Read these stories and definitions: FREIKORPS 1 – FREIKORPS 2 – STURM ABTEILUNG – SCHUTZSTAFFEL – BLACKWATER. Draw the logical conclusion. And while we are on the general topic of terrorism, visit Elaine Vigneault for the best post on web harrassment I have seen to date. I, meanwhile, have gotten back to reading Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas, and it is brilliant. I would reproduce marvelous quotations from it, but it is long and I am busy reading. The entire essay is available as an e-text, however. Our featured post for today is Chunk Wheeler’s, on Henry Giroux.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
You should really look in to the Wandervogel and other reactions to industrialization in Germany during the latter part of the 19th Century.
It will give you a much longer view into the Freikorps, especially if you explore the rise of European Nationalism, which is something I date from the Congress of Vienna in 1848. I think we in America really underestimate that part of history and how it is linked to the 20th century.
Merci! Vielen Dank! This is fascinating! I instantly Googled Wandervogel and it seems that they went backpacking, and are related also to anarchism, socialism, and positive views of homosexuality – although most of the sites which came up were in Swedish which I can read, but not quickly (can’t really skim, have to look at each word). I am glad to know about this. And I do need to study European nationalism more, I am good on the Latin American versions but weak, really, on 18th and 19th century European history, need to find out more.
I will look for this great book a friend gave me from Germany concerning European History. It was a college survey text, but the way it was written was great. It dealt precisely with the Vienna Congress all the way up to 1948. Exactly 100 years of history.
Our view of history is so short sighted and skewed by our involvement in the world wars that we can’t see the larger patterns. I will also look up more on the Wandervogel and the very pro-gay slant of late 19th century Germany. Not that everyone was into to it, but male bonding and love seemed to be an increasingly acknowledge mode of behavior for young men, though it may not have been tolerated.
Oh, and check out The Einstein of Sex.
Great docu-drama.
Oooh, yes, I can see that the Vienna Congress was a *very* big deal … and the Einstein of Sex looks fascinating! Now that I no longer have to negotiate with Reeducation, I can get studying on some real stuff instead of joust with silly chimerae (sp?)!