[1] From 1897 to 1902, Noske was politically active at the local level and worked as an editor at social democratic newspapers in Brandenburg and Königsberg (Volkstribüne).

[2] He was known as a reformist, one of those in the SPD who wanted to achieve their political goals within the existing system, and as someone who was not much interested in fundamental theoretical debates.

In 1916 to 1918, he was the parliamentary speaker of a commission appointed by the government to investigate military procurement and related excess profits by contractors (Kommission für die Überprüfung der Kriegslieferungen).

[1][3]: 65  Within days he had succeeded in restoring the authority of the officers and in making the mutineers who had remained in Kiel resume their normal duties.

[1] As a result of the government's violent response to the revolt by the sailors of the Volksmarinedivision just before Christmas 1918, the representatives of the Independent Social Democrats (USPD) left the revolutionary government of the Council of the People's Deputies (Rat der Volksbeauftragten) at the end of the month, and Noske was one of two Majority Social Democrats who took their place on 30 December.

He ordered the rebellion quashed, and Noske, who was in charge of the Army and Navy, used both regular forces and Freikorps units to end the uprising.

[4] A few days later, on 15 January 1919, members of the Freikorps Garde-Kavallerie-Schützendivision led by Captain Waldemar Pabst abducted and murdered the co-leaders of the KPD, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg.

It met in Weimar and on 13 February 1919 the newly elected president Ebert appointed a new government, led by Philipp Scheidemann.

Despite substantial misgivings, he ultimately supported signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which severely curtailed the ability of Germany to maintain an effective military.

On 28 February 1920 Noske, following orders of the Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control, which oversaw Germany's compliance with the Treaty, dissolved the Freikorps Marinebrigaden "Ehrhardt" and "Loewenfeld".

The highest ranking general of the Reichswehr, Walther von Lüttwitz, refused to comply, resulting in what became known as the Kapp Putsch.

However, a general strike called by the unions, the Social Democrats and the government, as well as the refusal of the bureaucracy to recognise the new (self-declared) chancellor Wolfgang Kapp, resulted in a quick collapse of the coup.

[7] For some, Noske had the courage to be (in his own words) "the bloodhound"[a] and prevent Germany from falling into chaos and then tyranny of the type previously experienced by Russia after the Bolshevik October Revolution.

[7] Other historians have called him "a primitive brute, who conducted policy according to a simple friend-foe-pattern" and someone who was "unable to differentiate, who was in love with violence, who from his whole mentality would have fitted better into the NSDAP than into the SPD".