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Left Wing Germany in Fragments

Germany now had a left wing government led by Ebert, but like Russia, the left wing in Germany was fragmented among several parties. The largest socialist group were the Ebert’s SPD (German Social Democratic Party), who wanted a democratic, parliamentary socialist republic, and disliked the situation evolving in Russia. These were the moderates, and there were radical socialists called the USPD (German Independent Social Democratic Party), a splinter of the SPD which was in turn splintered between wanting parliamentary democracy and socialism, and those who wanted a far more radical reforms.

On the far left existed the Spartacus League, led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. They had a small membership, had fragmented from the SPD before the war, and believed that Germany should follow the Russian model, with a communist revolution creating a state run through soviets. It’s worth pointing out that Luxembourg didn’t embrace the horrors of Lenin’s Russia, and believed in a much more humane system.

Ebert and Government

On November 9th 1918 a provisional government formed from the SPD and USPD, led by Ebert. It was divided over what it wanted, but was scared Germany was about to shatter into chaos, and they had been left to deal with the aftermath of the war: disillusioned soldiers coming home, a lethal flu epidemic, food and fuel shortages, inflation, extreme socialist groups and extreme right wing groups all of disheartened people, and the small matter of negotiating a war settlement that didn’t cripple the nation. The next day the military agreed to support the provisional in their task of running the nation until a new parliament was elected.

It might seem strange with the shadow of World War 2, but the provisional government was most worried about the extreme left, like the Spartacists, seizing power, and many of their decisions were affected by this. One of the first was the Ebert-Groener deal, agreed with the new head of the army, General Groener: in return for their support, Ebert guaranteed the government would not support the presence of soviets in the military, or any lapse in military authority such as in Russia, and would fight against a socialist revolution.
At the end of 1918 the government looked like falling apart, as the SPD were moving from the left to the right in an ever more desperate attempt to gather support, while the USPD pulled out to focus on more extreme reform.

The Spartacist's Revolt

The German Communist Party or KPD was created on January 1st 1919 by the Spartacists, and they explained clearly that they would not stand in the forthcoming elections, but would campaign for soviet revolution through an armed uprising, Bolshevik style. They targeted Berlin, and began to seize key buildings, formed a revolutionary committee to organize, and called for the workers to go on strike. But the Spartacists had misjudged, and after a three day fight between poorly prepared workers and both the army and the ex-army Freikorps the revolution was crushed, and both Liebknecht and Luxembourg were killed after being arrested. The latter had already changed her mind about armed revolution. However, the event cast a long shadow over the elections for Germany’s new parliament. In fact such were the aftereffects of the revolt, with strikes and fights, that the first meeting of the National Constituent Assembly was moved to the town which would give the republic its name: Weimar.

The Results: The National Constituent Assembly

The National Constituent Assembly was elected in late January 1919 with a turnout modern governments would be envious of (83%), over three quarters of the votes going to democratic parties, and the easy formation of the Weimar Coalition thanks to large votes for the SPD, the DDP (German Democratic Party, the old middle class dominated National Liberal Party), and the ZP (Centre Party, the mouth of the large Catholic minority.) It’s interesting to note that The German National People’s Party (DNVP), the right wing’s biggest vote taker and backed by people with serious financial and landed power, got ten per cent.
Thanks to Ebert’s leadership and the quelling of extreme socialism, Germany in 1919 was led by a government which had changed at the very top – from an autocracy to a republic – but in which key structures like land ownership, industry and other businesses, the church, the military and the civil service, remained pretty much the same. There was great continuity, and not the socialist reforms that the country seemed in a position to carry through, but neither had there been large scale bloodshed. Ultimately, it can be argued that the revolution in Germany was a lost opportunity for the left, a revolution that lost its way, and that socialism lost a chance to restructure before Germany and the conservative right grew ever more able to dominate.

Revolution?

Although it is common to refer to these events as a revolution, some historians dislike the term, viewing the 1918-19 as either a partial / failed revolution, or an evolution from the Kaiserreich, which might have taken place gradually if World War One had never occurred. Many Germans who lived through it also thought it was only half a revolution, because while the Kaiser had gone, the socialist state they had wanted was also absent, with the leading socialist party heading up a middle ground. For the next few years left wing groups would attempt to push the ‘revolution’ further, but all failed. In doing so, the center allowed the right to remain to crush the left.