THE GERMAN REVOLUTION ANDFOUNDING OF THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC

October 1, 1918: Kaiser appoints Prince Max of Baden to head a “parliamentary” cabinet.

October 28, 1918: Naval mutiny begins at Kiel after the Navy command orders an unauthorized offensive.

November 9, 1918: Scheidemann (SPD) proclaims a Republic in Berlin, and the Kaiser flees to Holland.

December 20, 1918: Friedrich Ebert secures approval by the Congress of Workers’ & Soldiers’ Councils for the speedy election of a National Assembly.

January 5-15, 1919: Spartacist uprising in Berlin leads to the murder of Luxemburg & Liebknecht by the Free Corps.

February 6, 1919: National Assembly convenes in Weimar.

In early November 1918, Prince Max of Baden appealed to Friedrich Ebert of the SPD to become Chancellor, prevent a Communist revolution, and

safeguard national unity.

Gustav Noske (SPD) addresses revolutionary sailors in Kiel, November 5, 1918

Philipp Scheidemann proclaims Germany a Republic from the balcony of the Reichstag on

November 9, 1918

Revolutionary soldiers and sailors occupy the royal palace in downtown Berlin, November 10, 1918

Ebert formed a new “Council of People’s Commissars”

in alliance with the USPD

TWO HISTORIC BARGAINS IN NOVEMBER 1918 PROMOTED ALLIANCE BETWEEM SOCIAL & LIBERAL

DEMOCRATS

1. THE EBERT-GROENER PACT, November 10, 1918:

Wilhelm Groener, chief of staff of the Imperial Army, telephoned Friedrich Ebert from Kassel to pledge the support of the officer corps, in exchange for Ebert’s promise “to take up the struggle against radicalism and Bolshevism.”

2. THE STINNES-LEGIEN AGREEMENT, Nov. 15, 1918:

Hugo Stinnes and the captains of industry agreed to implement the 8-hour day and collective bargaining in exchange for a pledge by trade union leaders to oppose any factory occupations.

Combat veterans return to an uncertain welcome in Berlin, November 1918

Homeless veterans in a

Heimkehrerlager,1919

The “Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council” of Guben, November 1918. In Germany most of these “soviets” regarded themselves as temporary

bodies.

Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg founded the German Communist Party in December 1918,with the slogan, “All power to the soviets.”

The National Congress of Workers’ and Soldiers Councils, Berlin, December 16-21, 1918.

Ebert persuaded 75% of the delegates to endorse his program for the election of a National

Assembly.

Communist insurgents in the newspaper district of Berlin,

January 1919

A Free Corps unit sworn to crush the Reds

Some Free Corps soldiers used the swastika as a symbol of Aryan

racial purity; many later joined the Nazis

They killed Luxemburg and Liebknecht on January 15, 1919

Käthe Kollwitz, “Memorial to January 15, 1919”

League for Combating Bolshevism:

“BOLSHEVISM BRINGS WAR,

UNEMPLOYMENT, AND HUNGER,”

January 1919

George Grosz,“Ebert”

(ink drawing,1934)

“Workers, burghers, farmers, soldiers of every German tribe: Unite in the National Assembly!”

SPD CAMPAIGN SLOGANS

Max Pechstein, “An Appeal for

Socialism”

“Women! Equal Rights, Equal Duties. Vote Social

Democratic!”

“Building Blocks of the German

Democratic Party” (DDP):

“Humane housing conditions”

“Equal rights for all”“Stronger protection

for individual freedom”“Caring for war

invalids”“A free Church in a

free State” [i.e., separation of church

and state]“Access to higher

education for the most talented”

“League of Nations”

The Center Party proved most attractive to women voters in 1919 and was the only party to include a cross section of all social classes

“CHRISTIAN PEOPLE! SHOULD SPARTACUS

BE ALLOWED TO TEAR DOWN YOUR

CHURCES? GIVE YOUR ANSWER ON

ELECTION DAY!BAVARIAN

PEOPLE’S PARTY”(Bavarian Catholics formed their own

party, because the Center allied with the

SPD)

The “National Liberal” DVP:

“War Veterans!Have you spilled your

blood so that conditions here would

resemble a madhouse? Should today’s terrorism be allowed to destroy everything? Or do you want orderly conditions, as we

do?”

“Who will save Prussia from destruction?”(German Nationalist People’s Party, or DNVP)

In February 1919 the National Assembly convened in the Weimar National Theater, beside

Goethe & Schiller

The first women elected to a German parliament (Weimar, 1919)

Munich experienced

Communist rule for six weeks in April-May 1919

after the assassination of Kurt Eisner by a royalist officer

A Bavarian Heimwehr militia

unit that helped to suppress the Munich Soviet

Republic

The impact of the Treaty of Versailles (June 1919)