Saxony in the German Revolution (1918–1919)

Saxony in the German Revolution (1918–1919) followed a path that went from early control by workers' and soldiers' councils to the adoption of a republican constitution in a series of events that roughly mirrored those at the national level in Berlin.

An outbreak of violence at the time of the March 1920 Kapp Putsch led the national government to forcibly remove the Leipzig workers' council, the last one remaining in the state.

On 8 November, the Saxon king, Frederick Augustus III, fled to Moritzburg Castle northwest of Dresden after a workers' and soldiers' council took over control of the city.

[2] King Frederick Augustus, who had left Moritzburg for Guteborn in Prussia, abdicated on 13 November and requested that state officials continue to serve the "Fatherland".

[3] The new state it envisioned was to ensure freedom of association and religion, the eight-hour work day, a secure food supply and amnesty for those punished under the old system of "class justice".

By 16 January 1919, the discord between the two parties had grown to such a level that the USPD, led by Lipinski, withdrew its three members from the Central Council in Dresden.

The MSPD replaced them with its own members, giving them full control of the Council,[3] with Georg Gradnauer serving as Saxony's minister president.

Gradnauer's preferred alternative, a coalition with the German Democratic Party (DDP), was rejected by the majority of MSPD delegates.

The Freikorps unit Landjägerkorps of Major General Maercker entered Leipzig on 11 May, quieted the city with no loss of life and abolished the workers' council.