In addition there was another reason which led to revolution from above and that was the failure of the spring offensive, the spring offensive were a series of attacks created by the Germans along the western front during the First World War, however due to the failure of these necessary attacks the revolution from above had undergone.
The revolution from below was a stage in Germany when the government changed from a constitutional monarchy into a Republic which was a much better form of Liberal Democracy. Due to this change Prince Max wasn’t chancellor anymore, he and other members of the ruling elites were pressured into leaving in order to prevent a full scale communist revolution, so Friedrich Ebert became chancellor. The Kaiser fled to Holland and Ebert became chancellor on the 9th of November, he was now in a position to sign the armistice which he did on 11th of November. However he soon had to deal with a major problem which was that many people wanted a communist/soviet Germany but also many people did like the ideas of Liberal Democracy, Ebert was determined to prevent the country from undergoing a communist revolution.
One of the main reasons which led to the revolution from below was the political pressure from people on the left wing who wanted a revolution and a Liberal Democracy. However Ebert had to focus on defeating the people who wanted a communist Germany, this was a problem as sailors and soldiers had mutinied and created councils, also Eugen Levine who was a member of the KPD became leader of the Bavarian Republic and he created Red Guards to protect the revolution, red guards were armed factory workers and this became a problem as Ebert had to defeat very dangerous people and he needed support of the army.
Ebert needed support so he made a very important deal with General Groaner, this deal was secret and it helped to crush communism, moreover Ebert also made a deal with the industrialists, trade unions and the workers. Ebert created workers rights and gave them an eight hour day, also in return the trade unions promised that the workers would turn up for work and in the long term they were guaranteed stability. This deal was important as he gained a lot of the public’s and workers’ support which proved to be vital later on in the general election.
Carrying on Ebert made a secret deal with General Groener because Ebert needed to defend the new democratic government and they both needed to abolish communism therefore this secret deal was made which meant that Ebert had the support of the army and the elites.
Ebert needed to abolish communism in order to defend and protect the new democratic government so he crushed the Spartacists revolution by using the Freikorps. The Freikorps was a general name for about 200 paramilitary groups who were ex-service men and they were dominated by right-wing nationalists, they saw themselves as protectors of Germany from communism, the Freikorps exterminated communism under the power of Ebert and they were used because of their power and reputation, therefore they helped the government forcibly to suppress left-wing revolts. With the help of the Freikorps the leaders of the Spartacists Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were assassinated.
In January 1919 Ebert needed a general election to legitimise his power, in the general election the social democrats won even more power in the Reichstag, this general election was needed to legitimise the government, the general election was a sign of victory for the Republic over communism.
In conclusion the German revolution was an attempt to overthrow the new government and it failed miserably, with the power Ebert had using the elites he protected the government from communism and some could argue that without the support of the army and Freikorps maybe Communism would have overthrown the government however even after communism was defeated there were further attempts to overthrow the government from different movements but the Freikorps were there to protect the government and so it seems that Ebert needs their support more than they need him.
