What is the German Revolution?
Autumn 1918
By autumn 1918, the German populace was war-weary after four years of intense deprivation due to the allied blockade preventing food and raw materials reaching Germany. There had been unrest, strikes and riots. At the end of October, a group of sailors refused to obey orders and were imprisoned in the town of Kiel. The Kiel citizens began a series of peaceful protests to call for their release and the immediate end to the war. When the state responded with violence, the protesters took over governance of the town. The workers, sailors and soldiers, inspired by the revolution in Russia in 1917, set up councils to organise the governance of the town. They also encouraged revolutionaries to travel across Germany to spread the revolution.
From Kiel, the revolution spread rapidly across Germany, resulting in the Kaiser’s abdication on 9 November and the armistice on 11 November.
Aftermath
The government ruling party (the SPD or Social Democrats) under Friedrich Ebert were not in favour of the revolution. Throughout the winter of 1918/19 there were frequent street battles, strikes and riots. This culminated in riots in Berlin from 5 January 1919, also known as the Spartakist Uprising, and the murders of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht.
Across Germany, different cities and regions proclaimed themselves to be "Council Republics" and attempted to break away from the control of the government. The best known of these is the Bavarian Soviet Republic, declared in Munich in April 1919, which lasted until the end of May 1919 when it was violently crushed by government forces and paramilitaries.
The Treaty of Versailles also dealt a blow to the revolution. The victorious powers had begun negotiating the terms in January 1919 and Germany was not allowed to participate. When the punitive nature of many of the clauses became clear (in particular the "War Guilt" clause, the reparations, and Germany's loss of territory), the revolution was seen by many on the right to have failed Germany. The legend that the revolution and the revolutionaries had betrayed Germany, also known as the "stab-in-the-back" myth, grew.
Summary
Until very recently, the German Revolution of 1918 has been viewed as an exclusively male affair and, apart from Rosa Luxemburg, the historical figures that have emerged as revolutionary leaders were generally male. But there are also accounts by women in which they present themselves as active participants in the revolutionary events with clear goals for the new social order that it would bring in: these women certainly did not see themselves as onlookers to a male spectacle. For many socialist, pacifist or feminist women the revolution was seen as a chance to realise long-term political or social goals, not least the dream of the kind of social and political equality symbolised by female suffrage. So far, our research has identified over 100 women who were involved in the revolution as members of the soldiers’ and workers’ councils, and as leaders of the Bavarian Soviet Republic.
Download a timeline of the Revolution
Further Reading
Aftermaths of War: Women's Movements and Female Activists, 1918-1923
Edited by Ingrid Sharp and Matthew Stibbe
Founding Weimar: Violence and the German Revolution of 1918–1919
Mark Jones