Iron Front
The Iron Front (German: Eiserne Front) was a German paramilitary organization in the German Reich (1919–1933) which consisted of social democrats, trade unionists, and democratic socialists. Its main goal was to defend social democracy against what was seen as anti-democratic, totalitarian ideologies on the far-right and far-left as well as any type of monarchy which was represented within the "enemy organization" Stahlhelm-Bund.
Contents
History
The Iron Front was a union of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB), the General Free Employees Federation (Afa-Bund), the SPD and the Anti-Stalinist leftist Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Federation (Arbeiter Turn- und Sportbund; ATSB) with it's main opponents being the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and their far-left paramilitary organization Rotfrontkämpferbund on the left, and the NSDAP and their Sturmabteilung on the right.
It was founded on 16 December 1931 on the initiative of the Reichsbanner in order to be able to provide a left-wing Marxist counterweight to the union of German-patriotic forces in the Harzburg Front. The political leadership of the alliance was held by the SPD party chairman Otto Wels, and the technical leadership by the Reichsbanner chairman Karl Höltermann. Höltermann declared in his appeal for the founding of the Iron Front:
- "The year 1932 will be our year, the year of the Republic's final victory over its opponents. We do not want to remain on the defensive for one more day, not one more hour – we are attacking! Attack along the entire line! Our deployment must be part of the general offensive. Today we shout – tomorrow we strike!"
This clear declaration of war by the Iron Front, shoulder to shoulder with the November Putsch criminals, caused a temporary motivational boost among the supporters of the so-called Weimar Republic. The symbol of the Iron Front was three arrows (action, discipline, unity) pointing to the left and downwards, which were meant to symbolize the attack on the enemy and which were also well suited for "destroying" a swastika by painting them over it. However, since graffiti was illegal, the SPD leadership spoke out against this practice.
KPD chairman Ernst Thälmann called the Iron Front a “terrorist organization of social fascism.” In Austria too, the three arrows were the outstanding symbol of the anti-Hitler front.
USA
More recently, the symbol has been appropriated by American anti-fascist terror organizations, along with flags historically derived from the German Communist Party's Antifaschistische Aktion. Antifa opposed the Iron Front, whom they regarded as bourgeois and fascist, as the Three Arrows logo was used to represent resistance against Antifa's affiliated party, the KPD as well.
