3. Marine-Brigade was raised by Wilfried von Loewenfeld in Kiel following the naval mutiny there. It was one of the first Freikorps units to be formed.

It seized Breslau in support the Kapp Putsch and was disbanded after its failure.

The WW1 Uboat ace Lothar von Arnauld de la Perriere commanded a sturmbataillon in the brigade.

A memorial in memory of the fallen of this Freikorps unit was inaugurated 25 June 1934 in Dorsten, it carried the inscription:

"Den Freikorps Lichtschlag/Loewenfeld, Februar 1919 - März 1920. Unsern Befreiern aus Spartakistengewalt. Mit Adolf Hitler im zweiten Jahr des dritten Reiches 1934. Euch was vehüllt. Nun ists am Tag. Ihr schlugt den ersten Hammerschlag."

It was thrown into the river by British soldiers after the war. It was salvaged in 1949 and used as a memorial for prisoners of war.

Formed in the area of

Generalkommando des Garde-Korps (Berlin)

Order of battle

5. Marine-Regiment

6. Marine-Regiment

Sturm-Btl. Arnauld de la Perière

Notable members

Konteradmiral (Ing.) Dipl. Ing. Max Adam

Vizeadmiral z.V. Lothar Arnauld de la Perière

Kapitän zur See Fritz Berger (Knight's Cross holder)

Konteradmiral Erich Bey

SS-Standartenführer Otto Binge (Waffen-SS)

Konteradmiral Hasso von Bredow

Fregattenkapitän der Reserve Dr. Ing. Karl-Friedrich Brill (Knight's Cross holder)

Generaladmiral Rolf Carls

NSFK-Korpsführer & General der Flieger Friedrich Christiansen

Konteradmiral z.V. Franz Claassen

Konteradmiral z.V. Siegfried Claassen

Konteradmiral Robert Eyssen (Knight's Cross holder)

Reichstag deputy & SA-Gruppenführer Graf Fink von Finkenstein

Admiral Hermann von Fischel

Admiral Erich Förste

Vizeadmiral (Ing.) Dipl. Ing. Walter Fröhlich

Konteradmiral Hans-Joachim Gadow

Kapitän zur See Günther Gumprich (Knight's Cross holder)

Konteradmiral (Ing.) Dipl. Ing. Julius Heimberg

SS-Obergruppenführer August Heissmayer

Konteradmiral Wilhelm von Haxthausen

Konteradmiral (Ing.) Wilhelm Johannsen

Vizeadmiral (Ing.) Karl Kaufmann

Charakter als Vizeadmiral Ludwig Kaulhausen

Charakter als Konteradmiral Reinhold Knobloch

Konteradmiral (Ing.) Dipl. Ing. Waldemar Kober

Konteradmiral Hans Kolbe

Generalmajor Peter Körte

Konteradmiral Ernst Kratzenberg

Vizeadmiral Leo Kreisch

Konteradmiral (Ing.) Walter Kühn

Charakter als Vizeadmiral Wilhelm Friedrich (gen. Wilfried) von Loewenfeld

Admiral Raul Mewis

Konteradmiral Hans Karl Meyer

Konteradmiral Hans Michahelles (Knight's Cross holder)

Konteradmiral Hans Mirow

SS-Oberführer Cassius Freiherr von Montigny

Konteradmiral Rudolf Peters

SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl

Konteradmiral Karl-Jesko von Puttkamer

Generalmajor Hans Rauch (Luftwaffe)

SA-Brigadeführer Han Ramshorn

Generalleutnant Heinrich XXXVII Prinz Reuss (j.L.) (Luftwaffe)

Vizeadmiral Friedrich Rieve

Vizeadmiral Bernhard Rogge

Konteradmiral Richard Rothe-Roth

Konteradmiral Werner Scheer

Konteradmiral (Ing.) Max Schenitski

Albert Leo Schlageter (1)

Generalleutnant Wilhelm Schmalz (Luftwaffe)

Admiral Hubert Schmundt (Knight's Cross holder)

Konteradmiral Werner Schönermark

SS-Gruppenführer Vizeadmiral Geberal der Flaktruppen Ludwig von Schröder

Generalmajor Otto Schroeder-Zollinger (Luftwaffe)

Konteradmiral (Ing.) Alfred Schulze

Vizeadmiral Kurt Slevogt

Konteradmiral Siegfried Sorge

Vizeadmiral Rudolf Stange

Konteradmiral (Ing.) Walter Steiner

Konteradmiral Werner Stichling

Vizeadmiral (Ing.) Ernst Stieringer

Vizeadmiral Hans Stohwasser

SS-Gruppenführer Bruno Streckenbach

Konteradmiral Ludwig Stummel

Konteradmiral (Ing.) Wilhelm Tackenberg

SS-Brigadeführer Willy Tensfeld

Konteradmiral Clamor von Trotha

Konteradmiral (Ing.) Hans Voß

Konteradmiral Georg Waue

Konteradmiral (Ing.) Carl Weber

General der Flieger Rudolf (Ralph) Wenninger (Luftwaffe)

Konteradmiral Kurt Weyher

Konteradmiral Waldemar Winther

Konteradmiral (Ing.) Paul-Willy Zieb

(the ranks are the highest ranks reached in the Third Reich era)

Insignia

Members of the brigade wore a pair of gold metal devices on the collar featuring a fouled anchor set within a wreath.

Officers of 3. Marine-Brigade von Loewenfeld

Footnotes

1. Albert Leo Schlageter, a WW1 veteran and Freikorps member, was arrested 5 Apr 1923 by the French troops in the occupied Ruhr for taking part in sabotage operations. He was sentenced to death by a French military tribunal and executed by firing squad 26 May 1923. Within 24 hours the Schlageter-Gedächtnis-Bund was formed and plans were made for a memorial (a large cross erected in 1931), Schlageter was becoming a martyr of the right-wing groups, among them the NSDAP as he had been a member of the NSDAP and SA as well as other fringe groups.

His name was given as a honour title to two SA-Standarten (SA-Standarte 39 Schlageter at Düsseldorf and SA-Standarte 142 Albert Leo Schlageter at Lörrach) and one Luftwaffe wing, Jagdgeschwader 26 Schlageter.

Published sources used

Verkuilen Ager - Awards of the German Freikorps 1919-1935

Bruce Campbell - The SA generals and the rise of Nazism

Jill Halcomb Smith & Wilhelm P.B.R. Saris - Headgear of Hitler's Germany Vol 2

Nigel Jones - The birth of the Nazis: How the Freikorps blazed a trail for Hitler

Georg Tessin - Deutsche Verbände und Truppen 1918-1939

Robert Thomas & Stefan Pochanke - Handbuch zur geschichte der Deutschen Freikorps

Robert G. L. Waite - Vanguard of Nazism: The Free Corps Movement in Postwar Germany 1918-1923

Reference material on this unit

- None known at this time -