EHRHARDT BRIGADE

The class distinction that existed in Germany after WWI was immense. The Ehrhardt Brigade was an elite military unit which functioned as a right wing death squad in the German Revolution in 1920. Unlike other German military divisions whose anthems glorified Germany and threatened other nations, the “enemy” of the Ehrhardt Brigade was the working class German. This was the marching song that they sang while marching through the country. They were one of the units that made the Swastika popular and they were the kind of unit that presaged Nazism coming shortly. Imagine the class hostility that must have existed for such an anthem to be socially and governmentally acceptable.

The class distinction that existed in Germany after WWI was immense. The Ehrhardt Brigade was an elite military unit which functioned as a right wing death squad in the German Revolution in 1920. Unlike other German military divisions whose anthems glorified Germany and threatened other nations, the “enemy” of the Ehrhardt Brigade was the working class German. This was the marching song that they sang while marching through the country. They were one of the units that made the Swastika popular and they were the kind of unit that presaged Nazism coming shortly. Imagine the class hostility that must have existed for such an anthem to be socially and governmentally acceptable.