German Revolution

HISTORY
PROJECT
-----------------------------------------------------
REVOLUTION IN
GERMANY
WHEN DID GERMAN REVOLUTION BEGIN ?
dustrial Revolution In Germany Did Not Begin Until The 1800,

Over a Century After The Change Of Events In England.
Was Because Germany Did not Become a Unified Political Society
Late in the Nineteenth century.
IMPACTS OF UNIFICATION
Establishment Of The Germany Customs Union Was the Focal Poi
many’s Industrial Revolution.
1834, Trade Barriers Between German States Were
minated and this paved the way for bigger
more Attractive market for producers.
ning areas boomed as demand for coal
e during the time, and this gave
to higher incomes to the population.
TRODUCTION :
In 1918 – 19 Imperial Germany experienced a socialist-heavy
revolution that, despite some surprising events and even a small
socialist republic, would bring a democratic government. The
Kaiser was rejected and a new parliament based at Weimar took
over. However, Weimar ultimately failed and the question of
whether the seeds of that failure began in the revolution if
1918-19 has never been decisively answered.
A street German Revolution in Berlin, circa 1918-1919.

many Fractures in World War One :
Like the other countries of Europe, much of Germany went into World War One believing it
would be a short war and a decisive victory for them. But when the western front ground to
a stalemate and the eastern front proved no more promising, Germany realized it had
entered into a prolonged process it was poorly prepared for. The country began to take the
necessary measures to support the war, including mobilizing an enlarged workforce,
dedicating more manufacturing to arms and other military supplies, and taking strategic
decisions they hoped would give them an advantage.
The war went on through the years, and Germany found itself increasingly stretched, so
much so it began to fracture. Militarily, the army stayed an effective fighting force until
1918, and widespread disillusion and failures stemming from morale only crept in towards
the end, although there were some earlier revolts. But before this, the steps taken in
Germany to do everything for the military saw the ‘home front’ experience problems, and
there was a marked change in morale from early 1917 onward, with strikes at one point
numbering a million workers. Civilians were experiencing food shortages, exacerbated by
the failure of the potato crop over the 1916-17 winter.
There were also fuel shortages, and deaths from hunger and cold more than doubled over the
same winter; flu was widespread and lethal. Infant mortality was also growing considerably, and
when this was coupled with the families of the two million dead soldiers and the many millions
wounded, you had a populace that was suffering.
In addition, while working days grew longer, inflation was making goods ever more expensive,
and ever more unaffordable. The economy was on the verge of collapsing.
The discontent among German civilians was not limited to either the working or middle classes,
as both felt an increasing hostility to the government. Industrialists were also a popular target,
with people convinced they were making millions from the war effort while everyone else
suffered. As the war went deep into 1918, and the German offensives failed, the German nation
seemed to be on the verge of splitting, even with the enemy still not on German soil. There was
pressure from the government, from campaign groups and others to reform a government
system that seemed to be failing.
NDORFF SETS THE BOMB :
Imperial Germany was supposed to be run by the Kaiser, Wilhelm II, aided by a Chancellor. However, over the
final years of the war, two military commanders had taken control of Germany: Hindenburg and Ludendorff. By
mid-1918 Ludendorff, the man with the practical control suffered both a mental breakdown and a long-feared
realization: Germany was going to lose the war. He also knew that if the allies invaded Germany it would have a
peace forced on it, and so he took actions which he hoped would bring a gentler peace deal under
Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points: he asked for the German Imperial autocracy to be transformed into a
constitutional monarchy, keeping the Kaiser but bringing in a new level of effective government.
Ludendorff had three reasons for doing this. He believed the democratic governments of Britain, France, and
the United States would be more willing to work with a constitutional monarchy than the Kaiserriech, and he
believed that the change would head off the social revolt he feared the war’s failure would trigger as blame and
anger were redirected. He saw the neutered parliament’s calls for change and feared what they would bring if
left unmanaged. But Ludendorff had a third goal, a far more pernicious and costly one. Ludendorff didn’t want
the army to take the blame for the war’s failure, nor did he want his high-powered allies to do so either. No,
what Ludendorff wanted was to create this new civilian government and make them surrender, to negotiate the
peace, so they would be blamed by the German people and the army would still be respected. Unfortunately for
Europe in the mid-twentieth century, Ludendorff was entirely successful, starting the myth that Germany had
been ‘stabbed in the back’, and helping the fall of Weimer and the rise of Hitler.
LUTION FROM ABOVE :
A strong Red Cross supporter, Prince Max of Baden became chancellor of Germany
in October 1918, and Germany restructured its government: for the first time the
Kaiser and the Chancellor were made answerable to the parliament, the Reichstag:
the Kaiser lost command of the military, and the Chancellor had to explain himself,
not to the Kaiser, but parliament. As Ludendorff hoped, this civilian government
was negotiating an end to the war.
Prince Max of Baden

RMAN REVOLTS :
However, as the news spread across Germany that the war was lost, shock set in, then the anger
Ludendorff and others had feared. So many had suffered so much and been told they were so close to
victory that many weren’t satisfied with the new system of government. Germany would move swiftly
into revolution.
Sailors at a naval base near Kiel rebelled on October 29, 1918, and as the government lost control of
the situation other major naval bases and ports also fell to revolutionaries. The sailors were angry at
what was happening and were trying to prevent the suicide attack some naval commanders had
ordered to try and recover some honor. News of these revolts spread, and everywhere it went soldiers,
sailors and workers joined them in rebelling. Many set up special, soviet style councils to organize
themselves, and Bavaria actually expelled their fossil King Ludwig III and Kurt Eisner declared it a
socialist republic. The October reforms were soon being rejected as not enough, both by the
revolutionaries and the old order who needed a way to manage events.
Max Baden hadn’t wanted to expel the Kaiser and family from the throne, but given that the latter was reluctant
to make any other reforms, Baden had no choice, and so it was decided that the Kaiser would be replaced by a
left-wing government led by Friedrich Ebert. But the situation at the heart of government was chaos, and first a
member of this government - Philipp Scheidemann – declared that Germany was a republic, and then another
called it a Soviet Republic. The Kaiser, already in Belgium, decided to accept military advice that his throne
was gone, and he exiled himself to Holland. The Empire was over.
HERE WE HAVE ATTACHED AUDIO
WHICH EXPLAINS ABOUT THE WHOLE
REVOLUTION IN 3 MINUTES.
THANKS FOR LOOKING OUT
_______________
P.V.MERUTHULA
S.KOSIKA SREE

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HISTORY

dustrial Revolution In Germany Did Not Begin Until The 1800,

A street German Revolution in Berlin, circa 1918-1919.

Prince Max of Baden

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