Black Reichswehr

Black Reichswehr
Schwarze Reichswehr
Active	1921–1923
Disbanded	October 1923
Country	Weimar Republic
Type	Paramilitary
Size	50,000 to 80,000 at peak[1]
Engagements	Küstrin Putsch
Commanders
Notable commanders	Fedor von Bock Kurt von Schleicher Eugen Ott

The Black Reichswehr (German: Schwarze Reichswehr) was the unofficial name for the extra-legal paramilitary formation that was secretly a part of the German military (Reichswehr) during the early years of the Weimar Republic. It was formed in 1921 after the government banned the Freikorps that it had relied on until then to supplement the Reichswehr. General Hans von Seeckt thought that the Reichswehr no longer had enough men available to guard the country's borders, but the army could not be expanded because of the manpower restrictions imposed on it by the Treaty of Versailles. In order to circumvent the limitation, Seeckt created the Black Reichswehr as purportedly civilian "labour battalions" (Arbeitskommandos) attached to regular Reichswehr units. The Arbeitskommandos received military training, provisioning and orders from the Reichswehr, although ultimately they were never involved in military action. The Black Reichswehr reached a peak membership estimated at 50,000 to 80,000 in 1923 and was dissolved the same year after a group of its members launched the failed Küstrin Putsch. Its existence became widely known in 1925 when its practice of Fememord, the extra-judicial killing of "traitors" among its ranks, was revealed to the public.