In 1938, a national socialist German organization was formed, the under the leadership of Franz Anton Basch and it became the most influential political organization among the Hungarian Germans. In 1940, it became the official representative of the Hungarian Germans and it was directly controlled from Germany. The Volksbund had representatives in the Hungarian parliament until 1945. Through both limited volunteer enlistment and widespread conscription, as well as wholesale transfer of entities of the domestic armed services, many ethnic Germans ended up serving in military units raised or controlled by the Third Reich and fighting on behalf of the German war effort in World War II. This included several units of the "Waffen SS" and spanned combat in the region of Hungary and its possessions and beyond.