The search for a German identity in the East launched by Ober Ost did not end with the military state's collapse in November 1918, but was revived in the form of a wild adventure by bands of German freebooters, the Freikorps. In defeat, many a soldier felt that “everything within him was broken.” As traditions and authority were swept away, collapse and defeat exacerbated the difficulties of “psychological demobilization,” leaving many soldiers unable to return to peacetime normalcy, which younger recruits had indeed never known as adults. As the fronts around Germany buckled and civil unrest gripped the unstable new Republic's cities, individual soldiers looked to action, any action, to redeem this inner crisis. They organized themselves into hundreds of “Free Corps” units, each owing alliegance only to its commander. New National Defense Minister Gustav Noske authorized the units on January 4, 1919, impressed by a volunteer formation he reviewed at a camp outside Berlin, underwriting a process already far advanced. These Freikorps, together with the conservative officer caste, would become the embattled Republic's defenders, helping Noske quell the radical socialists. This fratricidal duty earned Noske his nickname – “Bloodhound.” Such odd cooperation began the night after the events of November 9, when Ludendorff's successor Groener called the Republic's new president.