This soon brought the MSPD into opposition with many of the revolutionaries. It sat until 7 April 1919, without any tangible result. From 1920 to 1923, nationalist forces continued fighting against the Weimar Republic and left-wing political opponents. Der Erste Weltkrieg (1914 - 1918) forderte fast zehn Millionen Todesopfer und etwa 20 Millionen Verwundete. As a convinced royalist, Hertling objected to handing over the reins to the Reichstag, thus Emperor Wilhelm II appointed Prince Maximilian of Baden as the new Imperial Chancellor on 3 October. Wikipedia Citation Nevertheless, Russian society was severely strained by the opposing motivations of patriotism and anti-war sentiment. The wave was started on 4 January, when the government dismissed the chief constable of Berlin, Emil Eichhorn. The Council of the People's Deputies and the Executive Council had replaced the old government, but the previous administrative machinery remained unchanged. Spätestens nach dem Sommer war den allermeisten klar, dass der Weltkrieg für das Deutsche Reich nicht mehr zu gewinnen war. On the other hand, Article 48 granted the president the authority to rule against the majority in the Reichstag, with the help of the army if need be. Beginning 9 January, they violently quelled an improvised revolt. As far as the Social Democrats were concerned, the so-called October Constitution met all the important constitutional objectives of the party. The same can be said for Karl Dietrich Erdmann's contribution to the 8th edition of the Gebhardt Handbook for German History (Gebhardtsches Handbuch zur Deutschen Geschichte), whose viewpoint dominated the interpretation of events related to the German Revolution after 1945. The prince was considered a liberal, but at the same time a representative of the royal family. In Hamburg and Bremen, "Red Guards" were formed that were to protect the revolution. As a precondition for negotiations, he demanded the retreat of Germany from all occupied territories, the cessation of submarine activities and (implicitly) the emperor's abdication. November zweimal die Republik ausgerufen. On the following day, 6 January, the Revolutionary Committee again called for a mass demonstration. The so-called "Spartacist Uprising" that followed originated only partially in the KPD. Der Erste Weltkrieg 1.1 Zusammenfassung des Krieges 1.2. Ralf Hoffrogge, Working-Class Politics in the German Revolution. The Nazi Party later compensated the few that had been tried or even jailed, and they merged the Gardekavallerie into the SA (Sturmabteilung). A large part of the bourgeoisie and the old elites from big industry, landowners, military, judiciary and administration never accepted the democratic republic and hoped to get rid of it at the first opportunity. Their commander, Captain Waldemar Pabst, had them questioned. Die Weimarer Republik 3.1. From now on, committees together with the management were to monitor the wage settlements in every factory with more than 50 employees. The USPD deputies were unable to reach a decision that day. In the restructuring of the state, Ebert wanted to win over the middle-class parties that had already cooperated with the SPD in the Reichstag in 1917, as well as the old elites of the German Empire. As he said to his staff officers on 1 October: "They now must lie on the bed that they have made us."[9]. Der Verbündete Bulgarien war schon ausgeschieden, die verbleibenden Partner Österreich-Ungarn und d… The councils deposed the management of the Leuna works, a giant chemical factory near Merseburg. Liebknecht demanded the overthrow of the government and agreed with the majority of the committee that propagated the armed struggle. How to be charismatic – backed by science; Sept. 22, 2020. For the time being, the Imperial government stayed on course and replaced Ludendorff as First General Quartermaster with General Groener. Link zu Zusammenfassung der Ergebnisse der Novemberrevolution. Some days later he took over the governor's post, and Lothar Popp of the USPD became chairman of the overall soldiers' council. Die Kämpfe über zukünftige Form und Aussehen des Deutschen Staates zogen sich noch bis weit in das Jahr 1919 hinein. Led by their spokesmen Richard Müller and Emil Barth, they formed a revolutionary parliament. -> Demokratie mit Parlament Contra: kein kompletter Bruch -> Bereits durch Oktoberreformen zu parlamentarischer Monarchie Durch Weimarer Verfassung dann zu 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. With this, the Committee broke off further negotiations on 8 January. In comparison, Wolfgang J. Mommsen did not regard the councils as a homogeneous focused movement for democracy but as a heterogeneous group with a multitude of different motivations and goals. November 1, 1918 (Friday) Liberation of Serbia, Albania and Montenegro – The Serbian First Army under command of Petar Bojović liberated Belgrade from the control of the Central Powers. The 1918 Flu Pandemic. Party membership was around one million, and the party newspaper (Vorwärts) attracted 1.5 million subscribers. Novemberrevolution 1918/19 in Berlin, Verlauf, Geschichte, Personen, Schauplätze, Literatur, Dokumente, Links In this manner, they hoped to install a monitoring body acceptable to them watching the government. The dispute escalated on 23 December. Read Article. (...) Trams and subways ran as usual which is a pledge that basic needs are cared for. The SPD also objected to the domestic misery that followed the dismissal of Erich von Falkenhayn as Chief of the General Staff in 1916. ("I no longer see parties, I see only Germans!").[4]. The perpetrators for the most part went unpunished. Again they carried placards and banners that proclaimed, "Brothers, don't shoot!" That would have been contrary to the agreement between Ebert and General Groener. Philipp Scheidemann was elected as Prime Minister (Ministerpräsident) of the newly formed coalition on 13 February. The government troops had to withdraw from the center of Berlin. (Wenn der Kaiser nicht abdankt, dann ist die soziale Revolution unvermeidlich. Ernst Troeltsch, a Protestant theologian and philosopher, rather calmly remarked how the majority of Berlin citizens perceived 10 November: On Sunday morning after a frightful night the morning newspapers gave a clear picture: the Kaiser in Holland, the revolution victorious in most urban centres, the royals in the states abdicating. Daher wurde am 9. This committee was to examine which industries were "fit" for nationalisation and to prepare the nationalisation of the coal and steel industry. Nobody heeded the public appeals. Die Vorgeschichte, die Ursache, der Verlauf und die Folgen dieser Novemberrevolution werden in diesem Referat dezidiert beleuchtet. Kleist, "Die Marquise von O....", Materialien. November eigenmächtig die Abdankung von Kaiser Wilhelm II. Otto Braun clarified the position of his party in a leading article in Vorwärts under the title "The Bolsheviks and Us": Socialism cannot be erected on bayonets and machine guns. bei Dirk, Dähnhardt. Although he was not permitted to speak in the Reichstag to explain his vote, what he had planned to say was made public through the circulation of a leaflet that was claimed to be unlawful: The present war was not willed by any of the nations participating in it and it is not waged in the interest of the Germans or any other people. They had established contact with the USPD Local (Dittmann), which then disavowed them during the repression of their summer 1917 revolt. Okt. Approximately 400 people were killed in the ensuing fights. Ludendorff said that he could not guarantee to hold the front for another 24 hours and demanded a request to the Entente powers for an immediate ceasefire. Es entstand allerdings ein Machtkampf zwischen einem gemäßigten und radikalen Lager. On 15 December, Ebert and General Groener had troops ordered to Berlin to prevent this convention and to regain control of the capital. The Prussian state government, which in the meantime had declared a state of siege, called the imperial government for help. In 1928 he wrote in "November Coup": The German Revolution of 1918 took place in a hall. But this plan was overtaken by the rapidly deteriorating situation in Berlin. On the one hand, the Weimar Constitution offered more possibilities for a direct democracy than the present Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, for example by setting up a mechanism for referenda. Around 8 pm, a group of 100 Revolutionary Stewards from the larger Berlin factories occupied the Reichstag. Menke-Gluckert, E. Die Novemberrevolution 1918 : ihre Entstehung und ihre Entwicklung bis zur Nationalversammlung Klinkhardt Leipzig 1919. During the following weeks, Noske succeeded in reducing the influence of the councils in Kiel, but he could not prevent the spread of the revolution throughout Germany. But I do not want it, indeed I hate it like sin." Perhaps, that is true. Ich aber will sie nicht, ja, ich hasse sie wie die Sünde. However, the attempt by the (majority) Social Democratic Party (SPD) and trade unions to keep the Eisner supporters in check through the preponderance of their own followers fa… After the third note of 24 October, General Ludendorff changed his mind and declared the conditions of the Allies to be unacceptable. 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. Right-wing extremists were opposed to any democratic system, preferring instead an authoritarian state similar to the Empire founded in 1871. Against the will of the strike leadership, the strikes escalated into street fighting in Berlin. Sailors in a large barracks compound in a northern district mutinied: after a divisional inspection by the commander, spontaneous demonstrations took place. Delegations sent to their officers requesting the mutineers' release were not heard. In spite of the urgings of their allies, they refused to leave Berlin. Sept. 24, 2020. In 1951, Theodor Eschenburg mostly ignored the revolutionary beginning of the republic. Erich Eyck shows how little the revolution after 1945 was regarded as part of German history. It was only on 2 May that Prussian and Freikorps units from Württemberg toppled it by using the same violent methods as in Berlin and Bremen. After the victory in the east, the Supreme Army Command on 21 March 1918 launched its so-called Spring Offensive in the west to turn the war decisively in Germany's favour, but by July 1918, their last reserves were used up, and Germany's military defeat became certain. The sailors and stokers were now pulling out all the stops to prevent the fleet setting sail again and to achieve the release of their comrades. Kleist, "Die Marquise von O....", Materialien. Nach der Wahl zur Nationalversammlung begann die Zeit der Weimarer Republik. With Russia knocked out of the war, the German Supreme Command could now move part of the eastern armies to the Western Front. The January revolt claimed 156 lives in Berlin. This allowed the army and the Freikorps (nationalist militias) to act with enough autonomy to quell the communist Spartacist uprising of 4–15 January 1919 by force. They both spared no effort to undo this decision. 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. The imprisoned sailors and stokers were freed, and soldiers and workers brought public and military institutions under their control. Ralf Hoffrogge, Working-Class Politics in the German Revolution. Als Übergangslösung bildeten die MSPD und USPD einen Rat der Volksbeauftragten. Kaiser Wilhelm II. Sub-Lieutenant Steinhäuser, in order to stop the demonstrators, ordered his patrol to fire warning shots and then to shoot directly into the demonstration; 7 people were killed and 29 severely injured. 30. Novemberrevolutionen eller Den tyske revolution var den revolution, der i slutningen af 1. verdenskrig førte til det tyske kejserriges undergang og kejserens abdikation. Die Oktoberverfassung 1918 The party leadership and the party's deputies were split on the issue of support for the war: 96 deputies, including Friedrich Ebert, approved the war bonds demanded by the Imperial government. 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. Though he had taken the lead of the revolution only to halt it, conservatives saw him as a traitor. In the afternoon, the train stations and the newspaper district with the offices of the middle-class press and Vorwärts were occupied. In the eight weeks of double rule of councils and imperial government, the latter always was dominant. The Executive Council decided to summon an "Imperial Council Convention" in December to Berlin. Denn, dass im Verlauf und Scheitern der Novemberrevolution das Motiv des Verrats in vielerlei Hinsicht eine bedeutende Rolle spielte, ist Haffners wichtige These, die die irreführende Erzählung der Dolchstoßlegende nicht nur entschieden verneint sondern ihr die eigentlichen und wirklichen Momente des Verrats der Periode entgegenstellt. On 29 September, the Supreme Army Command, at army headquarters in Spa, Belgium, informed Emperor Wilhelm II and the Imperial Chancellor Count Georg von Hertling that the military situation was hopeless. However, the secret Ebert-Groener pact did not win over the Imperial Officer Corps for the republic. The mutinous sailors had no intention of risking their lives so close to the end of the war. In turn, these activities did not escape the attention of Richard Müller and the revolutionary shop stewards. The German troops had come to expect the war to end and were anxious to return home. In his autobiography, Ludendorff's successor Groener states, "It suited me just fine, when the army and the Supreme Command remained as guiltless as possible in these wretched truce negotiations, from which nothing good could be expected".[10]. In order to create an executive committed to the revolution and to the future of the new government, the councils for the moment claimed only to take over the supervision of the administration from the military commands. The strike was organized by a group called the Revolutionary Stewards (Revolutionäre Obleute), led by their spokesman Richard Müller. In 1945 there really was a breakdown.Certainly a mutiny of sailors started the revolution in 1918 but it was only a start. The Workers' and Soldiers' Councils were almost entirely made up of MSPD and USPD members. On 11 November, the Centre Party deputy Matthias Erzberger, on behalf of Berlin, signed the armistice agreement in Compiègne, France, and World War I came to an end. They regarded the behavior of Ebert, Noske and the other SPD leaders during the revolution as an outright betrayal of their own followers. They had mutinied during the summer of 1917 and were crushed: some were imprisoned, others executed. Hindenburg and Ludendorff persisted with ruthless strategies aimed at achieving military victory, pursued expansionist and aggressive war goals and subjugated civilian life to the needs of the war and the war economy. No man dead for Kaiser and Empire! The events had already spread far beyond Kiel. The alleged ringleaders of the January Revolt had to go into hiding. The first proclamation he had issued on 9 November was addressed "to the citizens of Germany". On the eve of the November Revolution of 1918, Germany was one of the most developed capitalist countries. The same evening, the SPD leadership heard of these plans. Dabei haben die Akteure durchaus unterschiedliche Ziele im Sinn. )[14] The chancellor planned to travel to Spa and convince the emperor personally of the necessity to abdicate. Liebknecht in turn demanded the control of the workers' councils over the army. Thus, the MSPD was able to establish a firm base on the local level. Download: Die Novemberrevolution 1918: Verlauf und These • Download Link zum vollständigen und leserlichen Text • Dies ist eine Tauschbörse für Dokumente • Laden sie ein Dokument hinauf, und sie erhalten dieses kostenlos • Alternativ können Sie das Dokument auch kаufen Kieler Matrosen widersetzten sich diesem Befehl. Some 250 met in the evening of 1 November in the Union House in Kiel. It failed because of the wrong decisions of the SPD leadership and because of the revolutionary tactics employed by the extreme left wing of the work force. The USPD received only 7.6% of the vote and sent 22 deputies into the parliament. By 7 November, the revolution had seized all large coastal cities as well as Hanover, Brunswick, Frankfurt on Main, and Munich. In his view the political situation at the beginning of the revolution was open: the moderate socialist and democratic-oriented work force indeed had a chance to become the actual social foundation of the republic and to drive back the conservative forces. Aus Protest gegen die Fortführung des Ersten Weltkriegs brachen in zahlreichen Städten Streiks und Demonstrationen aus. By the end of the fighting on 16 March, they had killed approximately 1,200 people, many of them unarmed and uninvolved. Leon Trotsky observed that the October Revolution could not have succeeded if Lenin had remained stuck in Switzerland.[7]. 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. It was this loyalty that now gave them the reputation of being in favor of the Spartacists. These were all revolutionary actions by protagonists who did not want a revolution, but nevertheless took action. They were scarcely willing to fight more battles, and desertions were increasing. Even Karl Liebknecht, who became one of the most outspoken opponents of the war, initially followed the line of the party that his father, Wilhelm Liebknecht, had cofounded: he abstained from voting and did not defy his own political colleagues. Unterdessen war die deutsche Bevölkerung kriegsmüde, litt unter Versorgungsengpässen und sehnte sich nach Frieden.1, Trotz der aussichtslosen Lage rief die deutsche Marineleitung am 24. In nationalist circles, the myth fell on fertile ground. They themselves were now disbanded and integrated into the newly formed Freikorps. The failure of the Weimar Republic that this revolution brought into being and the Nazi era that followed it obstructed the view of these events for a long time. 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. After the murders of 15 January, the political differences between the SPD and KPD grew even more irreconcilable. An "Arbitration Committee" (Schlichtungsausschuss) was to mediate future conflicts between employers and unions. November 1918 - Die Novemberrevolution 3. On the morning of 4 November, groups of mutineers moved through the town of Kiel. In an interview given to "Der Spiegel" in 1962 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. Contrary to the official party line, Rudolf Lindau supported the theory that the German Revolution had a Socialist tendency. The governor of the naval station, Wilhelm Souchon, was compelled to negotiate. Socialist expropriations were not initiated. Aside from SPD and USPD, the Catholic Centre Party took part, and so did several middle-class parties that had established themselves since November: the left-liberal German Democratic Party (DDP), the national-liberal German People's Party (DVP) and the conservative, nationalist German National People's Party (DNVP). 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. November Revolution of 1918 a revolution in Germany, as a result of which the monarchy was overthrown and a bourgeois parliamentary republic established. In his cabinet, Social Democrats dominated. German November Revolution 1918-. Die Novemberrevolution 1918. Research output: Non-textual form › Web publication/site › Popular. 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. 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. Although Haase was formally a chairman in the Council with equal rights, the whole higher level administration reported only to Ebert. Jesse and Köhler even talked about the "construct of a democratic council movement". However, a few days later he joined the Gruppe Internationale (Group International) that Rosa Luxemburg had founded on 5 August 1914 with Franz Mehring, Wilhelm Pieck, and four others from the left wing of the party, which adhered to the prewar resolutions of the SPD. The council government to hold out the longest was the Munich Soviet Republic. While Liebknecht was in the army, Rosa Luxemburg wrote most of the "Spartacus Letters". The group emerged from a network of left-wing unionists who disagreed with the support of the war that came from the union leadership. In Leipzig, Hamburg, Bremen, Chemnitz, and Gotha, the Workers' and Soldiers' Councils took the city administrations under their control. Das kaiserliche Militär stand der protestierenden Bevölkerung machtlos gegenüber. Read Article. For the first time during these strikes, the so-called Revolutionary Stewards took action. Depending on their political standpoint of view, contemporaries had greatly differing opinions about the revolution. Increasingly, the history of the German Revolution appeared as the history of its gradual reversal. But military power in Berlin once more was in the hands of the People's Navy Division. Die Lage war trist. The first elections for the new Weimar National Assembly were held on 19 January 1919, and the revolution ended on 11 August 1919, when the Weimar Constitution was adopted. Geschichte kompakt finanziert sich über Werbung. In the general state of shock about the defeat, which now had become obvious, the constitutional changes, formally decided by the Reichstag on 28 October, went almost unnoticed.