Georg Maercker
1865-1924
- General
Georg Maercker joined the army in 1885. He fought the Herero people in a brutal war in German South West Africa. During World War I, he fought on multiple fronts and was injured several times. Shortly after November Revolution, he decided that Freikorps units should be founded. The OHL supported him in this endeavor. He put his Landesjägerkorps (Volunteer Rifles) unit under the command of Friedrich Ebert’s government. It was then used to put down the Spartacist Uprising in Berlin and to provide security for the National Assembly in Weimar. From March to summer 1919, Maercker’s Freikorps units attacked the councils in Thuringia, Halle, Magdeburg, and Braunschweig, putting down their uprisings in bloody clashes. During the Kapp Putsch, Maercker first stood back to wait and see. He then decided to not help the putsch leaders.