The Freikorps Oberland was formed on 12 April 1919. It saw action in Munich, against the Poles in Upper Silesia (it was one of the units that captured Annaberg) and in the Ruhr in April 1920.

It was used to form Reichswehr-Brigade 21 in June 1919.

Commanders

Major Ritter von Beckh

Formed in the area of

Generalkommando I. bayerisches Armeekorps (Freistaat Bayern)

Manpower strength

1.650

Notable members

Sister Pia (Eleonore Baur)
SS-Oberführer Kurt Benson
SS-Oberst-Gruppenfuhrer und Panzer Generaloberst der Waffen-SS Josef "Sepp" Dietrich
Fritz Fischer (Historian)
SS-Gruppenführer Karl Gebhardt
Reichstag deputy Franz Gutsmeidl
SS-Brigadeführer Dr. Wilhelm Harster
SS-Gruppenführer Franz Hayler
SS-Obergruppenführer Richard Hildebrandt
Reichsführer-SS und Chef der deutschen Polizei Heinrich Himmler
Reichstag deputy & SS-Gruppenführer Hans Hinkel
SS-Oberführer Max Humps
Oberst Friedrich Gustav Jaeger (executed for his part in the July 20 Plot)
SA-Obergruppenführer & Gauleiter Rudolf Jordan
Max Lebsche (Physician)
SS-Standartenführer Emil Maurice
SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS Carl von Oberkamp
Maximilian du Prel (Presschief in the Generalgouvernement)
SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS und Polizei Heinz Reinefart
Josef Römer (Active in the resistance against Hitler and executed in 1944)
Arnold Ruge (Philosopher)
SA-Gruppenführer Ludwig Schmuck
SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS Fritz von Scholz
Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg (Leader of the Austrian paramilitary organisation Heimwehr)
Bodo Uhse (Author)
Hilmar Wäckerle (first SS commandant of Dachau)
Reichsärztefüher Gerhard Wagner
(the ranks are the highest ranks reached in the Third Reich era)

Insignia

Members of this unit wore an Edelweiss flower, without stem, as a collar and cap badge.

A memorial in memory of the fallen of this Freikorps unit was inaugurated 30 September 1923 in Schliersee
It carried the inscription: "Oberland seinen 52 in Oberschlesien im J. 1921 gefallenen Kameraden." and "Sie werden wieder auferstehen".
It was destroyed in May 1935.


A commemorative plaque was inaugurated 21 May 1956 in the Weinberg-Kapelle, it carried the inscription:
"Freikorps Oberland seiner 52 im Freiheitskampf um Oberschlesien gefallenen Kameraden Sie werden auferstehen."

Men of the III Bataillon of Freikorps Oberland

Sources used

Verkuilen Ager - Awards of the German Freikorps 1919-1935
Bruce Campbell - The SA generals and the rise of Nazism
Jill Halcomb Smith & Wilhelm P.B.R. Saris - Headgear of Hitler's Germany Vol 2
Nigel Jones - The birth of the Nazis: How the Freikorps blazed a trail for Hitler
Yaacov Lozowick - Hitler's Bureaucrats: The Nazi Security Police and the Banality of Evil
Robert Proctor - Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis
Georg Tessin - Deutsche Verbände und Truppen 1918-1939
Robert Thomas & Stefan Pochanke - Handbuch zur geschichte der Deutschen Freikorps
Robert G. L. Waite - Vanguard of Nazism: The Free Corps Movement in Postwar Germany 1918-1923
Charles Woolley - German Uniforms, Insignia & Equipment 1918-1923

Reference material on this unit

Peter Schuster - Für das stolze Edelweiß: Bild- und Textband zur Geschichte von Freikorps und Bund Oberland