The events were the result of a general strike by the Berlin working class to enforce the widely anticipated socialization of key industries, as well as the legal safeguarding of the workers' and soldiers' councils and thus the democratization of the military.

On 3 March, workers from AEG Hennigsdorf drafted a resolution for a general strike in order to enforce the so-called "Hamburg Points" for democratizing the military that had been approved by the Reichsrat Congress in Berlin in December 1918.

The German government, under the leadership of the Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany, responded with the imposition of a siege on Berlin and Spandau by the military on the orders of Defence Minister Gustav Noske.

The Volksmarinedivision, which had previously taken a neutral role during the Spartacist Uprising, distributed weapons to the strikers and fought government troops after a member was fatally wounded.

Much of this bloodshed can be attributed to orders from Freikorps commander Waldemar Pabst that permitted the summary execution of all individuals caught with a firearm, which resulted in the killing of many civilians and war veterans who were uninvolved in the strike.

Among those killed was Communist Party leader Leo Jogiches, the former personal partner of murdered revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg.

[4][5] The March Battles represent one of the bloodiest but largely forgotten conflicts within the revolutionary struggles in Germany after the First World War.

This government proved unwilling to enforce the Hamburg Points, and the military high command actively worked against democratization and reform.

The publicist Sebastian Haffner described this period as a "civil war" in Germany: "In reality, there was only one thing at stake: the existence of the workers' and soldiers' councils and thus the legitimacy of the revolution.

"[8] The workers' councils in Berlin had, since mid-February, sought to reorganize the Reichsrat Congress in order to enforce the demands of the November Revolution.

The soldiers' councils sought similar goals, seeing the dominance of the Freikorps and former imperial officers over the military as a threat to democratization and reform.

The Central Council, solely controlled by the MSPD and in charge of the reorganization of a new Reichsrat Congress, hesitated in addressing the demands.

[9] Although supportive of the demands, the USPD and KPD were cautious about engaging in street protests due to previous experiences with the Freikorps.

The MSPD's control of the Berlin Trade Union Commission proved decisive, as they too called for the strike to end.

In an attempt to calm the situation, Richard Müller publicly disassociated the strike effort from those engaging in "trouble-making".

[18] The situation grew more volatile on 5 March after Freikorps forces attacked a detachment from the Volksmarinedivision that had attempted to negotiate the occupation of the police headquarters.

The incident shifted the opinion of the sailors, who distributed weapons to strikers and began to actively fight the Freikorps.

The conduct of the fighting, especially the indiscriminate usage of artillery by the Freikorps in heavily-populated residential areas, contributed greatly to the large death toll.

On the same day, 'Vossische' and 'Vorwärts', based on the statements of Mayor Ziethen, declared 'that all the news about the mass shootings of guards and detectives in the conquest of the Lichtenberg police headquarters have proved untrue'.

"[24] On 9 March, using the misreported atrocities as justification, Gustav Noske decreed:"The brutality and bestiality of the Spartacists who fight against us compel me to give the following order: any person who is caught with arms in his hands in the struggle against the government will be shot on the spot.

Firearms searches commenced at random resulting in numerous summary executions, including against those uninvolved in the strike.

The Freikorps indiscriminately attacked residential buildings under the claim that they had been shot at, leaving entire areas in complete ruin from artillery and aerial bombs.

[25][26] The conservative mayor of Lichtenberg, Oskar Ziethen, sought a truce between Noske and the insurgents to avoid further bloodshed.

[23] The Lichtenberg city council established a commission to determine the cost of the damage, which presented its analysis in April 1919.

Lichtenberg would become a stronghold for the USPD and KPD, and relations between the Communists and the Social Democrats were left permanently in tatters.

In the Ruhr area, central Germany and Berlin, mass strikes called for the recognition of workers councils and the immediate socialization of key industries.