The German Revolution, 1918 (AQA A Level History: Component 2: Depth study): Revision Note

Summary

• The First World War had a devastating impact on the German people both at the front and at home

• As defeat became inevitable, unrest at home led to political problems for the Kaiser

  • Workers went on strike, and sailors refused to follow orders

  • The Kaiser was told that he had to abdicate, and he fled the country

• Germany's new leaders agreed to an Armistice on the 11th November 1918, which brought the fighting of the First World War to an end

  • However, this led to them being accused of stabbing Germany and its armies in the back and surrendering when they had not been defeated

The impact of the First World War on Germany

• Between 1914 and 1918, two million German soldiers died, and four million more were wounded

• Germany’s national debt rose from about 5 billion marks in 1914 to about 144 billion marks in 1918

• The German people were near starvation

  • The British Naval blockade had cut off overseas trade routes

  • This caused severe food shortages

The political crises of October–November 1918

• By September 1918, it was clear to Germany's military leaders that defeat was inevitable

  • By October 1918, many of the German people, exhausted and malnourished from years of war, sensed that defeat was inevitable too

  • Workers began to strike and demand peace

    • In November 1918, a breakaway Bavarian republic was declared

  • Also in November, the sailors mutinied and refused to obey orders at Germany's main Naval base in Kiel

• In the October 1918 constitutional reforms:

  • Ludendorff pressed for a civilian government to take responsibility for defeat

  • Prince Max von Baden was appointed Chancellor on 3 October

  • The constitution was amended so the Chancellor was answerable to the Reichstag, not the Kaiser

• Under pressure from the spreading revolution and a Social Democratic Party (SPD) ultimatum, Prince Max von Baden announced the Kaiser's abdication and resigned on 9 November

  • The leader of the SPD, Friedrich Ebert, became the new Chancellor

The abdication of the Kaiser

• On 9th November 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II’s military advisers told him he must abdicate to stop the civil unrest

  • General Groener informed the Kaiser that the army would no longer fight for him

  • On 10 November Groener telephoned Ebert to offer the army's support in return for the government leaving the officer corps intact - the Ebert-Groener Pact

  • He had little choice but to abdicate and, the very next day, he fled by train to the Netherlands, where he remained until his death in 1941

“The army will march home in calm and order under its leaders and commanding generals, but not by order of Your Majesty, because it no longer stands behind Your Majesty."

General Wilhelm Groener's address to Kaiser Wilhelm II on 9th November

The Armistice and the 'Stab in the Back' myth

• On the 11th November 1918, Germany's new leaders agreed to an Armistice

  • This was not a peace treaty but an agreement to stop fighting

  • The fighting never resumed and the negotiations ended with the Treaty of Versailles

    • The war was seen as humiliating and greatly angered many Germans

• The fact that Germany's defeat came about through its new leaders agreeing to an Armistice rather than being routed in a decisive battle led to the Dolchstoßlegende or 'Stab in the Back' myth

  • This argued that Germany's soldiers were still fighting on French and Belgian soil and were betrayed by Germany's new leaders

  • As Ebert was a member of the Social Democratic Party, people argued that it was socialists, republicans and Jewish people who had stabbed Germany in the back

• Despite enormous amounts of evidence to disprove this, the 'Stab in the Back' myth was widely believed in Germany throughout the 1920s and the 1930s

"The proud German Army, after victoriously resisting an enemy superior in numbers for four years, performing feats unprecedented in history, and keeping our foes from our frontiers, disappeared in a moment. Our victorious fleet was handed over to the enemy. The authorities at home, who had not fought against the enemy, could not hurry fast enough to pardon deserters and other military criminals, including among these many of their own number, themselves and their nearest friends.

They and the Soldiers' Councils worked with zeal, determination and purpose to destroy the whole military structure. Such was the gratitude of the new homeland to the German soldiers who had bled and died for it in millions. The destruction of Germany's power to defend herself - the work of Germans - was the most tragic crime the world has witnessed. A tidal wave had broken over Germany, not by the force of nature, but through the weakness of the Government, represented by the Chancellor, and the paralysis of a leaderless people."

An extract from My War Memories, 1914-1918  by Erich Ludendorff, published in 1920. Ludendorff was widely seen as a war hero who had led Germany's armies as a general and field marshal.

How far did the First World War cause the collapse of Imperial Germany?

• Historians disagree about the extent to which the First World War caused the collapse of Imperial Germany

• Some argue that the collapse was almost entirely due to the war

  • They argue that Germany's leaders were responsible for taking Germany to war, and therefore had to face the consequences of Germany's defeat

• Others argue that the German Constitution concentrated so much power in the hands of the Kaiser that it was inevitably going to lead to demands for reform and attempts to overthrow it

  • Unlike other European countries, Germany was still run as an autocracy, which would be increasingly unacceptable to the population of a wealthy and industrialised country