Scheidemann did not want to leave the initiative to the Spartacists and without further ado, he stepped out onto a balcony of the Reichstag. From there, he proclaimed a republic before a mass of demonstrating people on his own authority against Ebert's expressed will. A few hours later, the Berlin newspapers reported that in the Berlin Lustgarten — at probably around the same time — Liebknecht had proclaimed a socialist republic, which he affirmed from a balcony of the Berlin City Palace to an assembled crowd at around 4 pm.
At that time, Karl Liebknecht's intentions were little known to the public. The Spartacist League's demands of 7 October for a far-reaching restructuring of the economy, the army and the judiciary — among other things by abolishing the death penalty — had not yet been publicised. The biggest bone of contention with the SPD was to be the Spartacists' demand for the establishment of "unalterable political facts" on the ground by social and other measures before the election of a constituent assembly, while the SPD wanted to leave the decision on the future economic system to the assembly.
Ebert was faced with a dilemma. The first proclamation he had issued on 9 November was addressed "to the citizens of Germany". Ebert wanted to take the sting out of the revolutionary mood and to meet the demands of the demonstrators for the unity of the labour parties. He offered the USPD participation in the government and was ready to accept Liebknecht as a minister. Liebknecht in turn demanded the control of the workers' councils over the army.
The USPD deputies were unable to reach a decision that day. Neither the early announcement of the emperor's abdication, Ebert's assumption of the chancellorship, nor Scheidemann's proclamation of the republic were covered by the constitution. These were all revolutionary actions by protagonists who did not want a revolution, but nevertheless took action. However, a real revolutionary action took place the same evening that would later prove to have been in vain. Around 8 pm, a group of Revolutionary Stewards from the larger Berlin factories occupied the Reichstag.
Most of the participating stewards had already been leaders during the strikes earlier in the year. They did not trust the SPD leadership and had planned a coup for 11 November independently of the sailors' revolt, but were surprised by the revolutionary events since Kiel. In order to snatch the initiative from Ebert, they now decided to announce elections for the following day.
On that Sunday, every Berlin factory and every regiment was to elect workers' and soldiers' councils that were then in turn to elect a revolutionary government from members of the two labour parties SPD and USPD. This Council of the People's Deputies Rat der Volksbeauftragten was to execute the resolutions of the revolutionary parliament as the revolutionaries intended to replace Ebert's function as chancellor and president.
The same evening, the SPD leadership heard of these plans. As the elections and the councils' meeting could not be prevented, Ebert sent speakers to all Berlin regiments and into the factories in the same night and early the following morning. They were to influence the elections in his favour and announce the intended participation of the USPD in the government. This committee was to co-ordinate the activities of the Workers' and Soldiers' Councils. For this election, the Stewards had already prepared a list of names on which the SPD was not represented.
In this manner, they hoped to install a monitoring body acceptable to them watching the government. They repeated the demand for the "Unity of the Working Class" that had been put forward by the revolutionaries the previous day and now used this motto in order to push through Ebert's line. As planned, three members of each socialist party were elected into the "Council of People's Representatives": The proposal by the shop stewards to elect an action committee additionally took the SPD leadership by surprise and started heated debates.
Assuring Ebert of the support of the army, the general was given Ebert's promise to reinstate the military hierarchy and, with the help of the army, to take action against the councils. In the turmoil of this day, the Ebert government's acceptance of the harsh terms of the Entente for a truce, after a renewed demand by the Supreme Command, went almost unnoticed. Although Ebert had saved the decisive role of the SPD, he was not happy with the results. He did not regard the Council Parliament and the Executive Council as helpful, but only as obstacles impeding a smooth transition from empire to a new system of government.
The whole SPD leadership mistrusted the councils rather than the old elites in army and administration, and they considerably overestimated the old elite's loyalty to the new republic. What troubled Ebert most was that he could not now act as chancellor in front of the councils, but only as chairman of a revolutionary government. Though he had taken the lead of the revolution only to halt it, conservatives saw him as a traitor. But in practice, the council's initiative was blocked by internal power struggles.
In the eight weeks of double rule of councils and imperial government, the latter always was dominant. Although Haase was formally a chairman in the Council with equal rights, the whole higher level administration reported only to Ebert. As Ebert's behaviour became increasingly puzzling to the revolutionary workers, the soldiers and their stewards, the SPD leadership lost more and more of their supporters' confidence, without gaining any sympathies from the opponents of the revolution on the right. The revolutionaries disagreed among themselves about the future economic and political system.
The left wings of both parties and the Revolutionary Stewards wanted to go beyond that and establish a "direct democracy" in the production sector, with elected delegates controlling the political power. It was not only in the interest of the SPD to prevent a Council Democracy; even the unions would have been rendered superfluous by the councils. To prevent this development, the union leaders under Carl Legien and the representatives of big industry under Hugo Stinnes and Carl Friedrich von Siemens met in Berlin from 9 to 12 November.
On 15 November, they signed an agreement with advantages for both sides: For their part, the employers guaranteed to introduce the eight-hour day , which the workers had demanded in vain for years. The employers agreed to the union claim of sole representation and to the lasting recognition of the unions instead of the councils. An "Arbitration Committee" Schlichtungsausschuss was to mediate future conflicts between employers and unions.
From now on, committees together with the management were to monitor the wage settlements in every factory with more than 50 employees. With this arrangement, the unions had achieved one of their longtime demands, but undermined all efforts for nationalising means of production and largely eliminated the councils.
The Reichstag had not been summoned since 9 November. The Council of the People's Deputies and the Executive Council had replaced the old government, but the previous administrative machinery remained unchanged. On 12 November, the Council of People's Representatives published its democratic and social government programme. It lifted the state of siege and censorship, abolished the "Gesindeordnung" "servant rules" that governed relations between servant and master and introduced universal suffrage from 20 years up, for the first time for women.
There was an amnesty for all political prisoners. Regulations for the freedom of association, assembly and press were enacted. The eight-hour day became statutory on the basis of the Stinnes—Legien Agreement, and benefits for unemployment, social insurance, and workers' compensation were expanded. This committee was to examine which industries were "fit" for nationalisation and to prepare the nationalisation of the coal and steel industry.
It sat until 7 April , without any tangible result.
Spartacist uprising - Wikipedia
From these bodies emerged the modern German Works or Factory Committees. Socialist expropriations were not initiated. The SPD leadership worked with the old administration rather than with the new Workers' and Soldiers' Councils, because it considered them incapable of properly supplying the needs of the population. As of mid-November, this caused continuing strife with the Executive Council.
As the Council continuously changed its position following whoever it just happened to represent, Ebert withdrew more and more responsibilities planning to end the "meddling and interfering" of the Councils in Germany for good. In Hamburg and Bremen, "Red Guards" were formed that were to protect the revolution. The councils deposed the management of the Leuna works , a giant chemical factory near Merseburg. The new councils were often appointed spontaneously and arbitrarily and had no management experience whatsoever.
But a majority of councils came to arrangements with the old administrations and saw to it that law and order were quickly restored. For example, Max Weber was part of the workers' council of Heidelberg , and was pleasantly surprised that most members were moderate German liberals. The councils took over the distribution of food, the police force, and the accommodation and provisions of the front-line soldiers that were gradually returning home.
Former imperial administrators and the councils depended on each other: In most cases, SPD members had been elected into the councils who regarded their job as an interim solution. For them, as well as for the majority of the German population in —19, the introduction of a Council Republic was never an issue, but they were not even given a chance to think about it. Many wanted to support the new government and expected it to abolish militarism and the authoritarian state.
German Revolution of 1918–19
Being weary of the war and hoping for a peaceful solution, they partially overestimated the revolutionary achievements. On 15 December, Ebert and General Groener had troops ordered to Berlin to prevent this convention and to regain control of the capital.
On 16 December, one of the regiments intended for this plan advanced too early. In an attempt to arrest the Executive Council, the soldiers opened fire on a demonstration of unarmed "Red Guards", representatives of Soldiers' Councils affiliated with the Spartacists; 16 people were killed. With this, the potential for violence and the danger of a coup from the right became visible. In response to the incident, Rosa Luxemburg demanded the peaceful disarmament of the homecoming military units by the Berlin workforce in the daily newspaper of the Spartacist League Red Flag Rote Fahne of 12 December.
She wanted the Soldiers' Councils to be subordinated to the Revolutionary Parliament and the soldiers to become "re-educated". On 10 December, Ebert welcomed ten divisions returning from the front hoping to use them against the councils. As it turned out, these troops also were not willing to go on fighting. The war was over, Christmas was at the door and most of the soldiers just wanted to go home to their families. Shortly after their arrival in Berlin, they dispersed. The blow against the Convention of Councils did not take place. This blow would have been unnecessary anyway, because the convention that took up its work 16 December in the Prussian House of Representatives consisted mainly of SPD followers.
Not even Karl Liebknecht had managed to get a seat. The Spartacist League was not granted any influence. On 19 December, the councils voted to 98 against the creation of a council system as a basis for a new constitution. Instead, they supported the government's decision to call for elections for a constituent national assembly as soon as possible. This assembly was to decide upon the state system.
The convention disagreed with Ebert only on the issue of control of the army. The convention was demanding a say for the Central Council that it would elect, in the supreme command of the army, the free election of officers and the disciplinary powers for the Soldiers' Councils. That would have been contrary to the agreement between Ebert and General Groener. They both spared no effort to undo this decision. The Supreme Command which in the meantime had moved from Spa to Kassel , began to raise loyal volunteer corps the Freikorps against the supposed Bolshevik menace. Unlike the revolutionary soldiers of November, these troops were monarchist-minded officers and men who feared the return into civil life.
The division was considered absolutely loyal and had indeed refused to participate in the coup attempt of 6 December.
Spartacist uprising
The sailors even deposed their commander because they saw him as involved in the affair. It was this loyalty that now gave them the reputation of being in favor of the Spartacists. Ebert demanded their disbanding and Otto Wels, as of 9 November the Commander of Berlin and in line with Ebert, refused the sailors' pay.
The dispute escalated on 23 December. After having been put off for days, the sailors occupied the Imperial Chancellery itself, cut the phone lines, put the Council of People's Representatives under house arrest and captured Otto Wels. The sailors did not exploit the situation to eliminate the Ebert government, as would have been expected from Spartacist revolutionaries.
Instead, they just insisted on their pay. Nevertheless, Ebert, who was in touch with the Supreme Command in Kassel via a secret phone line, gave orders to attack the Residence with troops loyal to the government on the morning of 24 December. The sailors repelled the attack under their commander Heinrich Dorrenbach, losing about 30 men and civilians in the fight.
The government troops had to withdraw from the center of Berlin. They themselves were now disbanded and integrated into the newly formed Freikorps. To make up for their humiliating withdrawal, they temporarily occupied the editor's offices of the Red Flag. But military power in Berlin once more was in the hands of the People's Navy Division. Again, the sailors did not take advantage of the situation. On one side, this restraint demonstrates that the sailors were not Spartacists, on the other that the revolution had no guidance. Even if Liebknecht had been a revolutionary leader like Lenin, to which legend later made him, the sailors as well as the councils would not have accepted him as such.
They could not have done Ebert a bigger favor, since he had let them participate only under the pressure of revolutionary events. Within a few days, the military defeat of the Ebert government had turned into a political victory. Rosa Luxemburg drew up her founding programme and presented it on 31 December In this programme, she pointed out that the communists could never take power without the clear will of the people in the majority.
On 1 January, she demanded that the KPD participate in the planned nationwide German elections, but was outvoted. The majority still hoped to gain power by continued agitation in the factories and from "pressure from the streets". This was a first defeat. The decisive defeat of the left occurred in the first days of the new year in The wave was started on 4 January, when the government dismissed the chief constable of Berlin, Emil Eichhorn. To the surprise [ according to whom?
On Sunday, 5 January, as on 9 November , hundreds of thousands of people poured into the centre of Berlin, many of them armed. Some of the middle-class papers in the previous days had called not only for the raising of more Freikorps, but also for the murder of the Spartacists. The demonstrators were mainly the same ones who participated in the disturbances two months previously. They now demanded the fulfillment of the hopes expressed in November.
The Spartacists by no means had a leading position. The demands came straight from the workforce supported by various groups left of the SPD. KPD members were even a minority among the insurgents. The initiators assembled at the Police Headquarters elected a member "Interim Revolutionary Committee" Provisorischer Revolutionsausschuss that failed to make use of its power and was unable to give any clear direction. Liebknecht demanded the overthrow of the government and agreed with the majority of the committee that propagated the armed struggle.
Rosa Luxemburg as well as the majority of KPD leaders thought a revolt at this moment to be a catastrophe and spoke out against it. On the following day, 6 January, the Revolutionary Committee again called for a mass demonstration. This time, even more people heeded the call. Again they carried placards and banners that proclaimed, "Brothers, don't shoot! A part of the Revolutionary Stewards armed themselves and called for the overthrow of the Ebert government. But the KPD activists mostly failed in their endeavour to win over the troops. It turned out that even units such as the People's Navy Division were not willing to support the armed revolt and declared themselves neutral.
The other regiments stationed in Berlin mostly remained loyal to the government. After the advance of the troops into the city became known, an SPD leaflet appeared saying, "The hour of reckoning is nigh". With this, the Committee broke off further negotiations on 8 January. That was opportunity enough for Ebert to use the troops stationed in Berlin against the occupiers. Beginning 9 January, they violently quelled an improvised revolt. In addition to that, on 12 January, the anti-republican Freikorps, which had been raised more or less as death squads since the beginning of December, moved into Berlin.
Gustav Noske , who had been People's Representative for Army and Navy for a few days, accepted the premium command of these troops by saying, "If you like, someone has to be the bloodhound. I won't shy away from the responsibility. The Freikorps brutally cleared several buildings and executed the occupiers on the spot. Others soon surrendered, but some of them were still shot. The January revolt claimed lives in Berlin. The alleged ringleaders of the January Revolt had to go into hiding.
In spite of the urgings of their allies, they refused to leave Berlin. On the evening of 15 January , Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were discovered in an apartment of the Wilmersdorf district of Berlin. Their commander, Captain Waldemar Pabst , had them questioned.
- Search stock photos by tags?
- Januaraufstand 1919 in Berlin (German, Paperback);
- Category:Spartakusaufstand.
- Work in Progress.
That same night both prisoners were beaten unconscious with rifle butts and shot in the head. Rosa Luxemburg's body was thrown into the Landwehr Canal that ran through Berlin, where it was found only on 1 July. Karl Liebknecht's body, without a name, was delivered to a morgue. The perpetrators for the most part went unpunished. The Nazi Party later compensated the few that had been tried or even jailed, and they merged the Gardekavallerie into the SA Sturmabteilung.
In an interview given to " Der Spiegel " in and in his memoirs, Pabst maintained that he had talked on the phone with Noske in the Chancellery, [19] and that Noske and Ebert had approved of his actions. Pabst's statement was never confirmed, especially since neither the Reichstag nor the courts ever examined the case.
- Fritzipold - Ich hab dich im Herzen (German Edition).
- Complex Systems and Society: Modeling and Simulation (SpringerBriefs in Mathematics).
- Comment ne plus être progressiste ... : ... sans devenir réactionnaire (Documents) (French Edition).
- Category:Spartakusaufstand - Wikimedia Commons!
In the following years, both parties were unable to agree on joint action against the Nazi Party, which dramatically grew in strength as of In the first months of , there were further armed revolts all over Germany. In some states, Councils Republics were proclaimed, most prominently in Bavaria the Munich Soviet Republic , even if only temporarily.
These revolts were triggered by Noske's decision at the end of February to take armed action against the Bremen Soviet Republic. In spite of an offer to negotiate, he ordered his Freikorps units to invade the city. Approximately people were killed in the ensuing fights. This caused an eruption of mass strikes in the Ruhr District, the Rhineland and in Saxony. Against the will of the strike leadership, the strikes escalated into street fighting in Berlin.
The Prussian state government, which in the meantime had declared a state of siege, called the imperial government for help. By the end of the fighting on 16 March, they had killed approximately 1, people, many of them unarmed and uninvolved.
Navigation menu
Among others, 29 members of the Peoples Navy Division, who had surrendered, were summarily executed, since Noske had ordered that anybody found armed should be shot on the spot. The situation in Hamburg and Thuringia also was very much like a civil war. The council government to hold out the longest was the Munich Soviet Republic. According to the predominant opinion of modern historians, [20] the establishment of a Bolshevik-style council government in Germany on 9—10 November was impossible. Yet the Ebert government felt threatened by a coup from the left, and was certainly undermined by the Spartakus movement; thus it co-operated with the Supreme Command and the Freikorps.
The brutal actions of the Freikorps during the various revolts estranged many left democrats from the SPD. They regarded the behavior of Ebert, Noske and the other SPD leaders during the revolution as an outright betrayal of their own followers. The USPD received only 7. Since the most important volumes have to do with the s and s, Schwarz judges the cold warriors as excellent. Schwarz adds that there has been a whole series of scandals about the Yale series.
To begin with, Robert Conquest absolutely refused to serve on the Yale committee, because it includes the chief of the revisionists, J. Conquest and Schwarz hate Getty to a point of violence. This idea of workers v. Bolsheviks hit the American academics pretty hard, though it is a bit old hat for European Trotskyists, who read about Kronstadt when these American academics were still having their nappies changed.
After all, we now have a volume accusing Bolloten of being a CIA agent because of his association with Gorkin. Conquest asked Schwarz to write something about the Menshevik scandal at Yale, but he refused. He knew it was a mess. He did not need to go and look at it, or write about it. I must say, kind souls, that as the process of revelation of the Moscow archives proceeds I am constantly shocked by things I never thought should shock me, after all I have been through.
But this excerpt from Dimitrov floors me, especially the description of his explanation of the so-called backwardness of the Social Democratic masses in Europe: That is particularly the situation in Europe. The European countries rely on their colonies. Without them they could not exist. The workers know it and fear to lose their colonies. And in every respect they are ready to march with their own bourgeoisie.
Internally, they do not agree with our anti-imperialist policy … And masses of men in millions also have a herd instinct. They only operate with their elected leaders. When they lose confidence in their leaders, they feel powerless and lost. They fear to lose their leaders, and that is why the Social Democratic workers follow their leaders, even if they are unhappy with them.
They will not abandon their leaders until they find others who are good. So the Western European workers were more tied to their bourgeoisie than, say, the Bulgarian, Greek or Romanian workers? How extraordinary, considering that the workers of Western Europe produced vast anti-militarist movements such as never existed in Bulgaria, Romania or Greece though they did in Serbia and Croatia. Were the Spanish workers prepared to march for their own bourgeoisie and to pursue colonial adventures? The Tragic Week of resulted because of an attempt to send troops from Catalonia to Morocco.
Not in the s and early s. Was the French working class ready to march to defend the colonies? Not between and the present. Liebknecht demanded the overthrow of the government. Rosa Luxemburg, as well as the majority of KPD leaders, considered a revolt at this moment to be a catastrophe and explicitly spoke out against it. Within the strike, some of the participants organized a plan to oust the more moderate social democrat government and launch a communist revolution. Insurgents seized key buildings, which led to a standoff with the government. During the following two days, however, the strike leadership known as the ad-hoc "Revolution Committee" failed to resolve the classic dichotomy between militarized revolutionaries committed to a genuinely new society and reformists advocating deliberations with the government.
Meanwhile, the strikers in the occupied quarter obtained weapons. At the same time, some KPD leaders tried to persuade military regiments in Berlin, especially the People's Navy Division, the Volksmarinedivision , to join their side, however they mostly failed in this endeavour.
The navy unit was not willing to support the armed revolt and declared themselves neutral, and the other regiments stationed in Berlin mostly remained loyal to the government. Ebert had ordered his defense minister, Gustav Noske , to do so on 6 January. When the talks broke off, the Spartacist League then called on its members to engage in armed combat.
On the same day, Ebert ordered the Freikorps to attack the spartacists. These former soldiers still had weapons and military equipment from World War I , which gave them a formidable advantage. They quickly re-conquered the blocked streets and buildings and many of the insurgents surrendered. Their commander, Captain Waldemar Pabst , had them questioned. That same night, both prisoners were beaten unconscious with rifle butts and shot in the head. Rosa Luxemburg's body was thrown into the Landwehr Canal , where it was found on 1 June.