German Civil War

DIRECTOR CRISIS MANGERS Aadi Thulasingam Zoë Grossman and Jozef Grygorcewicz

CHAIRS MODERATORS Martin Concagh and Nesta Muthunawagonna Qaasim Karim and Amy Zhou UTMUN 2021 JCC Intro

Revolution in Germany! With the collapse of the German Army following the failure of the Kaiserschlacht offensive in the West, the Imperial Government was forced to cede power to a civilian government to negotiate a peace with the Western powers, facing massive labour strikes and famine due to British blockade. The new chancellor, the liberal Prince Max of Baden invited the centre-left SPD (Social Democratic Party) into government, the largest party in the Reichstag, in coalition, into power. The SPD, which had purged its radical left-wing, due to their opposition to the war, who formed the USPD, or independent Social Democrats could not keep pace with the revolutionary events happening in Germany. The strikes in January 1918 had led to the establishment of worker’s councils throughout Germany, on the model of the Soviets that had played such a central role in the recent October Revolution. In response to a suicidal order from the Imperial Naval Command to engage in a final battle against the Royal Navy, the sailors of Germany, mutinied on the 24th of October 1918. Taking control of the ports of the country from Kiel outward, the naval rebellion was followed by other strikes and soldier’s mutinies, and the establishment of “Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils” throughout the country. With chaos enveloping the country, the Kaiser is forced to abdicate, on the 9th of November, the date, the date this committee begins on. Taking with him Prince Maximillian’s government, the delegates of this subcommittee, the Spartacus’s, will seek to guide various left-wing figures, and the parties and organizations they support, through the welter of the German Revolution.

Said figures can be split into approximately three groups, which will be described in turn. First, in Bavaria, Eisner has seized Munich and established a hodgepodge government of moderates, anarchist dreamers, and hardline Leninists, surrounded by counterrevolutionary forces. Secondly, in Saxony, and in Bremen, local leaders attempt to turn local unions, and the forces of the naval munity to their advantage in regional struggles. Thirdly, and most importantly, are the Berliners. In Berlin, the moderate SPD has seized the chancellorship, under the explicitly anti-revolutionary leadership of Fredrich Ebert and his cabinet. Declaring on the 9th the creation of a Republic, Ebert and his party are attempting to take control in the city of Berlin (and therefore the greater German government) by directing still-loyal military units and taking control of the city police. Meanwhile, the left was also taking action. Within the USPD, there were two factions – the “moderates”, promoting some sort of compromise with the democratic government, and those members of the party-within- the-party, the Spartacist League, the followers of Liebknecht and Luxemburg advocating for total revolution, and the establishment of a council-communist state lead by the Worker’s Councils. Currently, the Spartacists dominate the party, and have the initiative, with Liebknecht having declared, also on November 9th, the creation of a Free Socialist Republic. Such a declaration is supported by the local councils and unions themselves, who, under the leadership of the Revolutionary Stewards, seized the Reichstag with ten thousand men. Ebert has called for a unity government – the Council of People’s Deputies, but such is likely to fail. Meanwhile, right-wing militias, composing of disaffected reactionary soldiers and officers and their civilian supporters, have also begun to assemble in the city. With Armistice negotiations coming to a close, and a situation of dual—power existing in Berlin, it remains to see who will seize the city – and determine the fate of all of Germany, and perhaps Europe. “Tomorrow the revolution will already ‘raise itself … saying I was, I am, I will be!” Committee Goals

• Establish political and military power in Berlin, Munich, and elsewhere in Germany, establishing a socialist polity!

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• Deal with the encroaching famine, and political and social unrest! • Determine the ideology, economics, and culture of a revolutionary Germany! • Deal with the rival Ebert government, and right-wing militias! • Negotiate an end to the War to End All Wars, dealing with both the Western Allies, new states throughout East-Central Europe, and the Bolsheviks! • Defeat capitalism, factionalism, and counterrevolutionaries in the homeland of Marx to bring the Revolution to Germany! Character Descriptions The Berliners

Karl Liebknecht: A lawyer and long-time representative in the Prussia Landtag – Liebknecht, with Luxemburg are the twin leaders of the Spartacist League, and the most famous socialists in Germany, and after Lenin, perhaps the world. Unlike Luxemburg, he is not a theoretician, but a street activist, famed on picket lines and strikes throughout Germany. He is most famous for his work “Militarism and Anti-Militarism” that skewed the jingoism and autocracy of Wilhelmine Germany. Liebknecht instead supports the vison of his comrade Luxemburg, that of a council communist state. Expelled from the SPD for brining up the Armenian Genocide, arrested repeatedly until released as part of Prince Max’s October 1918 amnesty to al political prisoners, Liebknecht has returned to Berlin. With the abdication of the Kaiser, he has taken the opportunity to seize the initiative, and declare, at the former royal palace of the Hohenzollerns, the Stadtschloss, a Free Socialist Republic, in direct opposition to Ebert “bourgeois Republic” declared just two hours before. Liebknecht, with his allies and supports, seeks to bring revolution to Germany or die trying – “the emancipation of the working class is the task of the worker alone!”.

Faction: Spartacus League (Radical)

Aim: Establish a democratic socialist state in Germany through armed revolution; defeat the rival SPD government and the roving Freikorps militias.

Rosa Luxemburg: Luxemburg is a famed Marxist theoretician, economist, and revolutionary socialist. She was expelled from the SPD due to her anti-war stance, founding the Spartacus League in response with Liebknecht. In response to the Russian Revolution, and the rise of Leninism, Luxemburg has developed her own form of socialist ideology. She believes in a democratic council communism – local polities (the worker’s and soldier’s councils founded throughout Germany), self-governing while part of a greater socialist state, without need for a party dictatorship like that of the Bolsheviks. A firm believer in the idea of spontaneous action by the working class, she has put her full support behind Liebknecht’s declaration of a free state, and the uprising of the Revolutionary Stewards, and now is one of the primary leaders of the German left as the nation falls into revolution. She believes the success of the German revolution is absolutely necessary to provide a necessary counterweight in the world socialist cause to the Soviet Union. Though lacking military support, Luxemburg is internationally known and popular, especially with working-class Germans, exhausted by the war. She must successfully negotiate with the Revolutionary Stewards (especially the embryonic Executive Council), the Berlin Police (who’s current chief is, though officially undeclared, leaning towards the Spartacists), and the various military units converging on Berlin to ensure her power and position. Luxemburg is opposed at every step by the Ebert government, which controls the “official” organs of power, bar the Reichstag, under popular

3 UTMUN 2021 JCC occupation – radical action is needed to seize the offices of state, establish legitimacy for her government, in Berlin and beyond, bringing her promised revolution to Germany – with all power to the Councils!

Faction: Spartacus League (Radical)

Aim: Establish a democratic socialist state in Germany and take leadership in the world communist cause.

Leo Jogiches: Jogiches, the ex-lover of Rosa Luxemburg, is a seasoned revolutionary, having been involved in the socialist underground since the 1890s in Poland and Germany. When Liebknecht and Luxemburg were arrested for anti-war activities by the Imperial government in 1916, Jogiches took leadership of the underground Spartacist League until March 1918. In this role he played a significant part in organizing the USPD at the Easter 1917 Gotha Congress. Though arrested in 1918, he was quickly released, and joined with Liebknecht and Luxemburg to form the KPD. Though no theoretician, Jogiches is an able debater and organizer of the socialist cause, commanding significant loyalty among the veterans of the Spartacus League. Despite a personal estrangement from Luxemburg, is still entirely loyal to her party, her ideology, and her vison for Germany.

Faction: Spartacus League (Radical)

Aim: Support the aims of the Spartacist League and Rosa Luxemburg.

Paul Levi: A founding member of the Spartacus league, and Luxemburg and Liebknecht’s lawyer of many years, Levi is a devoted member of the German left. Having been conscripted in 1915, he held a hunger strike, leading to his discharge, after which he fled to Switzerland to avoid persecution. There, he became associated with the Zimmerwald Left – most notably Lenin and Radek. Having just returned to Germany, Levi has re- established himself as a leader of the party. Though loyal to Luxemburg, he has deviated significantly from the orthodox party line, sometimes favoring reconciliation with the SPD, sometimes favouring the more hardline approach favoured by Radek.

Faction: Spartacus League (???)

Aim: Support the aims of the Spartacist League,

Karl Radek: Radek is an infamous international Marxist revolutionary. Having come into ideological and personal conflict with Luxemburg and Jogiches as co-members of the Polish Socialist Party, he was expelled from Second International. Going into exile in Switzerland he developed connections with Lenin and Trotsky. After the October Revolution Radek joined the Bolshevik government as Vice-Commissar for Foreign Affairs, where he developed a reputation as a hardliner and a jingoist. After the “peace” of Brest-Litovsk, Radek, having been legally barred from entry into Germany, crossed the border illegally, hoping to arrive in Berlin in time to assist in the revolution there. Multi-lingual, and a talented diplomat, and closely connected to the Soviet government, Radek is ideologically distinct from most in Germany for his advocation for a “soldiers’ revolution”, establishment of a Leninist “dictatorship of the proletariat” and total war against the world bourgeoise.

Faction: None. (Leninist)

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Aim: Assist in the establishment of a revolutionary state in Germany in line with Leninist and Trotskyite thought – for the World Revolution!

Richard Müller: Like Barth, a leader of the Revolutionary Stewards, himself also a former metalworker, Müller was a famed strike leader. Significantly more radical than Barth, Müller is currently in the process of organizing the Executive Council of Greater Berlin Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils, as co-chairman. If he succeeds in this aim, he will become one of the most powerful men in Germany – but negotiating between the more moderate and radical unions will be difficult – and cooperation with the Spartacists, who hold significant political, cultural, and ideological sway, is absolutely necessary. Meanwhile, the SPD plots against the whole enterprise, cooperating with the officer class to establish a competing Central Council – the fate of the Berliner working class hangs in the balance.

Faction: Revolutionary Stewards (Radical)

Aim: Establish the power of the councils by assembling the Executive Council in cooperation with the Spartacists; ensure primary power remains in the hands of said council, not political parties, or other groups

Aim: Ensure the power of the trade and military unions in the new revolutionary state by strengthening the power of the Soldier’s and Worker’s Councils and carrying out their demands.

Luise Zietz: The first woman to join the executive of the SPD, in 1908, Zietz was a former domestic servant, factory worker and trade unionist. Active in radical labour circles in Hamburg, Zietz rose in the ranks of the SPD as a feminist, and activist against child poverty. Splitting from the SPD due to her anti-war position in 1917, Zietz joined the USPD. She remains a significant figure on the German left, the moderate counterpart to the more radical feminist Clara Zetkin.

Faction: USPD (Moderate)

Aim: Ensure the cause of women’s liberation is achieved through the German Revolution.

Clara Zetkin: Zetkin is a prominent feminist on the German left. The publisher of the socialist women’s paper “Equality”, Zetkin was a friend of both Luxemburg and Lenin, and founder member of the Second International, the International Socialist Women’s Congress, the USPD and the Spartacus League. A committed Marxist Zetkin believes the cause of women’s liberation can only be achieved through “complete social transformation” via revolutionary socialism. Well-liked by all and a close ally of Zietz, Zetkin is a strong advocate for women’s suffrage, women’s entry into trade unions and the wider workforce, and for pacifism.

Faction: Spartacus League (Radical)

Aim: Ensure the cause of women’s liberation is achieved through the German Revolution.

The Bavarians:

Kurt Eisner: A journalist and theatre critic from Bavaria, Eisner was a less-radical member of the SPD – favouring the “evolutionary socialism” of Eduard Bernstein –favoring incremental democratic reformism through parliamentary and trade union activity. In 1917, he (opposing the war) left to join the USPD.

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Organizing a strike in 1918, he was arrested, but quickly released. Arriving back in Munich (seething with anti- war radicalism), where he was leader of the local USPD, planning to lead a march on the Residenz Palace, to depose the thousand-year-old Wittelsbach dynasty. Having declared a “free state”, with himself as Minister- President, Eisner has taken control of Munich, but is in an overall a weak position – lacking the command of significant military forces and lacking political control of anywhere outside of Munich. A relative moderate in a radical position, Eisner needs to take quick action to establish his government to stave off the forces of right- wing reaction assembling in the conservative Bavarian countryside.

Faction: Bavarian Free State (Moderate)

Aim: Establish and maintain the Bavarian Free State.

Gustav Landauer: A famed social and political theorist, Landauer is the leader of German anarchism and committed pacifist. Developing his own ideology of anarchist heavily, against Marxism, Landauer advocates for the absolute reconstruction of human social relations with the immediate development of a stateless society based on voluntary mutual aid between regional communities, semi-self-sufficient in agriculture and industry – a pastoral vision inspired as much by Kropotkin as by the Arts and Crafts movement. A famed speaker and writer, Landauer was the effective leader of the anti-war left, until the 1917 split of the SPD. With his works famed throughout an increasingly radical Germany, Landauer was invited to Bavaria by Eisner to construct, with his ally Toller, his long-idealized autonomous, decentralized anarchist society, with the support of the Soldier’s and Worker’s councils, however demeaned and threated anarchism might by more orthodox Marxists and right-wing reactionaries.

Faction: Bavarian Free State (Anarchist)

Aim: Construct a decentralized anarchist polity in Bavaria (and beyond?), establish a peace.

Ernst Toller: An expressionist playwright, strike leader, and peace activist, Toller is a member of the anarchist faction in Bavaria. Having served in the Germany Army as a volunteer until wounded at Verdun in 1917, he is a staunch pacifist and idealist, a key ally of Landauer, favored in soldier’s councils for his veteran status and radical political aims of total nationalization of industry.

Faction: Bavarian Free State (Anarchist)

Aim: Construct an anarchist polity in Bavaria (and beyond?), establish a peace.

Eugen Leviné: A Russian revolutionary, Leviné is a member of the USPD and a Spartacist sympathizer. A leader of the local worker’s and soldier’s council, he is the only one of all the leaders of Bavaria with practical revolutionary experience, having participated at the age of 19 in the 1905 Russian Revolution. Opposed to the more idealistic aims of his anarchist colleagues, Leviné is not a pacifist, and is willing and able to pursue militant action against the bourgeois and counterrevolutionaries both to preserve socialism in Munich and to spread it to the rest of Germany.

Faction: Bavarian Free State (Radical)

Aim: Maintain the Bavarian Free State, establish a functional military, spread the revolution to the rest of

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Germany.

The Regionalists:

Richard Lipinski: A trade unionist and a long-time member of the SPD, Lipinski was expelled from the party due to his pacifist stance. Still, he remained in his position as chairman for now the USPD in the industrial city of Leipzig. With Germany falling into chaos, he has fallen into the role as effective leader of the city, tasked with negotiating with the local Workers and Soldiers’ Councils, which have taken over much of Saxony. Lipinski now has a choice – join with the more radical revolutionaries, and relive Berlin and the Spartacists, or betray the cause of the workers for “stability” and his potential future career.

Faction: UPSD (Saxony) (Moderate)

Aim: Guide Saxony through the German Revolution intact.

Alfred Henke: One of the leaders of the USPD in Bremen, Henke is now the official representative of the workers’ council that has seized control of the important port city, in coalition with the mutinying fleet. All in political power, include Henke, agree of the importance of maintaining Bremen’s historic autonomy through the course of the Revolution, but how the city should contribute to the budding socialist Germany is a matter of dispute. Henke and his faction, more moderate, prefer to wait out what will occur in Berlin – to not yet pick a side, and have Bremen negotiate with the victor. In this, his position is contested by his radical colleague, Brodmerkel, while the city is increasingly pressured by the demands of Popp and the High Seas Fleet.

Faction: UPSD (Bremen) (Moderate)

Aim: Preserve Bremen through the German Revolution

Hans Brodmerkel: On the radical left of German politics, Brodmerkel, as a new leader of Bremen, calls for the city to declare itself an independent Soviet Republic, and, with the aid of the forces of the High Seas Fleet, actively aid in creating a socialist Germany through military action. Whether the High Seas Fleet actually wants to help in such an aim, and whether his moderate colleagues like Henke will acquiesce is a matter of some doubt. But, as the motto on the Bremen’s great commercial hall says “Buten un binnen wagen un winnen!”.

Faction: UPSD (Bremen) (Radical)

Aim: Have Bremen lead Germany to socialism!

Lothar Popp: The mutiny of the German Imperial Navy, starting with the High Seas Fleet, began the revolution that resulted in the abdication of the Kaiser and the declaration of the dual Republics in Berlin. Popp, as a representative of said mutiny, wishes to increase the navy’s influence on the course of German history and politics even further. The Soldier’s Councils have issued the demand for the release of political prisoners, and immediate end to the war, and for supreme control of the military bases and of the lives, duties, and orders of army, navy, and air force. Popp, who is currently in Bremen, will see these demands fulfilled, there, or in Berlin, however, is currently unknown.

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Faction: German High Seas Fleet (Radical)

Aim: All power to the Soldier’s Councils! End the War!

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