the_dunk_tank

No it's the German version of Slava Ukraini.

As a German, when I see any foreigner using German in a military context, I assume they're a Wehraboo and by extension at least fascist-adjacent

Did you source this right out of your ass? Trust me, most Germans are not thinking of Napoleon. They're not thinking of the Third Reich either, because the Freikorps were integrated into the Reichswehr in 1920 already and the name wasn't used after that. If they remember this term from school or media at all, then almost certainly in the context of the Freikorps squashing socialist uprisings under direction of the Ebert government in 1918/19. They might also remember them murdering Luxemburg, Liebknecht and others, and in general being far-right proto-fascists.

Absolutely not lol, germans would know that anyone naming their unit 'Freikorps' is a nazi just like all the other stuff, shit if you see someone waving the Reichsfahne people know that you are a nazi.

As a German, i'm mostly thinking of revanchist right wingers murdering leftists during the Weimar Republic when i hear Freikorps, it's where the term shows up most in our history lessons.

the Freikorps put down the Sparticist revolt by the communist wing of the SDP. they later became the base for the brownshirts but that's not where the term was used.

Ask a german about Freikorps and they most likely will think of Napoleon, not the third reich.

I'd wager a good bet 70% of Germans wouldn't even know that word, it's a lesser detail in German history totally irrelevant to your average German. Nobody cares about Napoleon or Weimar.

Is this a bit?

Which one do you think these Ukranians named themselves after? Be honest

this is right up there with "bro the wolfsangel is just a pagan slavic symbol bro, so is the sonnerad bro! bro!"

Why use a German term? Why use a German term that is most infamous for its connection to proto-Nazis? Why not just be "Volunteer Corps" in Ukrainian?

You can probably guess why if you ask any of these fuckers what they think of Bandera.

Analogy:

The term Sturmabteilung predates the founding of the Nazi Party in 1919. Originally it was applied to the specialized assault troops of Imperial Germany in World War I who used infiltration tactics based on being organized into small squads of a few soldiers each. The first official German stormtrooper unit was authorized on March 2, 1915 on the Western Front.

"idk guys, I don't see a connection to the Nazis for this Ukrainian battalion just because it's called Sturmabteilung"

This is very unintentionally an indictment of whatever education system you come from... But I'll give you a straight answer.

The freikorps were organised to eliminate communist rebellion. Their roots are anti-communism. The roots of fascism are anti-communism. The only shared trait that is true in all forms of fascism is that it is a violent reaction to communism. Everywhere in the world that you look, Spanish fascism, Italian fascism, German fascism, Chilean fascism, etc etc etc - All forms of fascism are different, but the one shared trait they all hold is that they become funded and grow as a violent opposition to communism. Fascism becomes funded and endorsed by the capitalists when they need to destroy a communist threat to capitalism. This is evidenced even more by the fact that fascism never becomes anything unique when it wins, it isn't special or different to regular capitalism, when it wins and destroys the left like it did in Spain or Chile it just slowly turned itself back into liberalism, neither were overthrown. Fascism in those places simply no longer had a reason to exist after it had defeated the threats to capitalism. Fascism is the capitalist state turning to ultra-violence in order to eliminate any anti-capitalist threat that exists to it, in most cases this is communists.

There is a reason that the poem goes "First they came for the communists", there is a reason we are their first and greatest priority.

With this understanding you should now realise that the freikorps were absolutely a precursor to the nazis.