On this day, 9 November 1918, in Berlin, the workers and soldiers of German’s capital delivered the death blow to the Kaiser regime. The previous night, members of an illegal group of revolutionary workers, the Revolutionary Stewards, had called for a general strike in the capital. At 8 AM thousands took to the streets, some carrying weapons, others signs declaring: Peace, Freedom, Bread, Socialism. The government ordered the military to stop the uprising, but by 10:15 am almost all regiments in the city took the side of the people. More and more people marched towards the government area. Soldiers threw their weapons into the Spree river.
With no word from the Kaiser in Belgium, the Chancellor Max von Baden handed over his job to Friedrich Ebert, the head of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Ebert’s first official act was signing a flyer in which he urged the “fellow citizens” to leave the streets and go home. Ignoring his message, thousands surrounded the police headquarters. When the anti-war activist Emil Eichhorn knocked at the door to ask the authorities to hand over the building, the police threw their pistols and sabres into the courtyard and left. The demonstrators then freed 650 political prisoners and raised a red flag from the roof.
The SPD politician, Philipp Scheidemann, learned that Karl Liebknecht, the revolutionary, planned to declare a socialist republic. So at 2 pm, Scheidemann proclaimed at the Reichstag a “Social Republic.” At 4:30 pm, Liebknecht declared a “Free Socialist Republic.” A few hours later, he was invited to join the new government but he declined, instead demanding “All power to the Workers’ Councils.”
While Ebert formed a government, the Revolutionary Stewards had other plans: to establish a republic of councils.
In our online store we have a book with more info about the Revolution, and it’s also celebrated by our T-Shirt of the Month, made by a workers coop: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/all/german-revolution https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2130274113824394/?type=3