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Robert Gerwarth October 2018 The German Times 17 ARTS & LIFE Germany’s greatest revolution One hundred years ago, the monarchy was toppled and democracy installed, writes the historian Robert Gerwarth n Nov. 10, 1918, the marked a political revolution, described the revolution from ment of the events of November This hope was shared by many against which the Federal Repub- prominent editor-in- but also a major social revolu- the perspective of a middle-class 1918 than contemporaries, label- bourgeois liberals, even if they lic compared favorably as a much Ochief of the liberal tion that afforded full citizenship conservative when he wrote that ing it a “failed,” “incomplete” had not initially been supportive more stable, more Westernized daily Berliner Tageblatt, The- rights to women, who had pre- to him, Nov. 9, 1918, marked or even “betrayed” revolution of a political revolution. Many and more economically success- odor Wolff, published a remark- viously been excluded from the the “most wretched day of my – a judgment primarily informed of them were positively surprised ful democracy. However, such able commentary on the events most basic right of citizenship: life!” Others went even further by their retrospective knowledge by the lack of radicalism and a perspective ignores that – at that had unfolded in Germany the vote. Germany was the first in their despair. Distraught at the about how Weimar ended. the relative absence of violence least until the beginning of the over the previous days: “Like a highly industrialized country in collapse of Imperial Germany and Because the new political leaders in November 1918, noting with Great Depression in 1929 – the sudden windstorm, the greatest the world to introduce universal faced with an uncertain financial in 1918 left pre-existing economic relief that neither chaos nor civil Weimar Republic was relatively of all revolutions has toppled suffrage for women and women future, Albert Ballin, the Jewish and social relations, state bureau- war spread immediately after the stable. Extremists on the far left the imperial regime together actually constituted a significant shipping magnate and personal cracies and the judiciary relatively takeover that day. and right had been marginalized, with all it comprised, from top majority of the overall elector- friend of Wilhelm II, committed untouched, and because of Wei- For the prominent theologian Germany’s international isola- to bottom. One can call it the ate. Although the political his- suicide that very day. Ballin, the mar’s eventual demise in 1933, and philosopher Ernst Troeltsch, tion was overcome and the SPD greatest of all revolutions since tory of the Weimar Republic head of Hapag – once the world’s the November Revolution is fre- whose “Spectator Letters” are had won a landslide victory in never before was such a solidly has often been written from a largest shipping company – was quently seen as an “incomplete“ among the most widely known 1928. From the perspective of built and walled Bastille taken very male perspective, women simply unable to cope with the revolution of secondary impor- contemporary documents of the 1928, the Republic’s survival at one go…. Yesterday morning, played a prominent role in the perceived bleakness of the present tance. Some have even doubted period, the greatest uncertain- would have seemed a great deal at least in Berlin, everything was revolutionary events that led to and future. whether the events of November ties had already disappeared more likely than its failure. still there. Yesterday afternoon, the creation of a democracy and Irrespective of whether one con- 1918 qualify as a revolution at all. by Nov. 10: “Not a man died Our perspective on 1918 has all of it had vanished.” then exercised their democratic sidered the events of November How did this remarkable for Kaiser and Reich! All civil also for too long been dominated Wolff’s enthusiastic appraisal rights: in the January 1919 elec- 1918 as a threat or an oppor- re-definition of the events that servants are now working for by a national tunnel vision that of the November Revolution tions for the National Assem- tunity, there was one thing on occurred in Germany in late 1918 the new government! All duties largely views events in Germany may appear surprising, consid- bly, female voters exceeded male which all contemporary observ- come to be? The changing per- of the state will be carried out in isolation from what was going ception of the revolution began and there has been no run on on elsewhere in Europe. The year DPA in 1919 when the overwhelming the banks!” Thomas Mann had 1918 was part of a much larger initial support for the democratic similar thoughts when, on Nov. European moment of political revolution of 1918 was weak- 10, he reflected on the events of change. Between 1917 and 1920 ened for a number of reasons, not the previous day: “The German alone, Europe experienced some least because many Germans had Revolution is a very German one, 27 violent transfers of politi- harbored unrealistic expectations even if it is a proper revolution. cal power. Russia in particu- about what a revolution could No French savagery, no Russian lar experienced two revolutions achieve and how the democratiza- Communist excesses,” he noted within less than 12 months, tion would affect the peace treaty with relief. eventually resulting in a civil drawn up by the victorious Allies What changed this perception, war that cost the lives of well from January 1919 onwards. and contemporaries’ retrospec- over three million people. It is While those on the far left had tive assessment of the November also worth noting that of all the been longing for a revolution, it Revolution more generally, was parliamentary democracies cre- was not this revolution to which the revolution’s radicalization ated in East-Central Europe after they had aspired. Like their lead- and its violent escalation in early 1918 (with the exceptions of ers in 1918, Karl Liebknecht and 1919. The Spartacist Uprising of Finland and Czechoslovakia), the Rosa Luxemburg, they perceived January 1919, the Munich Soviet Weimar Republic was one of the the military collapse of Imperial Republic later that spring and the last democratic states founded in Germany in November 1918 as brutal backlash by right-wing 1918 to give way to an autocratic a historically unique opportu- Freikorps volunteers seemed to regime. nity to create a socialist state many contemporaries to be an A broader perspective is also run by the workers’ and sol- unwelcome echo of the Russian important when it comes to deter- diers’ councils. Friedrich Ebert’s Civil War. Similarly disappoint- mining the place the German unshakable determination to ing for many was that the expec- Revolution should hold in hold a general election for a con- tations for a negotiated peace modern European history. Both stituent National Assembly to clashed brutally with the actual the great European revolution of answer the question of Germa- conditions of the Versailles Peace the West (the French Revolution ny’s future form of government Treaty. The nationalist right in of 1789) and the great European was portrayed by the far-left as particular was quick to portray revolution of the East (the Rus- a fundamental “betrayal,” for it this as proof of the Republic’s sian Revolution of 1917) quickly prevented the realization of their inability to negotiate a better led to civil wars and dictatorships own, more radical ambitions for future for Germany. In the col- without anyone denying their the re-organization of German lective memory, the revolution, historical significance. Even com- society and its political systems. military defeat and its princi- pared to other European revo- The “betrayal” of 1918–19 pal consequence – the Versailles lutions – those in Finland and escalated tensions between dif- Peace Treaty – gradually merged Hungary in 1918 and 1919 – the ferent factions of the German into one narrative in which the revolutionary events in Germany labor movement, as the far left felt revolution, an act of betrayal of were not only relatively blood- that the majority Social Demo- the fighting men on the front, had less but also remarkably suc- crats under Ebert had prevented caused an unnecessary military cessful when measured against a “real” revolution at a time defeat. their objectives: the restoration when it was allegedly feasible No one exploited this soon- of peace and the replacement of – an accusation that can still be to-be widely shared narrative the monarchy with a democratic heard today. As late as 2008, the of betrayal and failure more regime. The Ebert government True Republican: Future President Friedrich Ebert speaks at the Brandenburg Gate on Nov. 9, 1918. then chairman of the far-left Die persistently and successfully succeeded in channeling revo- Linke openly declared that Ebert’s than Adolf Hitler. Exactly five lutionary energies, maintaining ering that in standard history voters by 2.8 million. ers agreed: that the events of “betrayal” of the workers’ move- years after the proclamation public order in the face of a books, it is generally portrayed The year 1918 also brought November 1918 constituted a ment in 1918 had “set the course of the German Republic, on historically unprecedented defeat as an “incomplete” revolution the Germans additional free- proper revolution, or, in the for the disastrous history of the Nov. 9, 1923, he first attempted and peacefully demobilizing sev- that failed to create a democracy doms that no one would have words of the monarchist news- Weimar Republic.” his “national revolution” in eral million soldiers. strong enough to withstand the thought possible before 1914. paper Kreuzzeitung, a “cataclysm The Social Democrat leadership Munich. He had consciously In view of the enormous chal- onslaught of Nazism in the early Alongside the political reforms such as history has never seen.” under Ebert also had high expec- chosen this date for his futile bid lenges that the emerging Weimar 1930s.
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