Today in Labor History November 9, 1918: Striking workers stormed the City Palace and the Rote Burg or "red fortress" in Berlin, freeing over 600 prisoners and declaring the buildings to be property of the people. Later that day, Karl Liebknecht, of the Spartacus League, stood on a truck and declared a Free Socialist Republic. This came on the heels of a General Strike, called the night before by the Revolutionary Stewards (union members who had opposed Germany’s participation in World War One), in which thousands of workers took to the streets, many of them armed. The soldiers and police who had been sent to suppress them, instead threw down their weapons and joined the revolution.
The revolution had begun in October, 1918 with the sailors’ mutiny in Kiel. Within a week, workers' and soldiers' councils controlled both the government and military institutions throughout the country. A Republic was declared on November 9, 1918. On November 10, workers formed the Council of the People’s Deputies, led by the two main socialist parties: the Social Democrats and the Independent Social Democrats. The Council promised to implement an eight-hour work day and to give women the vote. The left-wing factions of the revolution, like the Spartacists, also wanted to nationalize key industries, democratize the military, and replace the parliamentary government with one run by Workers’ Councils.
On January 1, 1919, Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg founded the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Discontent over the direction the Social Democrats were going led many other leftist groups to join the KPD. In early January, they attempted to overthrow the Social Democrats in the Spartacist Uprising. The Social Democrats called on the Freikorps, a paramilitary composed of World War One veterans, many of whom were suffering from PTSD, who ultimately quashed the uprising. 200 people died in the fighting. The Freikorps then murdered Luxemburg and Liebknecht in an extrajudicial execution. Members of the Freikorps later supported the Nazis rise to power. Many of them went on to join the SS.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #rosaluxemburg #karlliebknecht #spartacus #socialism #communism #workerscouncils #revolution #nazis #fascism
