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==The Freikorps and the Communist Revolt==
In 1919 the German government was very weak. The army was in disarray and under the terms of the armistice with the allies the numbers in the army were severely restricted. The Social Democrats who controlled the government knew that many in the police and the army were not sympathetic to them and were therefore unreliable. The Weimar government wanted to safeguard the gains of the German Revolution and they saw the main threat coming from the left, the ‘Bolsheviks’. The Defence Minister, Gustave Noske was in a dilemma he had little resources available to him to defeat the Reds and he feared that the Communists would seize power in Berlin. He decided to use the Freikorps even though he knew that they were not loyal to the government. Noske realized that the Freikorps hated the communists even more than the Social Democrats and decided that they could be used to prevent to suppress the Revolutionaries. The Freikorps paramilitaries played a critical role in the suppression of the Red revolts (1919-1920). They played the major role in the defeat of the Spartacist Revolt. This was perhaps the most dangerous point for the Weimar Republic if they Freikorps had not intervened then the Spartacists could have seized Berlin and all of Germany. It must be remembered that the radical left was very popular especially among the working class and even among the German navy. The armed intervention by the right-wing paramilitaries ensured that the revolt led by Luxembourg and Liebknecht would collapse. The Freikorps would play a similar role in eight other revolutions that erupted across Germany in the period 1919-1920. The Freikorps were played a decisive role in the defeat of the various uprisings by communists and others’ radicals in the immediate post-war period.
[[File: Freikorps 5.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Fighting during the Spartacist Revolt (1919)]]
==Freikorps and the radical right==
By the end of 1919 the Freikorps had become a threat to the Weimar government. The paramilitaries were openly contemptuous of the democratic system and they brazenly defied the authorities. This alienated many of their conservative supporters including the German war hero General Paul Von Hindenburg. The government aware that the Freikorps had lost public support was encouraged to order that they disband. The paramilitaries lend their support to Kapp who was in reality a puppet of the German military. The Kapp Putsch received the full backing of the Freikorps and their strength was decisive, especially give the fact that the army did not intervene despite receiving orders, to do so from, Defence Minister Noske. Only for the courage of the local Berliners the Kapp Putsch could have overthrown the Weimar Republic. The Freikorps had played a major role in the defeat of the ‘Red’ revolts that broke out in the aftermath of the German Revolution. After they had achieved this they became the most serious threat to the Weimar Republic and almost helped to destroy it.
