Technische Nothilfe

Technische Nothilfe (abbreviated as TN, TeNo, TENO; literally: 'Technical Emergency Help') was a German organisation. It was established by members of Technische Abteilung (technical unit) of the paramilitary Freikorps Garde-Kavallerie-Schützen-Division.

The TN was founded on September 30, 1919 by Otto Lummitzsch with the stated purpose to protect and maintain vital & strategic facilities (e.g., gas works, water works, power stations, railways, post offices, agriculture concerns and food production activities). At the time (1919–1923), these vital infrastructure facilities were under threat from sabotage and attack during a period bordering on civil war, which was caused by the collapse of German economy following the end of World War I and exacerbated by a spate of politically motivated wildcat strikes, usually by Left-wing elements. In effect they were strike-breakers and "blacklegs" used by the proto-fascist right wing to undermine the workers' democratic right to strike.

The organization was formed from primarily post World War I Army engineering / technical unit members, and transitioned into a volunteer civilian organisation which was registered by the Department of the Interior. The change was required by the demilitarisation requirements of the Treaty of Versailles, in order that the TN would not be classified as a military organization. Based on the nature of its operations, the background of its personnel was mainly conservative middle class, but included a large number of students, especially those in technical studies. In the Weimar Republic period, the TN was seen as a threat by the working class and thus aroused the animosity of trade unionists, and more particularly the Communist Party of Germany. The TN intervened as a volunteer aide organization, when strikes could not be avoided, and when the public welfare was endangered as in strikes of electricity, food service, railroad workers.

As economic conditions improved (after about 1925) and strikes became less common and less aggressive, the TN was able to shift its activities into public welfare areas such as disaster relief (Katastrophedienst), with respect to floods, fires, industrial accidents, bridge and railway collapse; as well responding to motor vehicle accidents in the countryside. A mobile Bereitschaftdiest (BD) was set up, in order to be able to more readily respond. Clandestine air raid protection activities also began in the late 1920s – early 1930s as the Luftschutzdienst (LD). From 1931–1934, the TN also became involved in the Freiwilligen Arbeitsdienst (FAD; 'Volunteer Labour Service') and supervised training at over 12,000 locations. The FAD was later morphed into the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD).

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