Der Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten

Der Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten (German: 'The Steel Helmet, League of Front-Line Soldiers'), commonly known as Der Stahlhelm ('The Steel Helmet') or Stahlhelm BdF ('D.S. BdF'), was a revanchist ex-serviceman's association formed in Germany after the First World War. Dedicated to preserving the camaraderie and sacrifice of German frontline soldiers, it quickly evolved into a highly politicised force of ultranationalist resistance, opposed to the democratic values of the Weimar Republic. By the 1920s, Der Stahlhelm had become a mass movement with hundreds of thousands of members, ideologically aligned with völkisch-nationalist currents: anti-Marxist, anti-Semitic, determined to reverse the Treaty of Versailles, but distinguished from Hitler's National Socialists by their support for a Hohenzollern restoration. As a cultural and political formation, Der Stahlhelm was instrumental in undermining democratic legitimacy and laying the ideological groundwork for the rise of the Nazi regime by which it was eventually absorbed. After the Second World War, a Stahlhelm network was re-established in West Germany. Following a history of supporting fringe nationalist parties, the last functioning local association dissolved itself in 2000.