This month, we are pleased to present a scientific contribution by Dr. Dennis Werberg, military historian at the Zentrum für Militärgeschichte und Sozialwissenschaften der Bundeswehr (ZMSBw – Centre for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr) Potsdam, with sources from the Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg (State Archives of Baden-Wuerttemberg), the Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archives) and the Stadtarchiv Wedel (City Archives of Wedel).
Der Stahlhelm (“The Steel Helmet”) was founded in Magdeburg in December 1918 by the factory owner and reserve officer Franz Seldte. Up to the middle of the 1920s, it saw itself first and foremost as a group representing the interests of returning world war veterans and their surviving dependants.