The term German October describes the plan of the
Executive Committee of the Communist International
The Executive Committee of the Communist International, commonly known by its acronym, ECCI (Russian acronym ИККИ), was the governing authority of the Comintern between the World Congresses of that body. The ECCI was established by the Foundin ...
(ECCI), to exploit the state crisis of the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...
which reached its apex in 1923 and attempt a
communist revolution
A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution often, but not necessarily, inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism. Depending on the type of government, socialism can be used as an intermediate stage ...
in Germany. Following the example of the Russian
October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
of 1917, the communists wanted to seize power and thereby start a new wave of revolutions in Central Europe. This was viewed as a prelude to the communist
world revolution
World revolution is the Marxist concept of overthrowing capitalism in all countries through the conscious revolutionary action of the organized working class. For theorists, these revolutions will not necessarily occur simultaneously, but whe ...
. When the
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...
(KPD) under the slogan of a left "
United Front
A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political ...
" entered into a coalition in October 1923 with the
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been the ...
(SPD) in the states of
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
and
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
, the revolutionaries saw a favorable moment for an uprising.
The revolution, planned for October/November 1923, was crushed by the Reich government which used the ''
Reichsexekution
In German history, a ''Reichsexekution'' (sometimes "Reich execution" in English) was an imperial or federal intervention against a member state, using military force if necessary. The instrument of the ''Reichsexekution'' was constitutionally av ...
'' against Saxony and Thuringia, suspending the authority of the Socialist state governments.
Background
The October events formed a part of the existential crisis of the Weimar Republic in 1923. Three major events in 1923, the
occupation of the Ruhr
The Occupation of the Ruhr (german: link=no, Ruhrbesetzung) was a period of military occupation of the Ruhr region of Germany by France and Belgium between 11 January 1923 and 25 August 1925.
France and Belgium occupied the heavily industria ...
, separatist unrest in the
Rhineland
The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section.
Term
Historically, the Rhinelands ...
and the
Palatinate, and the danger of
Hitler's far-right beer hall putsch in
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
spreading across the country put the Weimar Republic government under extreme pressure. In autumn 1923 the Weimar Republic found itself in political chaos. By the order of the
Reich President
''Reich'' (; ) is a German noun whose meaning is analogous to the meaning of the English word "realm"; this is not to be confused with the German adjective "reich" which means "rich". The terms ' (literally the "realm of an emperor") and ' (lit ...
Friedrich Ebert
Friedrich Ebert (; 4 February 187128 February 1925) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the first President of Germany (1919–1945), president of Germany from 1919 until his death in office in 1925.
Eber ...
, a state of emergency was imposed in Germany on September 26, 1923.
Occupation of the Ruhr by the French and Belgians
Shortly after the
Cuno Cuno is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include:
Given name:
* Cuno Amiet (1868–1961), Swiss artist
*Cuno Hoffmeister (1892–1968), German astronomer
*Cuno of Praeneste (died 1122), German cardinal
* Cuno Pümpin (b ...
government took office, Belgian and French troops marched into Germany on January 11, 1923 and occupied the
Ruhr area
The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...
. The reason was that Germany did not fulfill her reparations obligations under the
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
by failing to deliver sawn timber, telegraph poles and coal. France, hounded by its foreign creditors, was ready to use force to extract reparations from Germany. This approach was heavily criticized and, among other things, viewed as a policy “close to the edge of the war”. France received no support from the Allies.
But neither Washington nor London hurried to Germany's aid.
Adam Tooze
John Adam Tooze (born 1967) is an English historian who is a professor at Columbia University, Director of the European Institute and nonresident scholar at Carnegie Europe. Previously, he was Reader in Twentieth-Century History at the Universi ...
: ''The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916–1931''. Allen Lane, 2014.
The response of the Cuno government was a policy of "passive resistance": "refusing follow the instructions of the occupiers." As part of the passive resistance, public moments of silence were held and the officials and employees of the
Reichsbahn
The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...
delayed the travel of the coal trains to the west. When this took effect, after a while the French troops began to seize and shut down mines and coking plants and to arrest people. They also took over the railway system. The Reich had to continue to pay the salaries of officials and employees of the Reichsbahn and also give the mining companies large loans so that they could pay the salaries of their workers. This intensified the economic hardship that resulted in the
hyperinflation
In economics, hyperinflation is a very high and typically accelerating inflation. It quickly erodes the real value of the local currency, as the prices of all goods increase. This causes people to minimize their holdings in that currency as t ...
.
Countrywide strikes and coup attempts in Saxony and Thuringia
At the same time there were
strikes and unrest against the Reich government throughout the country, especially in Bavaria. The trade unions and workers' assemblies close to the KPD tried to instigate a general strike against the Cuno government. During this time the KPD was very influential in Saxony, where a social democratic
minority government
A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and Cabinet (government), cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or Coalition government, coalition of parties do ...
under
Erich Zeigner ruled with parliamentary support from the KPD. One consequence was that the paramilitary
proletarian hundreds were not banned there, but began in August 1923 to intensify their military exercises and to collect weapons. Also in Thuringia with a social democratic minority government under
August Frölich, the KPD was influential and its hundreds were not banned.
Separatists in the Rhineland and the Palatinate
Also in autumn 1923 there was separatist unrest in the Rhineland with the aim of founding a
Rhenish Republic
The Rhenish Republic (german: Rheinische Republik) was proclaimed at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) in October 1923 during the occupation of the Ruhr by troops from France and Belgium (January 19231925) and subjected itself to French protectorate. It ...
and breaking away from the German Reich. From October 21, 1923, the separatists brought some Rhenish city and community administrations (e.g. in Aachen, Koblenz, Bonn, Wiesbaden, Trier and Mainz) under their control, partly with the help of the Belgian and French occupation troops.
On October 21 they proclaimed a "Rhenish Republic", on November 12th an "
Autonomous Palatinate". Since no German military was allowed in the Rhineland according to the provisions of the Versailles Treaty, the Reich government could not use its military to end the uprising.
The separatist control was initially recognized by France. The reason for this was that the French wanted to set up buffer states between France and Germany to ensure their future security. This approach was met with disapproval by the German, British and American governments,
as well as resistance from the population
and led to the end of the uprising by November 1923 after operations by
Prussian
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...
police and auxiliaries as well as the withdrawal of the French support for the separatists.
Attempt of a communist revolution in Germany
Decision in Moscow
The decision to attempt a communist revolution was made in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
. Numerous strikes against the right-wing government of
Wilhelm Cuno
Wilhelm Carl Josef Cuno (2 July 1876 – 3 January 1933) was a German businessman and politician who was the chancellor of Germany from 1922 to 1923, for a total of 264 days. His tenure included the episode known as the Occupation of the Ruhr ...
(
Cuno strikes
The Cuno strikes were nationwide strikes in Germany against the government of Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno in August 1923. The wave of strikes demanded, eventually with success, the resignation of the Cuno government, which occurred on 12 August 1923, ...
) appeared to be the beginning of revolutionary events. The chairman of the Comintern
Grigori Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev, . Transliterated ''Grigorii Evseevich Zinov'ev'' according to the Library of Congress system. (born Hirsch Apfelbaum, – 25 August 1936), known also under the name Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky (russian: Ов ...
instructed the KPD on August 15, 1923 to prepare for an approaching revolutionary crisis.
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
expressly agreed to this. On August 23, 1923, there was a secret meeting of the
Politburo
A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states.
Names
The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction ...
of the
Russian Communist Party. The Germany expert
Karl Radek
Karl Berngardovich Radek (russian: Карл Бернгардович Радек; 31 October 1885 – 19 May 1939) was a Russian revolutionary and a Marxist active in the Polish and German social democratic movements before World War I and a C ...
also advocated an aggressive approach there.
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
was skeptical. The goal of the Soviet plan was that after a victory of the KPD, the highly industrialized "Soviet Germany" would support the economic development of the still predominantly agrarian Soviet Union.
The seriously ill
Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
no longer played a role. At the end of the meeting, a committee of four members of the Central Committee was formed and immediately sent to Germany for illegal work under false identities. The members were Radek,
Józef Unszlicht
Józef Unszlicht or Iosif Stanislavovich Unshlikht (russian: Ио́сиф Станисла́вович У́ншлихт; nicknames "Jurowski", "Leon") (31 December 1879 – 29 July 1938) was a Polish and Russian revolutionary activist, a Soviet go ...
,
Vasily Schmidt
Vasily Vladimirovich Schmidt (Russian: Василий Владимирович Шмидт; December 17, 1886 – July 28, 1938) was a Bolshevik politician, and later a Soviet statesman.
Born in Saint Petersburg to a German Russian working-class f ...
and
Georgy Pyatakov
Georgy (Yury) Leonidovich Pyatakov (russian: Гео́ргий Леони́дович Пятако́в; 6 August 1890 – 30 January 1937) was a leader of the Bolsheviks and a key Soviet politician during and after the 1917 Russian Revolution ...
. Radek was supposed to influence the Central Committee of the KPD to follow the Moscow line, Schmidt was to act as the organizer of the revolutionary cells within the German trade unions, Pyatakov was responsible for general coordination and liaison with Moscow, and Unschlicht was responsible for paramilitary issues and for the formation of a ''
German Cheka'' planned to operate after the coup. The Soviet ambassador in Berlin,
Nikolay Krestinsky
Nikolay Nikolayevich Krestinsky (russian: Никола́й Никола́евич Крести́нский; 13 October 1883 – 15 March 1938) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician who served as the Responsible Sec ...
, was also supposed to unofficially support their underground work. He was responsible for the administration of the secret funds (400,000 US dollars) in preparation for the German October.
For the leadership in Moscow, the situation in Germany seemed comparable to that in Russia in the summer of 1917. The domestic and foreign political crisis in Germany had come to such a head in 1923 that a violent solution from the right or the left was seen as logical. For the communists it was clear that either they strike first or they will be preempted by the far-right. Radek pleaded for an early strike. Internal conflicts among the Soviet leadership also played a role here. As a supporter of Trotsky, Radek saw an opportunity to strengthen his position vis-à-vis Zinoviev and Stalin. It was hoped that a success in Germany would also have a positive effect on the mood in Russia. In September the Comintern finally decided in favor of the German October. On November 9, 1923, exactly five years after the German
November Revolution of 1918, according to Trotsky's plans, the communist revolutionaries would launch their coup.
Role of the KPD
Heinrich Brandler
Heinrich Brandler (3 July 1881 – 26 September 1967) was a German communist, trade unionist, politician, revolutionary activist, and political writer. Brandler is best remembered as the head of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during the party ...
, the chairman of the KPD, was initially skeptical, but was convinced of the plans. Brandler, who had warned against hasty steps in August, now turned around and painted the project's prospects for success in the rosiest of colors: 253,000 communists were ready to fight in proletarian hundreds; fifteen divisions could be formed from them in six to eight weeks. Weapons were available in sufficient numbers.
The left-wing of the KPD, including
Ruth Fischer
Ruth Fischer (11 December 1895 – 13 March 1961) was an Austrian and German Communist, and a co-founder of the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ) in 1918. Along with her partner Arkadi Maslow, she led the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) through ...
and
Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann (; 16 April 1886 – 18 August 1944) was a German communist politician, and leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933.
A committed Marxist-Leninist and Stalinist, Thälmann played a major r ...
, were ready to strike from the start. Only
Arkadi Maslow
Arkadi Maslow ; russian: Аркадий Маслов , born Isaak Yefimowich Chemerinsky ; russian: Исаак Ефимович Чемеринский (March 9, 1891 – November 20, 1941) was a communist politician in the German Republic, ...
from the Fischer group remained uncooperative despite Moscow's threats. Zinoviev viewed the participation of the KPD in the Saxon state government coalition as a prerequisite for action . Starting from this moment, in Saxony and Thuringia, 50,000 to 60,000 workers would be armed. Both states would be defended against the right-wing forces from
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
. The
Reichswehr
''Reichswehr'' () was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first years of the Third Reich. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army () was dissolved in order to be reshaped ...
troops would be ignored.
Events in Saxony, Thuringia and Hamburg
![Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00191, Sachsen, Vorgehen der Reichswehr gegen Kommunisten](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-00191%2C_Sachsen%2C_Vorgehen_der_Reichswehr_gegen_Kommunisten.jpg)
Meanwhile, the domestic political situation in Germany worsened. The focal points were Saxony, Thuringia and Hamburg.
On October 10, 1923, the KPD joined the Zeigner government in Saxony as planned. However, the Ministry of the Interior and thus the command of the police did not pass to the communists. Nevertheless, the communist chairman Heinrich Brandler took on an important role as head of the state chancellery.
On October 16, the KPD also joined the government in Thuringia. These actions were legal and the state governments did not take any insurrectionist measures. The situation was thus fundamentally different from that in Bavaria, where
Gustav von Kahr and his right-wing extremists were planning a coup. In Berlin, however, no one doubted that communists entering the government was only be a preliminary stage to an armed communist uprising.
Together with left-wing Social Democrats, the KPD put together combat units that were supposed to bring about the revolution. These were called "proletarian hundreds".
The social democrats in Saxony and Thuringia, who belonged to the left wing of the SPD, believed that a coalition with the Communists would, on the one hand, overcome the enmity between the two workers' parties; on the other hand, with the help of the "Proletarian Hundreds", they wanted to stop the
"March on Berlin" feared in Bavaria in emulation of Mussolini's
March on Rome
The March on Rome ( it, Marcia su Roma) was an organized mass demonstration and a coup d'état in October 1922 which resulted in Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party (PNF) ascending to power in the Kingdom of Italy. In late October 1922, Fa ...
. The social democrats did not realize the revolutionary intentions of the KPD, controlled from Moscow.
On October 13, 1923 the "proletarian hundreds" were banned by the commanding Lieutenant General in Saxony
Alfred Müller, who had also held the executive power since September 27. On October 16, the Saxon police were directly subordinated to the Reich military. The state government was thus deprived of its law enforcement power and de facto already largely disempowered.
The possibility of a communist uprising remained real until October 21. The KPD had called for a workers' conference in
Chemnitz
Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...
on this day. If the mood of the meeting proved favorable, the
general strike
A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large co ...
would be called and the uprising would begin. 450 workers' delegates - communists, trade unionists and some social democrats - assembled for the conference.
Brandler did not meet with the approval of the assembly and the SPD threatened to end their coalition.
August Thalheimer
August Thalheimer (18 March 1884 – 19 September 1948) was a German Marxist activist and theorist.
Early life
He was born in 1884 in Affaltrach, now called Obersulm, Württemberg, Germany in to a Jewish working-class family. He studied at the ...
later described the events in Chemnitz with a view to the planned Red October as a "third class burial". In fact, the KPD and ECCI recognized that the communists were completely isolated even in Saxony. The uprising plan has been dropped.
Only in Hamburg there was an
uprising
Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority.
A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...
of proletarian paramilitaries between October 23 and 25, 1923, in which 24 communists and 17 policemen were killed.
As planned, armed communists - around 300 men - raided 17 police stations to steal firearms and occupied public buildings.
One of their leaders was Ernst Thalmann. However, the police were able to prevail within a few days. The origins of the uprising in Hamburg are unclear: either the activist KPD leadership in Hamburg wanted to force the more cautious party leadership in Berlin to strike or they were misinformed by their delegates, who only arrived in Chemnitz after the conference.
In Saxony, the Reichswehr used force against the communists. Between October 21 and 27 the Reichswehr were shooting communists in various cities, there were many dead and wounded. The actions of the army took place without a formal decision by the federal government, but on behalf of the Reich President Friedrich Ebert. After Zeigner's refusal to form a government without communists, a formal
Reichsexekution
In German history, a ''Reichsexekution'' (sometimes "Reich execution" in English) was an imperial or federal intervention against a member state, using military force if necessary. The instrument of the ''Reichsexekution'' was constitutionally av ...
according to
Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution took place on October 29th.
Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten auf Grund des Artikel 48 Abs. 2 der Reichsverfassung, betreffend die zur Wiederherstellung der öffentlichen Sicherheit und Ordnung im Gebiete des Freistaats Sachsen nötigen Maßnahmen
' in the Reichsgesetzblatt in the digitized form at ALEX - Historische Rechts- und Gesetzestexte Online; on the course of events see
'' in the Bundesarchiv
, type = Archive
, seal =
, seal_size =
, seal_caption =
, seal_alt =
, logo = Bundesarchiv-Logo.svg
, logo_size =
, logo_caption =
, lo ...
The Saxon state government under the Social Democratic Prime Minister Erich Zeigner was de facto removed from office by the Reich President Ebert on the basis of these emergency decrees.
The Thuringian cabinet dissolved voluntarily in view of this development.
The former Minister of Justice
Rudolf Heinze
Karl Rudolf Heinze (22 July 1865 – 26 May 1928) was a German jurist and politician. During the Weimar Republic, as a member of the right-of-centre German People's Party (DVP) he was vice-chancellor of Germany and minister of Justice in 1920/21 ...
was appointed ''
Reichskommissar
(, rendered as "Commissioner of the Empire", "Reich Commissioner" or "Imperial Commissioner"), in German history, was an official gubernatorial title used for various public offices during the period of the German Empire and Nazi Germany.
Germa ...
'' for Saxony by the Reich government, and the previous Saxon state ministers were removed from their offices by the Reichswehr. On October 30th, Prime Minister Erich Zeigner formally resigned in favor of
Alfred Fellisch as head of a pure SPD cabinet, which also ended Heinze's mandate as ''Reichskomissar''.
Reaction in Moscow
Moscow was looking for a scapegoat for the October disaster. He was found quickly. In a "closed letter" dated November 5, the ECCI accused the KPD leadership of deliberately misrepresenting the situation in Germany. The trio at the head of the Soviet Communist Party (Stalin, Zinoviev, Kamenev) by attacking the "right-wing" Brandler group in the KPD were able to also strike against Trotsky and his supporters at the same time. The dispute over the causes of the October defeat was thus linked to the factional struggles in the Soviet leadership, from which Stalin emerged victorious.
Historical assessment of the German October
The
Beer Hall putsch
The Beer Hall Putsch, also known as the Munich Putsch,Dan Moorhouse, ed schoolshistory.org.uk, accessed 2008-05-31.Known in German as the or was a failed coup d'état by Nazi Party ( or NSDAP) leader Adolf Hitler, Erich Ludendorff and othe ...
is not historically considered a part of the German October although it was initiated at the same time and failed in November 1923. Thus, a coup on November 9, 1923 was planned not only by the KPD but also by the far-right national camp with the Munich
beer hall putschist
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
and the
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
general
Erich Ludendorff
Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (9 April 1865 – 20 December 1937) was a German general, politician and military theorist. He achieved fame during World War I for his central role in the German victories at Liège and Tannenberg in 1914. ...
at the helm.
The causal connections between the events only became fully clear long after, because the archives in Moscow - and the corresponding secret protocols - are only now accessible to historians. The most extensive description of this can be found in "''Deutscher Oktober 1923. Ein Revolutionsplan und sein Scheitern."'' (2003).
In summary, the combination of the wrong decisions by the French and the Soviets, the disastrous economic and political situation in Germany after the lost world war, the consequences of the treaty of Versailles as well as coup attempts by politically extreme groups from the left and right were responsible for the difficult situation of the Reich government in 1923. The "German October" had to be broken off prematurely in Saxony and Thuringia, the "March on Berlin" did not even get beyond Munich, and Rhenish separatism collapsed miserably, not only because the attempts were amateurish, but above all because a "dictatorship of the proletariat" based on the Soviet model, a "Führer state" based on the Italian model or the destruction of the country's unity were only considered desirable by a small minority of the population.
In the years from 1924 to 1929, Germany experienced a period of relative stability, economic recovery and foreign policy success.
Sources
*
Boris Bazhanov
Boris Georgiyevich Bazhanov (russian: Бори́с Гео́ргиевич Бажа́нов; 9 August 1900 – 30 December 1982) was a Soviet secretary of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union who defected from the Soviet Un ...
: ''Stalin – Der rote Diktator.'' Berlin 1931 (p. 122–131 – a source for the decisive politburo meeting August 23, 1923, which agreed on the uprising; pushing for it were Zinoviev, Radek and Trotsky) New edition: Bazhanov, Boris: Ich war Stalins Sekretär, Frankfurt 1977, Ullstein
* Bernhard H. Bayerlein, Leonid G. Babicenko u. a. (Hrsg.): ''Deutscher Oktober 1923. Ein Revolutionsplan und sein Scheitern'' (= Archive des Kommunismus – Pfade des XX. Jahrhunderts. Band 3). Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-351-02557-2. (comprehensive source. 479 pages)
*
Frank Hirschinger: ''„Gestapoagenten, Trotzkisten, Verräter“. Kommunistische Parteisäuberungen in Sachsen-Anhalt 1918–1953.'' Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-525-36903-4, S. 37–52
abridged online versionat
Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
).
* Harald Jentsch: ''Die KPD und der „Deutsche Oktober“ 1923.'' Ingo Koch Verlag, Rostock 2005, ISBN 3-938-68633-2.
* Carsten Voigt, Michael Rudloff: ''Die Reichsexekution gegen Sachsen 1923 und die Grenzen des Föderalismus.'' In:
Michael Richter, Thomas Schaarschmidt, Mike Schmeitzner (Hrsg.): ''Länder, Gaue und Bezirke. Mitteldeutschland im 20. Jahrhundert.'' Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle/S. 2007, ISBN 3-89812-530-0, S. 53–72.
* Otto Wenzel: ''1923 – die gescheiterte deutsche Oktoberrevolution'' (= ''Diktatur und Widerstand''. Band 7). With the introduction by
Manfred Wilke
''Manfred: A dramatic poem'' is a closet drama written in 1816–1817 by Lord Byron. It contains supernatural elements, in keeping with the popularity of the ghost story in England at the time. It is a typical example of a Gothic fiction.
B ...
, Lit., Münster 2003, ISBN 3-8258-7246-7.
*
Heinrich August Winkler
Heinrich August Winkler (born 19 December 1938 in Königsberg) is a German historian.
With his mother he joined the westward flight in 1944, after which he grew up in southern Germany, attending a Gymnasium in Ulm. He then studied history, pol ...
: ''Weimar 1918–1933. Die Geschichte der ersten deutschen Demokratie.'' Verlag C. H. Beck, München 1998, ISBN 3-406-37646-0, S. 213–227.
External links
* Arnulf Scriba
Deutscher Oktoberat ''Lebendiges Museum Online''
* Nikolaus Brauns
Volker Ullrich: ''Der Aufstand, der nicht stattfand. Neue Dokumente belegen, warum aus dem „Deutschen Oktober“ von 1923 nichts wurde.'' In: DIE ZEIT 11 December 2003, Nr.51; accessed on 19 September 2018Iring Fetscher: ''Die vergessene deutsche Oktoberrevolution 1923.'' In: Jahrbuch für Historische Kommunismusforschung, 2004, S. 391–394; online at Kommunismusgeschichte.de; accessed on 31 October 2018
References
{{Authority control
1923 in Germany
Politics of the Weimar Republic
Rebellions in Germany
Communism in Germany
1920s in Hamburg
Revolutions of 1917–1923
Conflicts in 1923
es:Octubre alemán