In January 1919 he returned home to what had been, till a few weeks earlier, the Kingdom of Saxony. He settled in Schwarzenberg (a small town south of Chemnitz) and resumed his teaching career in March 1919, taking a position which in the meantime his wife had been filling on his behalf. He also took a conscious decision to become involved in politics and work for the "elimination of capitalist exploitation". At a time of political polarisation, left-wingers on the town council had objected to the appointment of a former army officer as a teacher in the local school, but the objections were withdrawn a few weeks later when Ernst Schneller joined the Social Democratic Party ("Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands" / SPD). He also joined the town council. An apolitical small-town school teacher who had been a nationalist before the war had now become radicalised. Widespread destitution, intensified by the burden on government finances of war reparations and, later, currency collapse, gave rise to continuing political instability across the country during the early 1920s. One symptom was the existence of various right-wing "Freikorps" militias, composed of unemployed former soldiers, many of whom hankered after a return to pre-war conditions. The Kapp Putsch in March 1920 was a revolt against continuing economic austerity and an attempt to topple the republican constitution put in place during 1919. It failed. In Schwarzenberg, putting his military experience at the service of the post-imperial status quo, Ernst Schneller organised a form of workers' militia which was effective in resisting right-wing backers of the putsch. He found himself working closely with members of the Communist Party and was, according to one source, "impressed by the consistency of their approach". By November 1920 Ernst Schneller had joined the recently launched Communist Party of Germany. Landtag member In November 1920 the party nominated him as a candidate for election to the regional parliament ("Sächsischer Landtag"), which was based in Leipzig. However, the communists polled only 5.7% of the total vote in the election in Saxony, and Schneller narrowly failed to gain a seat. However, on 23 March 1921 Gottfried Weimer, a Communist who had been elected to the parliament, retired and in April 1921 his seat passed to Schneller. In the parliament he spoke frequently on his specialist subject, calling for what amounted to a revolution on public education. Tireless campaigning on behalf of children and young people became