German Combat League

The German Combat League was founded in 1923 at the “German Day” in Nuremberg, where over 100,000 people in uniform marched, including from military organizations, officers' societies, patriotic associations and militant groups of all stripes as well as the state police. “Under the black, white and red flag”, a “Bavarian fighting community” issued a manifesto that called “the people to arms” and was considered the prelude to the Hitler Putsch. The Storm Battalion (SA), the Upland League and the ‘Reichsflagge’, i.e. none other than the Working Group of Patriotic Fighting Units, were responsible for this fighting community, which was now transformed into the German Combat League. The former chief of staff of the citizens' militias, Hermann Kriebel, remained the military leader, Erwin Scheubner-Richter became the business manager and Adolf Hitler soon became the political leader.

The founding of the Combat League intensified the rivalries between the various anti-republican forces planning a coup d'état. Three main centers competed with each other: in Berlin, the circles around Reichswehr General von Seeckt and in Bavaria the opposing camps of the Bavaria and Reich League and the State Commissioner General Gustav von Kahr on the one side and the Combat League on the other. State police chief Hans Ritter von Seißer and Reichswehr General Otto von Lossow formed a triumvirate together with von Kahr and negotiated with all sides. Their common goal was to overthrow the Stresemann government in order to introduce a “national dictatorship”. However, their personal concepts regarding timing and foreign policy proved to be too different for a joint approach. In terms of economic policy, Seeckt was more in touch with heavy industry, while the Bavarians were in part more in touch with the representatives of the new industries and the royal family.

After the end of the Ruhr resistance, Bavaria pushed the conflict with the Reich to the extreme. The Bavarian government placed the Reichswehr units stationed in the state under its control and prepared for a “March to Berlin”. The Combat League was part of this plot, but on November 8, 1923, its leaders no longer wanted to wait for the triumvirate's signal; Hitler and Ludendorff staged a putsch on their own initiative. All sub-organizations of the Combat League were banned on November 9, 1923.