Was There Really A Revolution?

There was also a lot of talk about revolution. People very much wanted a revolution like the one that had happened in Russia, to give power to the workers, while others wanted a strong government which would protect industry, and the rich, against trade unions and the threat of Communism. However the speeches from the social democrats were full of Marxist ideas. The opposing party to the Social Democrats were the Spartacus’s they talked about them taking over so they could revolutionise Germany Rosa Luxemburg talked about the revolution being great and strong as long as the social democrats don’t muck it up.

However there are many reasons for thinking the events of 1918 was not a revolution these reasons consist of the fact that the social democrats tried there hardest to stop parties that wanted a real revolution to happen in Germany they implied freicorps to keep control of the protests from extreme left-wing revolutionaries. The social democrats did not want a communist style revolution they still wanted the support of Germanys rich elite that had been a key factor to Germanys success previous to the war.

Many historians there for disagree about whether the events of 1918 should be titled revolution. The view of the historian Immanuel Geiss who wrote, “According to many textbooks a revolution is said to have taken place in Germany in November 1918. Indeed there was turbulent change in governments in that period, there were revolutionary noises all over the place but once the dust had settled, it soon emerged that precious little had changed in Germany.” Is that there was not a revolution in fact there was little to no reasons for calling the events of 1918. All that happened was the name of the government had changed in turbulent manor. Getting rid of the Kaiser was alone to extreme for the social democrats. And once that was over they ended the revolution. Dust was kicked up by extreme left-wing revolutionaries but once that dust had settled it appeared to everyone that the social democrats had not changed nothing in Germany everything was still pretty much the same.

I agree with the writer of the above source. Germany had been through rough times during November 1918, Mutinies and Protests were just two of the things that had kicked up dust. The social democrats were to afraid to change things they were afraid that if they did they would of lost the support of the industrialists and the landowners which had made Germany so powerful previous to the war. For a revolution to take place a complete change in society and government had to of taken place only one of those had happened. Society was till the same for the majority if not all people. Conditions were still the same and no improvements had been made. Germany had not been revolutionized with the social democrats in charge things continued to run the same.