Germany 1918-23

(Click on any year to learn more on the events.)

1923

On October 2 1918 Kaiser Wilhelm allowed the main political parties in the Reichstag to create a new government. This new government progressively took power away from the Kaiser and gave it to the Reichstag.

However, even this change did not satisfy many people, and public opinion turned to the Kaiser, blaming him for their worsening living conditions and said that he should abdicate.

On the 28^th of October 1918 a revolution broke out when Germany’s naval chiefs made an unpopular decision. They ordered warships in the port of Kiel to put to sea in an aim to fight the British navy for control of the sea between Europe and Britain.

Sailors on the ships were stupefied by these orders as they knew peace talks had begun and the war would soon be over. They knew it would be suicide to fight the mighty British disobeyed the order.

After the arrest of a thousand sailors for mutiny soldiers and sailors in Kiel held huge meetings to protest against the arrest. They were afraid that their comrades would be shot for mutiny.

Workers then joined their protests and led by socialists they set up a workers and soldiers council, known as a ‘soviet’ to run the town. Even the troops that came to stop the rebellion joined the rebels.

This mutiny quickly led to a revolution which spread from Kiel and over the next few weeks soldiers and sailors replicated the Kiel example in their own towns.

Police and army all over the nation gave up and surrendered.

Finally, on November 8^th the Army High Command told the Kaiser that the army would no longer support him. Without this support he had no method of halting the revolution and he had no choice but to abdicate.

Friedrich Ebert, leader of the Social Democratic Party took control of the government.

With the Kaiser gone, socialists who had helped to start the revolution disagreed over the question of how the German government should be run.

The new Social government under Friedrich Ebert ordered improvements in people’s living conditions. He also ended censorship and allowed free speech.

He ordered a maximum of eight-hour working day, help for the unemployed and increased national food supplies.

All this won him the support of many workers who might have support the Spartacus League.

The Spartacists opposed everything that Ebert did. For them he did not go far enough.

In November 1918, Socialist politicians ratified the treaty of Versailles.

On the 31^st of December they renamed themselves the German Communist Party and made plans to seize power.

The middle and upper class of Germany were afraid that this new party would replicate what the Bolsheviks had done in Russia to their similar classes.

On the 5^th of January 1919 the Sparticists attempted to seize power through various intimidation techniques such as organizing strikes and occupying public buildings.

But the Spartacists were doomed to failure because the day before they began their rising, Ebert had created a volunteer force of 4000 soldiers. Known as Free Corps, they hated communists and were very violent, disciplined and fully equipped.

On January 10^th the Free Corps attacked. They captured a building held by Sparticists, shot several of them and beat up the rest.

On the following day, the Free Corps captured all other occupied buildings in central Berlin.

On January 13^th the Free corps caught the Spartacist leaders, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht and murdered them.

Thus the first rising failed.

The Kapp Putcsh:

In March 1920, 5,000 Free Corps marched into Berlin. When the government heard this, they fled from the city. Doctor Kapp, an extreme German nationalist set himself up as head of the new government. His aims were to recover the land taken from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, and to re-build Germany’s military strength.

However, Kapp was to be defeated by the people of Berlin.

Workers in the city organized a general strike. Without running water, electricity, gas, buses and trains, Berlin life ground to a halt.

Civil servants refused to give Doctor Kapp money. With all this happening, Kapp had to abandon his plans.

On the 18^th of March, he and his supporters fled to Sweden and the government returned to Berlin.

Communist uprising in the Ruhr:

Immediately after Kapp had fled workers in several parts of Germany attempted a Communist Revolution. In the industrial area of the Ruhr the workers formed a “Red Army” and took control of many towns. To restore order, the government sent Free Corps as well as regular army units into areas of the insurrection. Brutal fighting ensued, leaving approximately 1,000 workers dead.