Eiserne Front member badge

The Eiserne Front member badge, Tombak 

The Iron Front was an association founded in 1931 by the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB), the General Free Employees' Federation (Afa-Bund), the SPD and the Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Federation (ATSB). The Iron Front saw itself as an alliance and not as a membership organization. The goal of the Iron Front was the "preservation and fulfillment" of the constitution of the Weimar Republic and the defense against radical "anti-republic" efforts, especially by the National Socialists. It political opponents also included monarchists organized in the Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten, and the German Communist Party (KPD). The KPD chairman Ernst Thälmann characterized the Iron Front as a "terrorist organization of social fascism".