The paramilitary organization called Reichsflagge was formally founded and registered on 11 October 1920 by the Bavarian Reichswehr captain Adolf Heiß. It was mainly based in Nürnberg and the surrounding region of Franconia. The organization was predecessed by the Heimatschutzbataillon Heiß, founded 17 March 1920, a Freikorps like organization which during the Kapp Putsch of 1920 moved against demonstrating workers in Nürnberg. It was a cauldron of ideologies, but Heiß himself held strong monarchist and traditional values.
The Reichsflagge was special among the numerous politically motivated paramilitary units as it almost exclusively had its focus in Franconia, unlike many others that were active on a nationwide basis. Even though the organizations restricted regional activity, it grew steadily and soon reached over 4000 active members. It did also enjoy a strong support from the industrialists and Franconian middle class, which supported the organization economically. It did soon join the Landesverband der Einwohnerwehren Bayerns, an umbrella organization for other civic militias and paramilitaries in Bavaria. When the latter was dissolved in the early summer of 1921, Heiß decided not to subordinate his organization in any other umbrella initiatives like Bund Bayern und Reich, which was led by the largely unliked and militarily unecperienced Dr. Otto Pittinger. Instead he continued to expand his organization further south, with a newly formed branch in München, which he handed over leadership to his old friend Ernst Röhm.…
