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The article looks at the history of paramilitary violence after the First World War in Germany and the Baltic states. By using a quantitative approach, the article sheds new light on the social structure of three German Freikorps, information which calls into question how these paramilitary forces have traditionally been understood. It describes the emergence and the operations of the Freikorps during the 1918-1919 revolution, their daily routines and the violent behaviour of their members. It is argued that common explanations for postwar violence, such as George L. Mosse’s theory of brutalization, or the argument that a generation of young men were radicalized because they had not experienced the front, are not sufficient to fully account for the German Freikorps.