The (SFK) (Sudeten German Free Corps, also known as the , and ) was a paramilitary organization founded on 17 September 1938 in Germany on direct order of Adolf Hitler. The organization was composed mainly of ethnic German citizens of Czechoslovakia with pro-Nazi sympathies who were sheltered, trained and equipped by the German army and who conducted cross-border terrorist operations into Czechoslovak territory from 1938 to 1939. They played a role in destabilizing Czechoslovakia and facilitating the annexation of the Sudetenland into the Third Reich under Nazi Germany.Faber, David, Munich, 1938: Appeasement and World War II, p. 316. "His chosen method was the establishment of the Sudeten German Freikorps, a terrorist organization which brought together and armed all those Sudeten Germans who had fled Czechoslovakia for Germany"Tyson, Joseph Howard (2010). The Surreal Reich. p. 144. "Political agitator Konrad Henlein, with the collusion of Nazi secret service agencies, engaged in terrorism against Prague's government. Over one hundred of his Freikorps irregulars had been killed in two-hundred-some 'commando raids'."Lukes, Igor (1996). Czechoslovakia between Stalin and Hitler. p. 212. "The party's specialists in low-level warfare, the , were among those who eagerly awaited an opportunity to attack. 14 They had been trained in the art of terrorism by , SS, and SA instructors"Mueller, Michael (2007). Canaris: The Life and Death of Hitler's Spymaster. p. 134. "to guarantee the protection of the Sudeten Germans and maintain the unrest and disturbances; terror squads were to be formed from the Freikorps's sub-unit to create constant unrest in the border region"
The was formed largely from members of the Freiwilliger Schutzdienst, also known as , an organization established by the Sudeten German Party in Czechoslovakia unofficially in 1933 and officially on 17 May 1938, following the example of the , the original paramilitary wing of the German Nazi Party. Officially registered as a promoter organization, the was proscribed on 16 September 1938 by the Czechoslovak authorities due to its implication in many criminal and terrorist activities. Many of its members as well as leadership, wanted for arrest by Czechoslovak authorities, had moved to Germany where they became the basis of the , conducting the ' first cross-border raids into Czechoslovakia only a few hours after its official establishment. Due to the smooth transition between the two organizations, similar membership, Nazi Germany's sponsorship and application of the same tactic of cross-border raids, some authors often do not particularly distinguish between the actions of (i.e. up to 16 September 1938) and (i.e. from 17 September 1938).
Relying on the Convention for the Definition of Aggression, Czechoslovak president Edvard BenešPresident Beneš' declaration made on 16 December 1941 and the government-in-exileNote of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile dated 22 February 1944 later regarded 17 September 1938, the day of establishment of the and beginning of its cross-border raids, as the beginning of the undeclared German–Czechoslovak war. This understanding has been confirmed in 1997 by the Czech Constitutional Court. Meanwhile, Nazi Germany formally declared that Czech captives would be considered prisoners of war from 23 September 1938 onwards.
Background
From 1918 to 1938, after the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, more than three million ethnic Germans lived in the Czech part of the newly created state of Czechoslovakia.
In 1933, as Adolf Hitler assumed power in Germany, Sudeten German pro-Nazi leader Konrad Henlein founded Sudeten German Party (SdP), the local branch of the Nazi Party for the Sudetenland.Eleanor L. Turk. The History of Germany. Westport, Connecticut, USA: Greenwood Press, 1999. . p. 123. By 1935, the SdP was the second largest political party in Czechoslovakia. Shortly after the of Austria to Germany, Henlein met with Hitler in Berlin on 28 March 1938, where he was instructed to raise demands unacceptable to the Czechoslovak government of president Edvard Beneš. On 24 April, the SdP issued a series of demands upon the government of Czechoslovakia, known as the Carlsbad Program. Among the demands, Henlein demanded autonomy for Germans living in Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak government responded by saying that it was willing to provide more minority rights to the German minority but it refused to grant them autonomy.
By June 1938, the party had over 1.3 million members, i.e. 40.6% of the ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia (many of whom had fled to Germany), 40% of them women. During the last free democratic elections before the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the May 1938 communal elections, the party received 88% of ethnic German votes, taking over control of most municipal governments in the Czech borderland. The country's membership made it one of the largest fascist parties in Europe at the time.
The first major crisis took place in May 1938 after a partial Czechoslovak army mobilization. Activities of pro-Nazi ethnic Germans in the area led to a large flight of ethnic-Czech civilians and especially Jews. Hitler's escalating threats to attack Czechoslovakia led to full mobilization on 22 September 1938. Many ethnic Germans refused to follow the Czechoslovak army mobilization order and either moved across the border to Germany and joined the , continuing to raid cross-border from there, or established units operating from Czechoslovak forests, receiving arms and equipment from Germany, and continuing raids against Czechoslovak authorities, Jews and Czechs, until the German occupation of the Czechoslovak border areas following the Munich Agreement.
,
Founding of the organization Immediately after establishing the (later Sudeten German Party, SdP) in 1933, the party started forming its informal (Order Service; its members were called in German (both singular and plural)) which was officially supposed to preserve order at meetings and assemblies of the party and protect it against its political enemies. In reality, however, these were from the beginning attack squads with potentially terrorist assignments, following the example of the (a.k.a. "Brownshirts" or "Storm Troopers"), the original paramilitary wing of the German Nazi Party. More systematic build-up of the paramilitary wing started before the 1935 elections, when the SdP's leadership decided that each local SdP organization should establish its own squad of .Hruška, p. 12
On 14 May 1938, the Ordnersgruppe was formally transformed into new official organization called the (FS), openly built up on the model of the Nazi .Hruška, p. 13 SdP's chief Konrad Henlein was the 's leader, Fritz Köllner became its secretary and Willi Brandner it chief of staff, also responsible for building up of squad groups. By 17 May 1938, the date of the organization's official registration, the had over 15,000 members.
The started a wide recruitment program in June 1938. Its members were divided into three categories: Category A: The most trusted and physically capable members that were supposed to carry out the duty of guardians of "inner purity" of the SdP. Category A was composed of the so-called "surveillance departments" and was directly subordinate to the SdP. Apart from functions within the organization, its members were also collecting information on political opponents and conducting military espionage. Category B: Wider selection of members. Its members were trained for propaganda activities and for conducting terrorist and sabotage assaults. Category C: Mostly older members of FS, mainly former soldiers with World War I front line experience. Their main task was providing training to the B category members as well as being the FS's reserve force.
FS squads were being built up as militias with local, district and regional formations and central staff. FS further created special squads: communication, medical and rear. The FS's squad leaders were trained directly by the Nazi in Germany.
The FS became instrumental for the psychological warfare of the operation Case Green, smuggling weapons through "green border" from Germany, conducting various provocations of Czechoslovak armed forces and provocations on the border with Germany.Hruška, p. 14
Attempted putsch
The German Nazi Party was convening its 10th congress between 5 and 12 September 1938 in Nuremberg, where it was expected that Hitler would make clear his further plans as regards Czechoslovakia. FS squads were kept in a state of high alert, ready to conduct any orders that may come from "higher up". On 10 September 1938, all FS district headquarters received orders to start large scale demonstrations, which escalated to a number of members of Czechoslovak law enforcement being wounded, as well as FS members in numerous cities already the next day. FS Vice- Karl Hermann Frank was in direct contact with Hitler, receiving instructions for the following days.Hruška, p. 15
Immediately after the highly anticipated Hitler's final speech on 12 September 1938, in which Hitler declared his intention to take care of German interests "under any circumstances" and to "prevent the creation of a second Palestine in the heart of Europe where the poor Arabs are defenseless and abandoned, while Germans in Czechoslovakia are not defenseless, nor abandoned", the FS initiated widespread violence in the whole borderland. In Cheb alone, K. H. Frank's hometown, ethnic-German mob plundered 38 Czech and Jewish shops. Other main targets included buildings of the German Social Democratic Party and Czechoslovak authorities, including schools. The FS conducted over 70 armed assaults against Czechoslovak authorities and assaulted selected Czechs and ethnic German anti-fascists. Czechoslovak law enforcement was meanwhile ordered not to intervene in order not to further fuel up Hitler's propaganda.
As it became clear that the SdP was attempting to push the Czechoslovak authorities out of the towns in the borderland and replace them with its own governance, and with the rising death toll that included, inter alia, the murder of four gendarmes by the FS in Habartov, the Czechoslovak government responded by declaring martial law in the thirteen worst struck districts and by dispatching the military.Hruška, p. 17 Major assaults on Czechoslovak law enforcement as well as the military continued throughout 14 September 1938, with the last one taking place on 15 September in Bublava. Altogether, the violence led to 13 dead and numerous injuries on 12–13 September and culminated with 23 dead (13 Czechoslovak authorities personnel, 10 ethnic Germans) and 75 seriously wounded (of those 14 ethnic Germans) on 14 September. However, the attempted putsch was thwarted.
On 14 September 1938, the SdP's leadership ran across the border to Selb, Germany, where K. H. Frank unsuccessfully demanded immediate military intervention from Hitler.Hruška, p. 30 The leadership's flight had chilling effect on the FS members, especially those that had taken part in the violence and now feared criminal prosecution. On 15 September 1938, German radio broadcast a speech by Henlein, who was purportedly speaking live from Aš in Czechoslovakia. By this time, the SdP's flight to Germany had become public knowledge and according to the then German ambassador in Prague, instead of stimulating SdP's members to further actions, it led to a serious rift in its ranks.
On 16 September 1938, Czechoslovak authorities banned and dissolved the SdP as well as the FS. Many of its functionaries as well as members that were wanted for arrest in connection with the preceding violence fled to Germany, while a number of town mayors elected for the SdP exhorted FS members to keep calm and expressed their support to the commanders of Gendarme stations situated in their towns.