specifically, the freikorps were organized by the SDP to crush the Sparticist revolt by the communist wing of the SDP. it's where the common leftist slogan
Wer hat uns verraten? Sozialdemokraten!
comes from (translation: who betrayed us? social democrats!) and it's why social democrats aren't considered part of the anticapitalist left. the freikorps later became the base for the brownshirts, which is what people mean by "proto-fascist". had the SDP not betrayed their comrades, it's extremely likely that the Nazi party would never have grown to the size it did. but the reformists screwed the pooch as it were.
Rosa Luxembourg's death at the hands of the Freikorps is one of the biggest what-if moments in history. a unified, socialist Germany joining with the Russian Soviets would have reshaped the world as we know it.
specifically, the freikorps were organized by the SDP to crush the Sparticist revolt by the communist wing of the SDP. it's where the common leftist slogan
comes from (translation: who betrayed us? social democrats!) and it's why social democrats aren't considered part of the anticapitalist left. the freikorps later became the base for the brownshirts, which is what people mean by "proto-fascist". had the SDP not betrayed their comrades, it's extremely likely that the Nazi party would never have grown to the size it did. but the reformists screwed the pooch as it were.
Rosa Luxembourg's death at the hands of the Freikorps is one of the biggest what-if moments in history. a unified, socialist Germany joining with the Russian Soviets would have reshaped the world as we know it.