Marinebrigade Ehrhardt

Marinebrigade Ehrhardt
Marinebrigade Erhardt during the Kapp Putsch in Berlin, 1920
Active	February 1919 – March 1920
Disbanded	May 1920
Country	Germany
Type	Freikorps
Size	6,000
Engagements	German Revolution of 1918–19 Bavarian Soviet Republic First Silesian Uprising Kapp Putsch
Commanders
Commander	Hermann Ehrhardt

The Marinebrigade Ehrhardt, also known as the Ehrhardt Brigade, was a Freikorps unit of the early Weimar Republic. It was formed on 17 February 1919 as the Second Marine Brigade from members of the former Imperial German Navy under the leadership of Hermann Ehrhardt. The brigade was used primarily in the suppression of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and the First Silesian Uprising, both in the first half of 1919. In March 1920, faced with its imminent disbanding by orders of the government in Berlin, the Marine Brigade was one of the main supporters of the Kapp Putsch that tried to overthrow the Weimar Republic. After the putsch failed and the brigade was disbanded in May, many of the former members formed the secret Organisation Consul under Ehrhardt's leadership. Before it was banned in 1922, it carried out numerous assassinations and murders in a continuation of the attempts to overthrow the Republic.