World War I
the Homefront 		Republic established, 1918-1919






Turmoil
the German Revolution, 1918-1919



During World War I, despite the WARTIME SOCIALISM (a Coupon Economy ensuring that scarce consumer goods were distributed equally at affordable prices), the workers suffered more hardships than the other strate of society. They suffered most during the hunger winters, as they neither could buy additional food on the (illegal) black market, they could create less additional food supply by growing potatos and vegetables in the garden, because most of them did not have any land, and most soldiers were workers.
In 1914 the Social Democratic Party (SPD), despite having followed an international, pacifistic line so far, had been infected by war enthusiasm and approved the war credits. By 1917 that enthusiasm was gone, many felt desperate.

Stamps issued by Bayern (= Bavaria), overprinted VOLKSSTAAT BAYERN (People's State Bavaria, revolutionary) respectively FREISTAAT BAYERN (Free State Bavaria, after the revolutionary government had been toppled), both issued in 1919.
When Germany was unified in 1871, two federal states - Bavaria and Wuerttemberg - were granted the right to continue with the emission of stamps. Bavaria continued doing so until 1920, Wuerttemberg until 1923.


When order was given for the fleet to take to the sea and fight a last battle in the final days of the war, the sailors mutinied, refusing to become cannon fodder for no purpose. The mutineers took control of the city of Wilhelmshaven, forming an ARBEITER- UND SOLDATENRAT (workers' and soldiers' council, a socialist gremium similar to the Russian Soviet), on October 28th. Soon, workers and soldiers in other cities formed similar workers' and soldiers' councils, which were dominated by SPARTAKIST agitators. The GERMAN REVOLUTION was under way. The leading Spartakist agitators were KARL LIEBKNECHT and ROSA LUXEMBURG. In Bavaria and Wuerttemberg, the Spartakists even took over state governments, transforming the respective kingdom in a VOLKSSTAAT (people's state).
Attempts to proclaim entire Germany a people's republic were forestalled by moderate social democrat PHILIPP SCHEIDEMANN, who, informed that Karl Liebknecht planned to proceed with that proclamation later that day, acting on his own initiative, proclaimed the republic on Nov. 9th 1918.
This proclamation and the formation of a democratic coalition government under chancellor FRIEDRICH EBERT, the leader of the social democratic party (to which the radical socialists who ran the workers' and soldiers' councils belonged) took the wind out of the sails of the German Revolution; it did not proceed.

Meanwhile, Ebert, in accordance with Chief of Staff Groener, was convinced that the revolution had to be suppressed; interior minister NOSKE, another social democrat, was placed in charge of that operation. At that time large units of the German Army were disbanded (the army was to be reduced to 100.000 men); many of them joined the FREE CORPS, essentially soldiers without uniform. In March 1919 they went from town to town, dissolcing the workers' and soldiers' councils, arresting their ringleaders, most of whom were executed without trial, among them Liebknecht and Luxemburg.

The republic prevailed. Yet, a large group of left socialists split from the SPD, forming the USPD (independent SPD), of which the KPD later split off. Remembering the bloody suppression of the German Revolution, both social democrats and communists kept party militias to defend their respective districts in town (workers usually lived together in the same area).





Note : the following links lead to EXTERNAL sites. The webmaster of WORLD HISTORY AT KMLA does neither take responsible for the contents of these sites nor sympathize with the political perspective they express.
Users are advised to be careful, as some of the documents may advocate marxism and revolution, others authoritarianism and the use of violence against "bolzhevists".
EXTERNAL
FILES 		Links to the German Revolution, from Looksmart
The German Revolution of 1918, by G. Rempel, Western New England College
Upheaval in Germany, the Peace Treaty and Imperialism, in Notes on the 20th Century by F.E. Smitha
Biography of Rosa Luxemburg, from Calendar of Authors
Biography of Gustav Noske, from Infoplease
DOCUMENTS Images from 2000 Jahre Chronik and from DHM
The German Revolution : Documents (Pamphlets), from Subversion Home Page (English transl.)
Images of Street Fighting in Berlin, from marxist.com
Karl Liebknecht Archive, from marxists.org
SPD posters, Weimar Republic, from Archiv der Sozialen Demokratie, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, comment in German
Photos, Weimar Republic, from Archiv der Sozialen Demokratie, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, comment in German
REFERENCE Frederic V. Grunfeld, The Hitler File. A Social History of Germany and the Nazis, 1918-1945, NY : Random House 1974 [G; actually a pictorial history]
VIDEOS Rosa Luxemburg, 1986, in German with English subtitles, focusses on the biography of R.L.
Berlin, Synfonie einer Stadt, 1927, German with English subtitles; filmed as a "melody of images', the director sympathized with the spartakists.


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on November 12th 2004

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