German Civil War

The **German Civil War**, also called the **German Revolution** was an armed conflict fought between a combination of pro-republican, anti-leftist and pro-monarchist forces against revolutionary socialists. Over the course of 6 months, the war would end with a decisive victory for the rebels.

## German Civil War

Syndicalist irregulars in Munich during the Battle of Munich.

### **Outcome**

Syndicalist/broad socialist victoryLiberal Republican loss

Creation of the first socialist republic

French occupation of the Saarland

The war, a combination of years worth of civil strife and government authoritarianism had finally reached a boiling point resulting in a popular uprising that, among other events shifted the old world order as Germany, just as it had done years before is now slowly rising back into prominence as an influential state in European affairs.

## The Bavarian General Strike

In February 1918, various Bavarian unions met in Augsburg to discuss the dire situation involving the workers of the country, agreeing in the end to call on a general strike to force not only the Republic to respect major working class reforms and but also force the Entente to stop meddling in German political affairs. They agreed to hold the strike on January 1919, hoping that it can paralyze the German economy and force the Republic to its knees. News of the planned strike secretly spread underground to help better prepare the workers for the occasion.

On the 6th of January, dozens of trade unions announced their plan to the whole of the country, and called on the whole of Germany to join in striking. In a couple of days over 100,000 workers went on strike in Bavaria alone, and in the rest of the country over 60,000 workers were on strike. Day by day, thousands of working people joined in solidarity strikes, resulting in dozens of factories being shut down and soon all of German life was frozen with very little people working. It is estimated at as many as 60% of the entire working class of Germany participated in these nationwide strikes. Major cities like Munich were incapable of debilitated while the streets were filled with thousands of people marching against the Republic. Many were calling for the end of the Republican government, and it became clear that the voice of the workers could not be silenced anymore.

The German government wanted to appease the strikers with their demands, but they were unable to do much being under the thumb of the Entente, who ordered the strikes to be crushed and order be restored. Police and military were sent in, while the Entente allowed an ease of restrictions on conscription and assisted Berlin with thousands of volunteers. This time however, the workers were ready for a confrontation with the Republican loyalists and began attacking soldiers and police loyalists throughout several cities.

Those organizations once suppressed for supplying the greater German populace with food and assistance were used again by the strikers to redistribute resources to striking people and their families. Pamphlets were created, taking pro-pacifist to pro-revolutionary stances and were printed on masse.

On the 17th as the strikes grew, Rosa Luxemburg, famed German-Polish Marxist was present in Berlin when she held a rally in support of the strikers, calling for "liberty, wealth and equality to all workers of Europe" when an unknown assassin fired his gun and shot Rosa 2 times in the stomach and knee. Although Rosa would survive, the unknown assassin did not, and was killed by a furious mob just 5 minutes after the gun was fired. His identity was never recovered, but various pro-socialist news outlets accused the Republicans and Entente in aiding the assassin, which both flatly deny. The news however saw an eruption of outrage against the loyalists and a few days later 4 small towns in the state of Brandenburg were reported to fall into chaos, as the striking crowds present pushed themselves over the edge to become a revolutionary fighting force.

Faced with an overwhelming amount of hatred by the general population, Germany had no choice but declare martial law across every state, and the military was sent into every city and town to reassemble order in early February as over 500,000 workers were on strike, a stark contrast from just 1 month beforehand.

## The revolution begins

In the small city of Jena, battles by strikers versus the military was quite brutal and showed the violent fervor of the striking mob and how far they were willing to go to fend off loyalist forces. Although the city was taken over by the military the population showed no sympathy, and the military suffered over 10 times more casualties than the strikers for that reason. But the first Battle of Jena had stricken fear into the hearts of many in the military, weary from the reports of the battle, ill equipped and undertrained. In Munich for example, like that of these towns in Brandenburg the working class finally were pushed over the edge and actively began resisting the military's incursion into the city on the 8th of February, a major and strategic location of interest for both sides.

Outnumbered, many in the military were slaughtered and mutilated by the strikers, with their bodies strung up for the whole city to see. This violent tactic was used to repulse the military out of fear, and it eventually proved to be successful. After 200 casualties and rumors of soldiers receiving "a fate worse than death" the men fighting in Munich deserted their posts and duties. Others joined the revolutionary crowd, and by the 25th Munich was successfully overtaken by socialist forces. Run by various trade unions who then appointed Eugen Leviné to assert control over the city, he just 2 days later declared formal independence from the German Republic as the Bavarian Union, calling upon the rest of the working class of Germany to "throw off your chains and join your comrades to victory!". Munich was able to avoid descending into chaos by an improper militia force which kept order in the city, while thousands of men were conscripted to become a part of the Unionist army. A few towns were overrun by revolutionaries soon after that as the number of strikers went from 500,000 to 800,000 by March.

## The “Red Tsunami”

After Munich was secured and the news was heard across the country, leftist rioters became more bold and bigger bloodier battles had begun. Although Germany was unable to keep over 100,000 troops in their army, the fall of Munich and escalation of violence by socialists resulted in enacting mass conscription for the hopes of crushing the labor and unionists once and for all. The ongoing issue with hunger and financial difficulties pushed thousands to the side of the socialists. Riots broke out across over 20 major cities and 40 rural towns by men and women demanding reforms or risk the "imminent revolution of the people".

Soon after Munich had fallen, the president, quite controversially, personally reached out to many far-right leaders who led various militia units for the purpose of allying them to the “loyalist” side of the civil war. To his relief, these leaders momentarily agreed to his proposal, and the militias were used to keep “order” in large cities to prevent socialists from causing discontent in urban areas. After a brawl between a small group of women-lead syndicalists and militia-men in a church in Hamburg during Sunday mass which ended in a massacre of most of the women and people inside, militia units began specifically targeting women, Jews and Muslims, who were seen as “traitors to the German people”, and massacres of these people ensued across Germany, to the widespread outrage of the rest of Europe.

In March along the Rhine River people in several towns revolted in reaction to the conscription effort. Although the people of these towns were neutral with unionist and communist sympathies in the beginning, brawls with the police began in late January after they refused to send their men into another war. As the government refused to bow down to the anti-conscription movement, workers began successful offensives and took several cities west of the River, declaring the communist Rhine Republic. Bonn became the temporary capital as it was the next major city to fall to rebel hands.

As the rebel militias grew in number, foreign armies fighting with Berlin were bogged down by the revolutionaries and the volunteers began to mutiny and strike to demand to be sent back home. First the British, then French and the Russians pulled their forces out of the country in late July. Only various irregular volunteer armies from Argentina, the USA and dozens of other countries remained, but they were able to do little to prevent a syndicalist victory. By the time of early summer, much of Bavarian countryside had been taken. In late June most of the territory west of the Rhine River fell into the Rhine Republic's hands, while talks between Bonn and Munich over the idea of unification commenced. Under pressure from the general population and the rebel militias, the Rhine Agreements were reached on the 5th of June, dissolving the provisional governments of Bavaria and the Rhine Republic into the Union of German States, significantly boosting the strength of the western syndicalist tide, and tapping Karl Liebknecht as acting chairman.

With this victory, regions held by the loyalists fell into chaos as many soldiers began deserting large cities, leading them to be in the hands of the growing far-right militias. Unable to wait for the arrival of the syndicalists long enough, revolutionary militias, lead mostly by women opposing the oppressive rule of the loyalists were created and clashed with anti-socialist militias. These revolutionary “armies” would be the unofficial predecessor of the radically feminist Luxemburgist faction in the Trade Unions Congress, created a few years later when the civil war ended.

Shortly after the German Union was proclaimed, Paris, fearing for the idea that the Rhineland's natural resources wouldn't be available for them to use in the case of a syndicalist victory in the civil war, invaded the Saarland which was controlled by loyalists who crushed any sort of rebellious activity early on in the civil war but failed to repulse the Rhine Republic. The French wanted to capture the Saarland with its immense resource amount, knowing it was too dangerous to let the workers take control of the land. The French invaded on the 4th of July and on the 5th after a short battle Saarbrücken was taken, a harrowing and devastating defeat for the loyalist holdout. Without Saarbrücken their resistance to the socialist siege fell apart, and they were overrun by join French-German syndicalist forces.

Any further assaults were halted by a series of anti-communist guerillas who managed to retake part of the Rhineland before being crushed in late July.

By August the republic has fallen apart. The last remaining people in the government quickly fled in Koserow where they arrived in Sweden. As a result the last remaining regions of the republic quickly fell to the revolution. Berlin was about to be taken, but thanks to a heroic defense by the republicans, they syndicalists retreated past the city and put the rest of the city on siege for 2 weeks while the rest of Germany fell. By the 2nd week of the siege much of the city was decimated and the army in Berlin was falling apart and when syndicalist forces finally entered Berlin, they faced heavy fighting from the remainder of the army. The fighting took place over the course of 5 days but by the end, the Syndicalist flag was hoisted on the Reichstag and the last of the royalist elements surrendered, and the German Civil War had finally come to an end.

## Aftermath

Skirmishes and popular resistance would still be a thorn in the side of the already successful socialist movement in Germany, and the German resistance would continue well into 1921. It was only through the aggressive and controversial Social Protection Act that would flush out all major resistance movements in Germany, while the Treaty of Versailles had to be re-ratified, and as a result in October the Treaty of Saarlouis between Russian, British, French and German delegates.

The new German state was fragile at best, and many feared the regime would collapse as early as it came into existence, which only died down with the establishment of the Peoples' Union of America.