Volksmarinedivision
The First Section, with 1,550 men, was based in the Imperial Stables in Berlin and had as its main responsibility guarding the Reich Chancellery, the Reichsbank, Museum Island and the Ullstein publishing house.
Section II with 800 men was initially based in the Berlin Palace, later in a public establishment on Kistenmacher Street and then in the Prussian House of Representatives.
On 6 December 1918 sailors of the troop under the command of First Lieutenant of the Reserve Hermann von Wolff-Metternich, along with other military units, marched to the Reich Chancellery and publicly expressed their support for Chancellor Friedrich Ebert, who was head of the Council of the People's Deputies, the de facto German government during the November Revolution.
The plans to have the troops proclaim Ebert head of state with dictatorial powers had come from Hans von Haeften, a colonel in the Supreme Army Command.
Haeften discussed this with ministerial director Ferdinand von Stumm, who suggested that the People's Navy Division, led by his kinsman Wolff-Metternich, be allowed to head the enterprise.
On 30 December 1918 a detachment guarded the Prussian House of Representatives in Berlin where the founding conference of the German Communist Party (KPD) was taking place.
On 17 December Heinrich Dorrenbach, an influential member of the Division's central committee, succeeded in pushing a resolution through the Soldiers' Councils of Greater Berlin.
A delegation from the People's Navy Division invaded the session of the Reich Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils and demanded an immediate decision on the resolution.
[4] The refusal of the People's Navy Division to leave their quarters without the outstanding pay due them led to the Christmas crisis (German: Weihnachtskämpfe, 'Christmas battles') on 23 and 24 December 1918.
Regular troops under the command of General Arnold Lequis advanced against the People's Navy Division but were unable to storm the Palace because armed workers and other revolutionary units were supporting them.
Politically, the skirmish led to the breakup of the USPD-SPD coalition when the three USPD members of the Council of the People's Deputies resigned in protest of the actions taken by Ebert and the SPD.
The pressure from the troops was one of the triggers that prompted Karl Liebknecht, founder of the Communist Party of Germany, and others who were present to not only protest against the dismissal of Police President Emil Eichhorn for refusing to use his forces against the People's Navy Division during the skirmish at the Palace, but also to aim for the overthrow of the government.
When its members came to pick up their discharge papers and back pay, Otto Marloh of the Reinhard Freikorps regiment, whose commander claimed to be acting under the general orders of Reich Defense Minister Gustav Noske, selected out every tenth man and had him shot.
