The last year of the German Empire

Bismarck’s Reich was to have a last year of illusory success before defeat. In 1917 Ludendorff met and routed the Allied offensives on the Western Front. More important, Russian forces on the Eastern Front fell to pieces, particularly after the failure of Aleksandr Kerensky’s June Offensive (July 1917) and the success of the Bolshevik revolution in November 1917. The Bolsheviks believed that they could spread their revolution to German workers by offering a peace “without indemnities or annexations.” Hence they negotiated with the German high command at Brest-Litovsk. The Bolshevik calculation proved false. Though Germany was swept by a wave of strikes in January 1918, these sprang simply from grievances against the hard domestic conditions, and in any case they collapsed without producing any political result. The German working class, through the mouths of the Social Democrats, had announced that they were fighting a war of defense against tsardom. However, they continued to fight when tsardom had disappeared.

On March 3, 1918, the Bolsheviks signed the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk, by which Russia lost 56,000,000 inhabitants, 79 percent of its iron, and 89 percent of its coal production. This annexationist treaty was not opposed by the parties that had voted for the “peace resolution.” The Centre and the Progressives voted for the treaty, the bulk of the Social Democrats abstained, and only the Independent minority of Social Democrats voted against. The Treaty of Bucharest with Romania (May 7, 1918) made Germany the economic master of that country, and the majority of the Social Democrats actually voted in favour of it. Thus, for a few brief months, Germany achieved the dream of having all Europe east of the Rhine under its economic domination.

The decisive battle had, however, still to be fought in the west. On March 21, 1918, Ludendorff launched the “emperor’s battle” (much against the emperor’s wishes). On April 9 he won a battle against the British and at the end of May against the French, but decision eluded him. On July 18 the French struck back, and on August 8—“the black day of the German army”—the British broke through. Ludendorff remained confident that he could fight a defensive war. At the end of September Bulgaria surrendered, and the collapse of Austria-Hungary was near. On September 29 Ludendorff lost his nerve and declared that an immediate armistice was necessary. Further, to make the approach to the Allies easy, he ordered that Germany should become a constitutional monarchy overnight. Maximilian, prince of Baden, who had long enjoyed a happy reputation as a liberal and an international conciliator, became chancellor (October 3). The same day, the political leaders were told by Ludendorff’s representatives that the war was lost. Ludendorff had never studied U.S. Pres. Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, and, when he understood their implications, he wished to continue the war. He was overruled and resigned on October 26. Hindenburg remained at the head of the general staff with Wilhelm Groener as quartermaster general.

The Revolution of 1918–19

The change to constitutional monarchy had been carried through peacefully, at the order of the high command. At the end of October the Reichstag resolved that the chancellor must henceforth possess the confidence of the Reichstag, and this resolution was approved by the emperor. The German people were now growing impatient. On November 3 mutiny broke out in the fleet at Kiel, and revolt soon spread to Berlin. On November 9 Liebknecht, the Spartacist leader, prepared to proclaim a soviet republic. Prince Max’s cabinet tried to counter this by proclaiming the abdication of the emperor. When this failed, Philipp Scheidemann, one of the two Social Democrats in the cabinet, proclaimed the republic in order to anticipate Liebknecht, much to the fury of Scheidemann’s colleague Friedrich Ebert. Prince Max handed over his office to Ebert, who thus became for 24 hours the last imperial chancellor.

Meanwhile, at Spa, the seat of the high command, where William II had taken refuge, the emperor tried to defend his position. He was told by Groener that the army would not support him, and on November 9 he fled to the Netherlands. Thus the Social Democrats and the high command, much against their will, combined to create the German republic. On November 10 the Workers and Soldiers Council of Berlin, which had been set up in imitation of the Russian soviets, gave a revolutionary blessing to Ebert’s regime. It was more important for him that the high command blessed it at the same time, and it remained to establish a government for the state.

Ebert, the last imperial chancellor, became chairman of the Council of Peoples’ Commissars, a body dominated by Majority Socialists who were opposed to revolution. His first act was to strike a bargain with the high command. Hindenburg would retain his command, and Ebert would resist the revolution. This had already lost its mass appeal with the signature of the armistice (November 11). On December 19, 1918, Ebert persuaded the Congress of Soldiers and Workers Councils to fix elections for the constituent assembly for January 19, 1919. On December 23, revolutionary sailors responded by occupying the chancellery and taking Ebert prisoner. He was rescued on December 24 by troops from the Potsdam garrison. On December 29 the three Independent Socialists resigned from the government in protest against Ebert’s counterrevolutionary policy. This left Ebert with a free hand, and Gustav Noske, another Majority Socialist, organized a volunteer corps with which to defeat the revolution. Noske said, “Someone must play the bloodhound. I am not afraid of the responsibility.”

On January 4, 1919, Robert Emil Eichhorn, an Independent Socialist and police president of Berlin, was dismissed. Mass demonstrations of protest followed, but the government was not overthrown. On January 11 Noske’s volunteers entered Berlin. Heavy street fighting took place, which ended with Noske’s victory on January 15. The same evening, the two Spartacist leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were arrested and murdered by Free Corps (Freikorps) troops. Elections for the national assembly were duly held on January 19. The social revolution had been defeated, and the way was clear for a democratic republic to preserve the economic order and the military values of imperial Germany. Ebert and Hindenburg, the two presidents of the Weimar Republic, were also the partners who brought it into existence.