German workers' and soldiers' councils 1918–1919

Meeting little to no resistance, they formed quickly, took over city governments and key buildings, caused most of the locally stationed military to flee and brought about the abdications of all of Germany's ruling monarchs, including Emperor Wilhelm II when they reached Berlin on 9 November 1918.

Most members wanted an end to the war and to German militarism, and the establishment of a parliamentary republic dominated by the moderate Social Democratic Party (SPD).

An election for a national assembly that would allow all Germans, not just workers and soldiers, to determine Germany's future form of government was scheduled for 19 January 1919.

In the early months of 1919, there were a number of violent revolts by workers who thought that the revolution had been stopped too soon and wanted to carry it forward to establish a council republic.

The government in Berlin, until 13 February still the Council of the People's Deputies, called on the army and the paramilitary Freikorps to suppress the uprisings, and there was considerable loss of life.

Workers' and soldiers' councils, for which the term "soviets" (German: Räte, singular Rat) was coined, were first set up during the Russian Revolution.

The USPD facilitated the creation of workers' councils, which, while not dedicated to revolutionary activity like their Russian counterparts, still promoted strikes and other popular agitation.

[4] Revolutionary sailors spread out from Kiel in the following days, reaching Bremen and Hamburg on the sixth, Hanover and Cologne on the seventh, and all major cities in the west of Germany by the eighth.

With the support of local citizens, they freed political prisoners and occupied city halls, military facilities and train stations.

With the backing of the SPD, the Revolutionary Stewards and the Spartacus League – groups that favoured a soviet-style council republic – called a general strike.

At midday, Reich Chancellor Max von Baden prematurely announced the abdication of the Emperor and, in formal breach of the Imperial Constitution, handed the chancellorship to Ebert.

The response of the SPD, which wanted a national assembly to determine the type of government, was: "If this request means the dictatorship of a section of a class that is not backed by the majority of the people, then we must reject the demand because it contradicts our democratic principles.

Emil Barth of the USPD, in a move that caught the SPD by surprise, then called for an action committee to oversee the Council and presented a list of radical leftists drawn up by the Revolutionary Stewards.

When members of the Spartacus League threatened Ebert, he went for safety to the Reich Chancellery where he received the assurances of Prussian Minister of War Heinrich Scheuch that the Council of the People's Deputies would be protected.

The rapid and consistent socialisation of the capitalist means of production is feasible without major upheaval, given Germany's social structure and the degree of maturity of its economic and political organisation.

"[16] In its commitment to democracy, the SPD thought that the "revolutionary mandate" of the spontaneously elected workers' and soldiers' councils should not be used in advance of a national assembly.

The Berlin Executive Council issued laws and decrees affecting basic rights such as freedom of opinion and also in the area of social policy.

[21] Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, the Spartacus leaders, had not been elected to the Congress, and a proposal to let them sit in as guests in an advisory capacity was turned down.

"[23]Max Cohen for the SPD proposed to hold the election to the national assembly on 19 January 1919, almost a month earlier than the Council of the People's Deputies had agreed on in late November.

Against the radical Left's accusation that the SPD was trying to end the revolution, Cohen warned of possible unforeseen domestic and foreign consequences of a council system.

[22] The Congress then approved a proposal by the SPD to give the Council of the People's Deputies lawgiving and executive power until the national assembly made a final decision on the form of government.

[27] In keeping with its support of a democracy that included all of German society and not just the workers and soldiers, it delayed the Congress' reform resolutions in order not to anticipate the national assembly's democratic choices.

[29] The popular discontent over the events of Christmas week led to the formation of a revolutionary committee by Georg Ledebour (USPD) and Karl Liebknecht of the newly established Communist Party of Germany (KPD) on 6 January 1919.

Additional worker unrest took place through early May 1919 in Hamburg, Bremen, Munich and the coal-mining regions of western and central Germany.

On the night of 5/6 November, a group of sailors from Kiel reached the port of Hamburg, disarmed the torpedo boats there and won the crews over to their side.

They occupied the main train station and union hall without resistance, but soldiers at an infantry barracks fought back and left a number of revolutionaries dead before they surrendered.

For instance, the workers' and soldiers' council of Neukölln controlled all local government departments, abolished the municipal authorities, took over the banks and declared housing to be communal property.

[39] The Council of the People's Deputies ceased to exist on 13 February when it passed its authority to the government of Minister President Philipp Scheidemann, newly elected by the National Assembly.