Hundertschaften der Arbeiter Wehr, Die

(Bands for Workers’ Defense), detachments for self-defense against the forces of reaction and fascism in Germany in the early 1920’s. The detachments were organized by the Communist Party of Germany during the struggle against the Kapp Putsch of 1920 and became widespread during the political crisis of 1923. An effective part of the united front, they protected the property of workers’ organizations, guarded strikers and demonstrators, and repulsed fascist and militarist provocations. About a third of the detachments were concentrated in Saxony and Thuringia, where Communists and Social Democrats achieved unity of action in March 1923 and where governments of workers were later established. The defeat of the working class in October 1923 led to the detachments’ dispersal; the League of Red Front-Line Fighters (Roter Frontkämpferbund) inherited their traditions.