (Kampfbu¨nde), the Stahlhelm
politicized. Under the command from 1927 of Seldte and Theodor Duesterberg,*
it absorbed other organizations and by November 1928 had an
estimated membership of between 450,000 and 500,000. Meanwhile, its rightradical
political ideas were trumpeted by a new journal, Die Standarte. It campaigned
in 1929 against the Young Plan* and joined the Harzburg Front* in
1931. Whereas Stahlhelm membership remained steady after 1930, that of the
Jungstahlhelm declined, revealing the attraction of the SA.* Yet it was only in
the Republic's waning months that the SA matched the Stahlhelm's numerical
strength. Claiming that it had become a Marxist fraternity, Hitler* dissolved the
organization in early 1934.