The Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten (English: Steel Helmet, League of Frontline Soldiers) was one of the many paramilitary organizations that arose after the defeat of World War I in the Weimar Republic.
The Stahlhelm was founded at the end of 1918 partly by Franz Seldte in the city of Magdeburg. Its journal, Stahlhelm, was edited by Count Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal, later hanged for his part in the July 20, 1944 plot to kill Hitler. The organization was a rallying point for nationalistic and anti-Weimar elements. With 500,000 members in 1930, the Stahlhelm was the largest paramilitary organization of Weimar Germany.
The Stahlhelm was the military backbone of the failed Kapp Putsch in 1920In 1929 the Stahlhelm joined the Volksentscheid gegen den Young-Plan to demonstrate against the Young Plan. The Stahlhelm joined the DNVP, NSDAP and Alldeutscher Verband to form the Harzburger Front, which was a united right-wing front against the Weimar Republic.
In 1934 the Stahlhelm was renamed Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Frontkämpferbund (Federation of the National Socialist Frontline-Fighters) and integrated into the Sturmabteilung (SA) and, in 1935, it was dissolved by the Nazis, who feared its fundamentally monarchist character.
