Skirmish of the Berlin Schloss The Skirmish of the Berlin Schloss ( German : " Weihnachtskämpfe " or " Weihnachtsaufstand " ) was a small skirmish between the socialist revolutionary " Volksmarinedivision " and regular German army units on 24 December 1918 during the German Revolution of 1918 – 19 . It took place around the " Berlin Schloss " also known as " Stadtschloss " in the centre of Berlin , Germany . Around 70 people were killed and the event marked the point at which the hitherto largely bloodless revolution turned more violent . The fighting was the immediate cause for the more radical members to leave the revolutionary government and caused resentment among the workers against the Social Democratic government of Friedrich Ebert . This set the scene for the much larger - scale violence of January 1919 , known as the Spartacist Uprising . Since the revolutionary sailors defeated the regular army force sent against them , the engagement was also an important episode in the rise of the right - wing " Freikorps " on which the government increasingly relied . Background . On 11 November 1918 , the " Volksmarinedivision " was created , initially numbering several hundred revolutionary naval troops from Kiel who had been arrested on arrival in Berlin but released on 9 November . They were joined by several hundred sailors from Berlin and another 2 , 000 requested from Kiel on 12 November by " Stadtkommandant " Otto Wels , the military commander of Berlin . Numbering more than 3 , 000 at peak the division was considered the elite force of the revolution . After the " Berliner Stadtschloss " , the former city residence of the Hohenzollern family and Emperor Wilhelm II had been plundered the division was based there on 15 November . The division staff moved into the Schloss , the troops were billeted in the Marstall . Their task was to guard the government quarter . Politically , the division was close to the radical left , the Independent Social Democrats of the USPD and the " Spartacists " . However , having been the backbone of the revolution , over the next four weeks the unit found itself in a significantly different position . It is unclear whether this was due to the fact that it failed to cooperate with the military putsch planned for 6 December and had deposed its commander who was a part of it . Or whether the division was an obstacle to Quartermaster General Wilhelm Groener ' s plan to restore law and order to Berlin . From the middle of December , Wels seemed to be working towards the dissolution of the unit . There were complaints about art treasures having been stolen from the palace . The temporary government of the " Rat der Volksbeauftragten " ( Council of People ' s Deputies ) now ordered the division to move to new quarters outside of Berlin and to reduce the number of soldiers to 600 from the current level of around 1 , 000 . To force them to comply , Wels held back their pay . During the week before Christmas the division and Wels negotiated in the " Kommandantur " , but failed to resolve the situation . 23 December 1918 . On 23 December , losing patience , the leaders of the division went to the " Reichskanzlei " ( Chancellery ) . By that point , the government , the six - man " Council of People ' s Deputies " that had been in office since 10 November , was on the verge of breaking apart with increasing differences emerging between its USPD and SPD members . The " Volksmarinedivision " encountered support from the former but mostly hostility from the latter . The soldiers were ordered to hand over the keys to the Schloss and left . In the afternoon the soldiers ' leaders returned , with the keys but also with a group of armed troops that took position in front of the building . According to historian Sebastian Haffner what happened then was as follows : The soldiers ' leaders under one Lieutenant Heinrich Dorrenbach gave the keys to Emil Barth , a People ' s Deputy of the USPD . Barth called Wels and told him that he had received the keys and asked him to hand over the outstanding pay . Wels refused , arguing that he only took orders from Friedrich Ebert who was joint chairman of the " Council of People ' s Deputies " and had also been handed the authority of government by the last Imperial Chancellor , Maximilian of Baden . When Barth sent the soldiers to Ebert , Ebert refused to see them . On Dorrenbach ' s orders the troops now closed all access to the " Reichskanzlei " , occupied the room with the telephone switchboard and cut the lines . The " Volksbeauftragten " were thus under house arrest . Some of the soldiers then marched to the " Kommandantur " where the guards resisted . Three members of the " Volksmarinedivision " were killed . Otto Wels and two of his officers were abducted , brought to the nearby Marstall and physically abused . The soldiers also took their outstanding pay . In response to the occupation of the Chancellery , Friedrich Ebert used a secret telephone line that did not go through the switchboard to call for help from the Oberste Heeresleitung ( OHL ) , the High Command of the German Army , situated at that time in Kassel . This marked the first time that the Ebert – Groener pact of 10 November between Ebert and General Groener of the OHL was put into action . Ebert talked to Major Kurt von Schleicher , who promised to have loyal troops from the environs of Berlin come to Ebert ' s help . He also expressed his hope that this would be a chance to " finally strike a blow against the radicals " . Regular troops from Potsdam and Babelsberg were mobilised and marched towards Berlin . They were the last remains of the ten divisions the government and OHL had originally brought to the capital to " restore law and order " between 10 and 15 December . Numbering just 800 men they nevertheless had some batteries of field artillery whilst the " Volksmarinedivision " had just side arms and machine guns . There is some uncertainty about what happened during the remaining hours of 23 December ; for example , whether the house arrest for the People ' s Deputies was cancelled . Between 5 and 7 pm there was a cabinet meeting in which Ebert failed to inform the USPD members of the approaching army units . The three USPD members of the Council then left the Chancellery . At some point , the " Volksmarinedivision " found out about the advancing troops for they also marched towards the Chancellery and got there first . Dorrenbach met Ebert and asked him to remove the army troops . At the same time , the officers of these units arrived in Ebert ' s office and asked him for his orders and whether they should open fire . Nothing is known about the ensuing conversation , except that Ebert promised to resolve the situation on the next day by a " Kabinettsbeschluss " ( cabinet decision ) . The result was that both sides pulled back . The " Volksmarinedivision " returned to the Marstall , the army to the Tiergarten . However , at 2 am Ebert did order the troops to attack the Marstall in the morning . Later , Ebert argued that he had done so to save the life of Wels . However , according to Philipp Scheidemann , another People ' s Deputy , Wels appeared in the Chancellery at around 3 am , an hour after the order was given but several hours before the attack started . According to a different version , there had been another telephone conversation between Ebert and Groener in which the latter had threatened to end their cooperation unless stern steps were taken against the revolting unit . 24 December 1918 . Shortly before 8 am the army units on the " Schlossplatz " opened fire with their artillery . Although there are just confused and contradictory accounts of the actual fighting , it was a victory for the " Volksmarinedivision " . The initial barrage of machine gun and artillery fire from several sides was without serious effects , except for significant damage to the buildings . In the first hour of fighting , around 60 shells hit the " Stadtschloss " and the " Marstall " . Between 9 and 10 am masses of unarmed civilians including women and children gathered and urged the army troops to stop fighting . At around 10 am , there was a pause in the fighting to allow the women and children to be removed from the vicinity of the fighting . At 10 : 30 , the fight resumed with increased ferocity and the " Volksmarinedivision " now was on the offensive . According to reports , some government troops switched sides . In addition , the " Sicherheitswehr " , part of the Berlin police force commanded by of the USPD , as well as armed and unarmed civilians joined the division and opposed the regular troops . Around noon , the skirmish ended . The army troops promised to leave and were offered a chance to withdraw . The " Volksmarinedivision " held the field but agreed to return to their quarters . Since both sides took their dead and wounded with them there were no independent estimates of casualties . But according to reports , the regular troops , untrained in civil warfare , suffered 56 dead against just 11 from the " Volksmarinedivision " . Consequences . As a direct result of the confrontation , which was seen as a political defeat for Ebert , Wels had to resign his post as commander of the city ' s forces ( " Stadtkommandant " ) . The division had to leave the Schloss and the Marstall but was not dissolved . Their demands for pay had to be satisfied and the reduction in size was postponed . A more important consequence of this event , which the Spartacist leader Karl Liebknecht called " Eberts Blutweihnacht " ( " Ebert ' s Bloody Christmas " ) , was that the USPD members left the " Rat der Volksbeauftragten " on 29 December . The next day , SPD members Gustav Noske and Rudolf Wissell took their place . That same day , the Spartacists severed their remaining links with the USPD and set themselves up as the new " Kommunistische Partei " ( ) . They were joined by some USPD members from Hamburg and Bremen . Thus the more radical elements had been pushed out of the revolutionary government . Rather than working inside it alongside the " Majority " SPD members , the USPD now joined the Spartacists in opposition to the SPD . None of those who had really wanted the revolution were still in power . Moreover , the radical left was deeply divided and there was no sign of a Lenin - type leader emerging . However , when the fallen members of the " Volksmarinedivision " were buried in Friedrichshain thousands of embittered people attended the funeral . They carried placards saying : " Als Matrosenmörder klagen wir an : Ebert , Landsberg und Scheidemann " ( Charged as murderers of sailors : Ebert , Landsberg and Scheidemann ) and shouted " Down with the traitors ! " . This foreshadowed the events of January 1919 . When Emil Eichhorn refused to accept his dismissal as president of the Berlin police — resulting not least from his support for the revolting sailors — the people took to the streets en masse in his support . This would lead to what has become known as the " Spartakusaufstand " or " Spartakuswoche " , but is more accurately referred to as the " Januaraufstand " ( " January Uprising " ) , since it was mostly an attempt by the revolutionary workers of Berlin to repeat their feat of 9 November and to regain what they had won then and subsequently half lost . The renewed failure of regular troops — after the disintegration of the forces assembled in Berlin for the planned restoration of order on 10 to 15 December — also gave support to those within the military who argued in favour of increased reliance on hard - core volunteer troops . Since the middle of November , the OHL had supported the creation by some officers of so - called " Freikorps " , voluntary units of soldiers who were mostly nationalistic , monarchistic and anti - revolution , even while the demobilisation of the regular ( conscripted ) army was ongoing . As a result of the " Weihnachtskämpfe " , the government — in particular Noske — now joined the OHL in these efforts . These new military forces were intended both to secure the eastern border ( e . g . in Posen ) and protect the newly formed Baltic states against the Red Army , but also to restore law and order within the " Reich " .