Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,995
"Wer hat uns verraten? Sozialdemokraten!"
Mutinous sailors of the Imperial Navy...
...who didn't feel like getting burned up in an epic "last battle" against the far superior British fleet (which the naval command planned as an "honorable sinking"!) form on November 4, 1918 in the large naval base at Kiel the first German workers' and soldiers' council!
This democratic self-governing body borrowed from the Russian Revolution, where since March 1917 such "soviets" (councils) had played an important role in crushing the tsarist regime!
The USPD members Karl Artelt, sailor in the II Torpedo Boat Shipyard Division (on the left ofin the following photo)...
...and elected his deputy Lothar Popp, who was dismissed as unfit for service after 20 months as a seaman and is now a civilian employee of the same shipyard. In the next picture he is wearing a civilian hat with his uniform coat...:
All other members of the council are either USPD (left social democrats) or SPD(social democrats) members.
By noon all ships, the port itself and the large naval garrison are under the influence of the Soldiers' Council.
Also from the garrison commander in Kiel, Admiral Wilhelm Souchon...
... to help called "loyal" infantry units from Rendsburg, Neumünster and Schleswig can no do anything and are sent back. Sometimes they even join the uprising!
On the same day, this first workers' and soldiers' council passed a resolution containing 14 demands, which from today's point of view does not sound unreasonable - but at the time it was really revolutionary...:
In addition to impunity, the release of all political prisoners involved and decent treatment, the 14th point is decided as the main demand, namely that all future decisions are only valid if they have been approved by the Workers' and Soldiers' Council beforehand.
In the evening, SPD politician Gustav Noske travels in a hurry...
...from Berlin and "places himself at the head of the workers' and soldiers' council", as it says in the history of the SPD - for which he was neither elected nor authorized by anyone!
And it goes on there:
"He (Noske, M.A.'s note) succeeded in moderating and ultimately neutralizing the revolutionary movement."
On the following day, the council still manages to have the red flag of the revolution hoisted on all ships of the Imperial Navy...:
There are two dead on the battleship "Großer Kurfürst" when the ship's officers want to defend the war flag and die in the process!
As a compromise - to avoid further casualties - it is agreed: the war flag is to be dropped - but a red flag does not have to be hoisted. Auch das spricht für die vernünftigen Ansichten des Arbeiter- und Soldatenrates, der jedes Blutvergießen zu vermeiden suchte.
But then the shrewd politician Noske maneuvers (here during a speech at Kiel...)
... the Workers' and Soldiers' Council gradually faded into insignificance.
Noske will become one of the co-founders (and ministers) of the Weimar Republic - and as a result of his betrayal the Communist Party is formed - which until then did not exist in Germany.
Incidentally, the proverb still reminds us of these events in Kiel around November 4th: "Wer hat uns verraten? Sozialdemokraten!" ("Who betrayed us? Social Democrats!")
Mutinous sailors of the Imperial Navy...
...who didn't feel like getting burned up in an epic "last battle" against the far superior British fleet (which the naval command planned as an "honorable sinking"!) form on November 4, 1918 in the large naval base at Kiel the first German workers' and soldiers' council!
This democratic self-governing body borrowed from the Russian Revolution, where since March 1917 such "soviets" (councils) had played an important role in crushing the tsarist regime!
The USPD members Karl Artelt, sailor in the II Torpedo Boat Shipyard Division (on the left ofin the following photo)...
...and elected his deputy Lothar Popp, who was dismissed as unfit for service after 20 months as a seaman and is now a civilian employee of the same shipyard. In the next picture he is wearing a civilian hat with his uniform coat...:
All other members of the council are either USPD (left social democrats) or SPD(social democrats) members.
By noon all ships, the port itself and the large naval garrison are under the influence of the Soldiers' Council.
Also from the garrison commander in Kiel, Admiral Wilhelm Souchon...
... to help called "loyal" infantry units from Rendsburg, Neumünster and Schleswig can no do anything and are sent back. Sometimes they even join the uprising!
On the same day, this first workers' and soldiers' council passed a resolution containing 14 demands, which from today's point of view does not sound unreasonable - but at the time it was really revolutionary...:
In addition to impunity, the release of all political prisoners involved and decent treatment, the 14th point is decided as the main demand, namely that all future decisions are only valid if they have been approved by the Workers' and Soldiers' Council beforehand.
In the evening, SPD politician Gustav Noske travels in a hurry...
...from Berlin and "places himself at the head of the workers' and soldiers' council", as it says in the history of the SPD - for which he was neither elected nor authorized by anyone!
And it goes on there:
"He (Noske, M.A.'s note) succeeded in moderating and ultimately neutralizing the revolutionary movement."
On the following day, the council still manages to have the red flag of the revolution hoisted on all ships of the Imperial Navy...:
There are two dead on the battleship "Großer Kurfürst" when the ship's officers want to defend the war flag and die in the process!
As a compromise - to avoid further casualties - it is agreed: the war flag is to be dropped - but a red flag does not have to be hoisted. Auch das spricht für die vernünftigen Ansichten des Arbeiter- und Soldatenrates, der jedes Blutvergießen zu vermeiden suchte.
But then the shrewd politician Noske maneuvers (here during a speech at Kiel...)
... the Workers' and Soldiers' Council gradually faded into insignificance.
Noske will become one of the co-founders (and ministers) of the Weimar Republic - and as a result of his betrayal the Communist Party is formed - which until then did not exist in Germany.
Incidentally, the proverb still reminds us of these events in Kiel around November 4th: "Wer hat uns verraten? Sozialdemokraten!" ("Who betrayed us? Social Democrats!")
