Weimar Republic

By late 1918, the German army was exhausted and in retreat. Four years of war had left the country short of food and hope. Military leaders knew defeat was coming, but the German public had not been told.

In October 1918, sailors at Kiel refused orders to sail on a suicidal final mission. Their mutiny spread across Germany. Workers and soldiers formed revolutionary councils, inspired by what had happened in Russia.

“The empire did not fall in battle. It collapsed from within.”

Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated on 9 November 1918. That same day, a republican government was declared from a window in Berlin — partly to stop radical revolutionaries claiming power first.

The new republic inherited the blame for a war it had not started. Civilian politicians signed the armistice and were immediately branded as traitors by those who refused to accept defeat.

On 9 November 1918, two competing visions of Germany's future fought for control. Social Democrats led by Friedrich Ebert wanted a stable parliamentary democracy. Radical revolutionaries, inspired by Russia, wanted something far more sweeping.

Ebert became head of the new government but had to make compromises immediately. To keep order, he struck a deal with the old military — men who had just lost the war and were deeply suspicious of democracy.

“The republic was built on compromises that would haunt it for years.”

Workers' and soldiers' councils spread across Germany demanding radical change. The government called in right-wing paramilitary units — the Freikorps — to restore order. It worked in the short term, but it meant the new republic was relying on forces hostile to it.

Germany had a republic. But its foundations were uncertain from the very start.

Just weeks after Germany's new government took shape, radical revolutionaries tried to seize power. The Spartacist League, led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, called on Berlin workers to rise up. They wanted to overthrow the Social Democratic government and create a communist state.

The government had no reliable army. Instead it called on the Freikorps — right-wing paramilitary units made up of former soldiers. They crushed the uprising with brutal force.

“The republic survived by using its enemies to defeat its rivals.”

Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were captured and murdered by Freikorps soldiers in January 1919. Their deaths caused a lasting split between the Social Democrats and the communist left — a division that would weaken opposition to the Nazis fourteen years later.

The uprising failed, but the damage it did to German democracy lasted far longer than the fighting.