Before the armistice was signed however, the second major factor that helped the revolutionary situation to take a hold occurred. On the 28th October 1918, Admiral Reinhard Scheer ordered the fleet on one last “suicide mission” against the british naval blockade. The sailors mutinied and the final offensive never took place. However the Kiel Mutiny was a major rung in the ladder, as it was the first step of the “Revolution from Below” this was when the workers and soldiers gathered in there thousands to rally against the government rule. They called for a German republic and they passed a resolution that set up workers and sailors councils.
The 9th of November is a very important day in German history, as three major events shook the foundations upon which the basis of German rule had been laid. It was on this day that the Kaiser gave up his fight against the ever mounting pressure on him to leave, and he fled to Holland. On the same day, Prince Max’s five week old party government was the second victim. As his government system collapsed, he appointed Freidrich Ebert to succeed him. Ebert was a socialist, and despite being reliable and modest, he was also uninteresting. The third, and final major event of the 9th November 1918 was the declaration of a German republic by the socialist Philipp Scheidermann from the balcony of the Reichstag Building.
Two days later, the armistice was signed.
By now the socialists had almost complete control over Germany, it’s future was theirs to decided, however a rift was growing ever larger between their own ranks, and a spin-off political group, the USPD, this was headed by Hugo Haase. The reason that this spin off group came about was because of two different attitudes towards the war. USPD came out openly against the war whereas the SPD or Majority Socialists continued to support it.
On the 19th December 1918, congress voted to hold elections for the constituent assembly against the wishes of the USPD and the Spartacus league. These elections where set to take place one month later on the 19th January 1919.
However, on the 6th of January, the spartacists rose up against the December Congress. They occupied newspaper offices, government buildings and railway stations. The leaders of the Spartacus League, or German Communist Party, were Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, they recognized the fact that the Spartacists were too few to take power but had been spurred into action because they felt that the time for a revolution was slipping away, and when the revolt started they worked endlessly for its success. This uprising lasted until the 11th of January, when the Freikorps were called in by the Government to route them out.
Therefore in my opinion, by looking at the evidence we can see that the revolutionary situation of October 1918 to January 1919 didn’t become a revolution because those who wished to bring the revolution about, the Spartacists and the USPD, were not prepared for combat which they experienced when the freikorps came in. Also, their numbers were too few in order to overcome the army and overthrow the government.
