Betrayal of the 1918 German Revolution[edit | edit source]
On October 24, 1918, two Admirals of German Naval Command independently ordered a suicidal attack against the British Navy after peace negotiations had begun and fighting had stopped. Sailors, unwilling to die for the honor of men who would not fight, refused to do this and revolted. Coastal revolt quickly spread, transforming into a wave of strikes and demonstrations. Organizing themselves into councils of sailors and workers, the men demanded ‘Peace and Bread’.
SDP and union leadership resented the councils and collaborated against them. On November 10th, Friedrich Ebert (SDP leader) made a call to General Wilhelm Groener, the new First General Quartermaster of the German Army; in exchange for the support of the army, Ebert promised to reinstate the military hierarchy and to take military action against the councils. Simultaneously, from November 9th to the 12th union leaders met with Hugo Stinnes, a representative of the Rhine-Westphalian coal syndicate and member of the Pan-German league; in exchange for orderly production, an end to wildcat strikes, and promises against nationalization, union representatives received the sole concession of an eight-hour workday. Against the workers and sailors demonstrating in the streets and organizing in councils, Social Democrats and union leaders allied themselves with business interests and military brass against social revolution. And indeed, the 1919 January Revolt would be crushed by the Freikorps Ebert called for in November of the previous year. This reactionary vanguard would even be led by an SDP member, a former People's Representative for Army and Navy, who accepted the role by saying, “If you like, someone has to be the bloodhound. I won't shy away from the responsibility." Further worker concessions would be won, and a republic (or two) declared, but economic and military power stayed firmly where they were. In the words Friedrich Ebert, “If the Kaiser does not abdicate, the social revolution is unavoidable. But I do not want it, indeed I hate it like sin."