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THE GERMAN REVOLUTION OF NOVEMBER 1918

THE GERMAN REVOLUTION OF NOVEMBER 1918. October 1, 1918: Kaiser appoints Prince Max of Baden to head a “parliamentary” cabinet. October 28, 1918: Naval mutiny begins at Kiel when the Navy command orders an unauthorized offensive.

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THE GERMAN REVOLUTION OF NOVEMBER 1918

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  1. THE GERMAN REVOLUTION OF NOVEMBER 1918 October 1, 1918: Kaiser appoints Prince Max of Baden to head a “parliamentary” cabinet. October 28, 1918: Naval mutiny begins at Kiel when the Navy command orders an unauthorized offensive. November 9, 1918: Friedrich Ebert proclaims a Republic in Berlin, and the Kaiser flees to Holland. December 20, 1918: 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.

  2. The German Empire of 1871-1918:Prussia included 2/3 of the population & 3/5 of the land

  3. Population of the German Empire: 64% Protestant, 32% Catholic, 1% Jewish

  4. Constitution of 1871

  5. THESE UNDEMOCRATIC FEATURES OF THE IMPERIAL CONSTITUTION MADE IT INCREASINGLY UNPOPULAR • Most states and cities retained a three-class suffrage law that weighted votes according to taxation. • States’ rights were safeguarded, and the Reichstag could not impose direct taxes on income or property. • Cabinets were not “responsible” to parliament and served entirely at the pleasure of the Kaiser. • There was no civilian control of the military. • Reichstag election districts were not redrawn after 1871 to reflect migration to cities, so parties with a rural base were over-represented in the Reichstag. In the Reichstag election of 1912, the three parties demanding democratic reform, the SPD, Progressive People’s Party (forerunner of the DDP), and Center Party, won 63% of the popular vote….

  6. GERMANY’S CLASS PYRAMID:Imperial officials hoped to unite all the propertied behind the throne, but their ranks were thinning. * Right column refers to Federal Republic only

  7. 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.

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

  9. Philipp Scheidemann (SPD) proclaims Germany a Republic from the balcony of the Reichstag on 9 November 1918

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

  11. Prince Max gave Ebert the Imperial Chancellor’s chain of office, but he soon formed a new “Council of People’s Commissars” in alliance with the USPD

  12. Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg founded the Spartacus League in 1917 and the German Communist Party in December 1918. They embraced Lenin’s slogan, “All power to the Soviets!”

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

  14. The National Congress of Workers’ and Soldiers Councils, Berlin, December 16-21, 1918.Ebert persuaded 75% of the delegates to endorse his program for prompt election of a National Assembly

  15. TWO HISTORIC BARGAINS IN NOVEMBER 1918 PROMOTED ALLIANCE AMONG SOCIAL & LIBERAL DEMOCRATS 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 Carl Legien and trade union leaders to oppose any factory occupations and leave the question of nationalization to a democratically elected National Assembly.

  16. Communist insurgents in the newspaper district of Berlin,January 1919

  17. A Free Corps unit sworn to crush the Reds They caught and killed Luxemburg and Liebknecht on January 15, 1919 Some Free Corps soldiers used the swastika as a symbol of Aryan racial purity; many later joined the Naxis

  18. George Grosz, “Ebert”(1934)

  19. 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

  20. League for Combating Bolshevism: “BOLSHEVISM BRINGS WAR, UNEMPLOYMENT, AND HUNGER,” January 1919

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

  22. In February 1919 the National Assembly convened in the Weimar National Theater, behind Goethe & Schiller

  23. In its election campaign the SPD sometimes employed Expressionist artists to convey its vision that a new age was dawning, but mainly it appealed to women…. Max Pechstein, “An Appeal for Socialism” “Women! Equal Rights, Equal Duties. Vote Social Democratic!”

  24. “Building Blocks of the German Democratic Party” (Left Liberal):“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”

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

  26. 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?”

  27. “Who will save Prussia from destruction?”The (conservative nationalist) DNVP depicted recent events in apocalyptic terms….

  28. “The Stab in the Back”(Nazi magazine cover, 1924)

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

  30. THE ELECTION OUTCOME IN JANUARY 1919(with a voter turnout rate of 83%) • KPD (Communist Party): boycotted the election • USPD (Independent Social Democratic): 7.7% (dissolved in 1922) • SPD (Social Democratic): 37.9% • DDP (German Democratic): 18.6% • Center Party: 19.7% • DVP (German People’s Party, National Liberal): 4.4% • DNVP (German Nationalist People’s Party): 10.3% On Monday the SPD delegation will cast 4 votes The DDP and Center Party: 2 votes each The DVP: 1 vote. DNVP: 2 votes

  31. The impact of the Treaty of Versailles (June 1919)

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