Roter Frontkämpferbund

The Roter Frontkämpferbund, "Alliance of Red Front-Fighters"), abbreviated RFB, was officially a non-partisan and legally registered association, but in practice a paramilitary organization under the leadership of the Communist Party of Germany during the Weimar Republic.

The first local groups of the RFB were established in July 1924 and Ernst Thälmann was elected the first leader of the federal committee during the first nationwide meeting in February 1925 in Berlin. Die Rote Front (  The Red Front  ) was the newspaper of the RFB. The greeting of “Rot Front!” while rising a clenched fist was responsible for the expression Rotfront, often used among friends and foes to refer to the organization instead of using the entire title of the alliance. The clenched fist "protecting the friend, fighting off the enemy" ("schützend den Freund, abwehrend den Feind") was the symbol of the RFB used on all its insignias and its registered trademark since March 1, 1926. In May 1926, during a flag parade, activists use it as a sign of rallying to the movement and as an oath to defend the USSR.

Formation
Until 1923 the Communist Party of Germany could depend on the Proletarian Hundreds (Proletarische Hundertschaften) to secure their meetings and demonstrations. After the ban of this organization in 1923, the Communist Party of Germany was in need to protect their political activities against attacks from the police and right-wing paramilitary organizations such as the Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten and the Sturmabteilung. During the 9th national conference of the Communist Party of Germany in April 1924 it was decided to form a new defense organization, under the name Roter Frontkämpfer-Bund. The goal was to attract non-communist workers and lead them as a united front. The incidents in the City of Halle/Saale on May 11, 1924, where 8 workers were killed and 16 seriously wounded by shots fired by the police during a demonstration, the decision was made public to all local organizations of the party and soon after the first local RFB-groups were formed. Most of these first RFB-units were located in industrial cities, seaports and other traditional strongholds of the working class.

Development
Founded as a proletarian defense organization for the working class, over the years the RFB engaged more and more in violent street fights with the police, the National Socialist German Workers Party's Sturmabteilung (SA) as well as other political rivals. In 1929, after their participation in the bloody protests following the ban on the celebrating International Workers' Day in Berlin 1929, during which more than 30 people were shot and killed by the police, the organization was banned and all its assets confiscated by the government. At the time of the ban, the RFB had close to 130,000 members of which a large part continued their activities illegally or in local successor organizations such as the Kampfbund gegen den Faschismus (Fighting-Alliance Against Fascism), while others retired from the political scene. Later historians claimed that RFB members often joined the ranks of the SA. However, it is disputed.

Under the Third Reich
After the takeover of the political power in Germany by Hitler and his National Socialists in 1933, former RFB-members were among the first arrested and incarcerated in the concentration camps of the Sturmabteilung (SA). The Nazis were seeking revenge on their former rivals and many of the Red Front-Fighters lost their lives in the Nazi prisons.

Of those who survived or were able to avoid arrest, many followed the call of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) and joined the Centuria Thälmann of the International Brigades to fight against the Nationalists led by General Francisco Franco. During World War II former Red Front-Fighters were fighting within the ranks of the Soviet Red Army against Nazi Germany.

After the war
After the end of World War II former RFB-members such as Erich Honecker and Erich Mielke were actively involved in the creation of the first police and military units of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). In East Germany the Arbeiterkampfgruppen (Combat Groups of the Working Class) and the Nationale Volksarmee (National People's Army) claimed to carry on the traditions of the RFB, while the Federal Republic of Germany in West Germany enforced the ban of 1929 and prosecuted former Red Front-Fighters admitting to their activities as members of the RFB.

Members
While many RFB-groups were under the leadership of a member of the Communist Party of Germany, most Red Front-Fighters were non-party members and some were even members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany or other political organizations.

98% of the RFB-members belonged to the working class and only 1% had received a higher education. A large part of the RFB-members were veterans of World War I and some had been actively involved in the November Revolution of 1918.

The number of members grew constantly and reached their peak with close to 130,000 members at the time of the ban in 1929.
 * April 1925: 40,450 members in 558 local groups (49% non-party members)
 * June 1925: 51,630 members in 826 local groups (53% non-party members)
 * February 1926: 68,392 members in 1,120 local groups (55% non-party members)

At the time of the ban in 1929, only 30% of the RFB-members were actually members of the Communist Party of Germany and 70% were non-party or members of other parties.

Sections
For its younger members between the ages of 16 and 21 the RFB initially formed the Roter Jungsturm (Red Young-Storm) which was renamed into Rote Jungfront (RJ) (Red Young-Front) in 1925 to avoid similarities with the Jungsturm group of the Nazi Party and to underline their goal of a united front. 40% of the local RFB-groups had a section of the RJ.

To honor the sailors of the imperial navy who fought during the November Revolution of 1918, in May 1925 the RFB founded the Rote Marine (RM) (Red Navy) with sections in all major port cities. The Rote Marine was also considered an elite unit.

Since 1925 the female members were organized in the Roter Frauen und Mädchen Bund (RFMB) (Alliance of Red Women and Girls). The federal leader was Clara Zetkin and at the time of ban in 1929 the RFMB had about 4,000 members.

Organizational structure
The RFB's structure was a bottom to top organization. The local groups elected the regional leadership and the regional leaders elected the federal committee.


 * 1. Bundesführung (Federal Committee)
 * 2. Gauführung (Regional Committee)
 * 3. Ortsgruppe (X Abteilungen) (Local Group (with several divisions, depending on the member strength of the local group))


 * 3.1. Abteilung (X Kameradschaften) (Division made up of X Comradeships)


 * 3.2. Kameradschaft (3 Züge, ca. 100 Mann) (Comradeship made up of 3 Platoons, approx. 100 men)


 * 3.3. Zug (4 Gruppen, ca. 35 Mann + 1 Zugführer) (Platoon made up of 4 Groups, approx. 35 men plus 1 platoon leader)


 * 3.4. Gruppe (8 Mann + 1 Gruppenführer) (Group made up of 8 men plus 1 group leader)

Bundesführung (Federal Committee)
 * Ernst Thälmann (1. Federal Leader)
 * Willy Leow (2. Federal Leader, Organizational and Technical Manager)
 * Alfred Oelßner (Treasurer)
 * Ernst Schneller
 * Hans Jendretzky
 * Fritz Selbmann
 * Werner Jurr
 * Albert Schreiner (Chief Editor Rote Front)
 * Curt Steinbrecher

RFB-Gaue (Regional Sections of the RFB)
 * Wasserkante
 * Thüringen (Thuringia)
 * Berlin-Brandenburg
 * Magdeburg-Anhalt
 * Halle-Merseburg
 * Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony)
 * Nordwest (Northwest)
 * Ruhrgebiet (Ruhr district)
 * Niederrhein (Lower Rhine)
 * Mittelrhein (Middle Rhine)
 * Hessen-Waldeck (Hesse-Waldeck)
 * Hessen-Frankfurt (Hesse-Frankfurt)
 * Saargebiet (Saar district)
 * Baden
 * Württemberg
 * Pommern (Pomerania)
 * Ostpreußen (East Prussia)
 * Oberschlesien (Upper Silesia)
 * Schlesien (Silesia)
 * Erzgebirge-Vogtland
 * Mecklenburg
 * Ostsachsen (East Saxony)
 * Westsachsen (West Saxony)
 * Nord-Bayern (North Bavaria)
 * Süd-Bayern (South Bavaria)

Intents to form local RFB groups in the cities of Nuremberg and Munich in 1925 were banned by the state of Bavaria. Until 1928 there existed no official RFB groups in Bavaria.

"Protection and Security"


A large part of the RFB activities were directed at supporting the political propaganda work of the Communist Party of Germany (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD)), the Rote Hilfe and other proletarian organizations such as workers unions. In most cases they provided a security-service for the various events but also participated in the active agitation. Hardened by their harsh work and living conditions, the RFB men engaged in acts of violence against the police and the political rivals who tried to disrupt rallies.

Numerous events ended in mass brawls between the police and members of the ‘‘RFB’’ leaving injured on both sides and in some cases dead.

Arrested RFB members could depend on the Rote Hilfe for legal support and also, in case of sentencing to prison, for financial support of their families during the time they were unable to work.

During the years of its existence the rivalry between the warring organizations such as the Sturmabteilung, the Stahlhelm and the Reichsbanner grew constantly and violence intensified. Since the strategy of the Sturmabteilung (SA) was to fight and provoke, violent encounters between members of these two organizations soon became a part of everyday life. The SA strenghtened in the working-class districts which supported either the Social Democratic Party of Germany ‘‘SPD’’ or the Communist Party of Germany ‘‘KPD’’ but not the ‘‘brown’’ Nazi Party the Sturmabteilung (SA) stood for.

RFB members also foughts with the landlords evicting the tenants.

”Social Justice and Peace”
As anchored in its statues, the ‘’RFB’’ was an anti-militaristic organization and therefore many of its activities were directed against the re-armament of the German military. The RFB and other organizations for instance protested against the spending of billions of Reichsmark for the purchase of armoured warships by the government of the Weimar Republic and demanded the use of these resources to improve the social welfare system.

Most public manifestations were openly directed against the politics of the German government and their involvement with powerful German industrials. They demanded the preservation of peace and denounced plans for a new war. Most members of the ‘’RFB’’ also supported the call of the left-wing ‘’KPD’’ for a change of the social system to the role model of the young Soviet Union. The ‘’RFB’’ therefore was soon considered an ‘’enemy of the state’’, leading to several temporary bans of its announced parades and meetings.

Other RFB events included propaganda marches in rural areas to get poor farmers and agricultural workers to join their cause.