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The Proclamation of the republic in Germany took place twice in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
on 9 November 1918, the first at the
Reichstag building The Reichstag (, ; officially: – ; en, Parliament) is a historic government building in Berlin which houses the Bundestag, the lower house of Germany's parliament. It was constructed to house the Imperial Diet (german: Reichstag) of the ...
by
Philipp Scheidemann Philipp Heinrich Scheidemann (26 July 1865 – 29 November 1939) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In the first quarter of the 20th century he played a leading role in both his party and in the young Weimar ...
of the
Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany The Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Mehrheitssozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, MSPD) was the name officially used by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) during the period 1917-1922. This differentiated it from ...
(MSPD) and the second a few hours later by
Karl Liebknecht Karl Paul August Friedrich Liebknecht (; 13 August 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a German socialist and anti-militarist. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) beginning in 1900, he was one of its deputies in the Reichstag from ...
, the leader of the
Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
Spartacus League The Spartacus League (German: ''Spartakusbund'') was a Marxism, Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. It was founded in August 1914 as the "International Group" by Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Clara Zetkin, ...
, at the
Berlin Palace The Berlin Palace (german: Berliner Schloss), formally the Royal Palace (german: Königliches Schloss), on the Museum Island in the Mitte area of Berlin, was the main residence of the House of Hohenzollern from 1443 to 1918. Expanded by order ...
. In the
German Revolution of 1918–1919 The German Revolution or November Revolution (german: Novemberrevolution) was a civil conflict in the German Empire at the end of the First World War that resulted in the replacement of the German federal constitutional monarchy with a dem ...
, during which the Social Democrats and the Spartacists were among the factions that fought to determine the country's future form of government, it was the MSPD and the ideas of the bourgeois-democratic parties that prevailed over the Spartacists and their more radical idea of a soviet-style republic. The
German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
was transformed from a monarchy into a parliamentary-democratic republic with a liberal constitution. Scheidemann's speech marked the point at which the Empire could be said to have ended and 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 ...
, the first republic to include the entire German nation-state, to have been born.


Background

By the end of November 1918, the first month of the revolution, 22
federal prince Federal prince (german: Bundesfürsten, "Princes of the Federation") was the generic term for the royal heads of state (monarchs) of the various states making up the German Empire, with the exception of the states that were republics and Alsace-L ...
s of the German Empire had been forced to abdicate. The first to fall was on 7 November when the Bavarian
House of Wittelsbach The House of Wittelsbach () is a German dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including Bavaria, the Palatinate, Holland and Zeeland, Sweden (with Finland), Denmark, Norway, Hungary (with Romania), Bohemia, the Electorate ...
was overthrown in
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
, and
Kurt Eisner Kurt Eisner (; 14 May 1867 21 February 1919)"Kurt Eisner – Encyclopædia Britannica" (biography), ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2006, Britannica.com webpageBritannica-KurtEisner. was a German politician, revolutionary, journalist, and theatre c ...
of the
Independent Social Democratic Party The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, USPD) was a short-lived political party in Germany during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The organization was establish ...
(USPD), a more antiwar and left-leaning breakaway from the original
Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...
(SPD), declared the
Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German E ...
to be a Free State, the
People's State of Bavaria The People's State of Bavaria (german: Volksstaat Bayern) was a short-lived socialist state in Bavaria from 1918 to 1919. The People's State of Bavaria was established on 8 November 1918 during the German Revolution, as an attempt at a socialist ...
. The leadership of the more moderate MSPD had seen its long-standing demands for a democratization of the Reich addressed by the 1918 October Reform. This amendment to
Constitution of the German Empire The Constitution of the German Empire (german: Verfassung des Deutschen Reiches) was the basic law of the German Empire of 1871-1918, from 16 April 1871, coming into effect on 4 May 1871. German historians often refer to it as Bismarck's imper ...
turned the German Reich into a parliamentary monarchy in which the government was no longer answerable to the emperor but to the majority in the Reichstag. Because of this constitutional change, the MSPD was at first willing to preserve the monarchical form of government as such, in part because it was concerned with continuity and wanted an accommodation with the elites of the empire. The party leadership, however, soon began to push for the abdication of
Kaiser Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and List of monarchs of Prussia, King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until Abdication of Wilhelm II, his abdication on 9 ...
, whose position had become untenable due to his responsibility for Germany's defeat in the war. But the emperor, who had been at the army's General Headquarters in
Spa, Belgium Spa (; wa, Spå) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium, whose name became an eponym for mineral baths with supposed curative properties. It is situated in a valley in the Ardennes mountains sout ...
since 29 October, kept postponing the decision. On the evening of 8 November, the MSPD leadership in Berlin learned that the USPD had called for meetings and mass demonstrations on the following day. It was to be expected that they would demand not only the abdication of the emperor but also the abolition of the monarchy altogether. To forestall these demands, the last Reich Chancellor of the empire, Prince
Max von Baden Maximilian, Margrave of Baden (''Maximilian Alexander Friedrich Wilhelm''; 10 July 1867 – 6 November 1929),Almanach de Gotha. ''Haus Baden (Maison de Bade)''. Justus Perthes, Gotha, 1944, p. 18, (French). also known as Max von Baden, was a Ger ...
, at the urging of MSPD chairman
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 ...
, announced the abdication of Wilhelm II on the morning of 9 November, before the emperor had in fact abdicated. The declaration stated:
"The Emperor and King has decided to abdicate the throne. The Reich Chancellor will remain in office until the questions connected with the Emperor's abdication, the renunciation of the throne by the Crown Prince of the German Empire and of
Prussia 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 em ...
, and the installation of a regency have been settled."
After the emperor learned of the announcement, he and his family fled into exile in the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
where, on 28 November 1918, he and
Crown Prince Wilhelm Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, Crown Prince of Prussia (Friedrich Wilhelm Victor August Ernst; 6 May 1882 – 20 July 1951) was the eldest child of the last ''Kaiser'', the German Emperor, Wilhelm II, and his consort Augusta Victoria of Schles ...
signed the document of abdication. At noon on 9 November Max von Baden, acting in violation of the constitution, unilaterally transferred the office of Reich Chancellor to Friedrich Ebert. He in turn asked von Baden to act as imperial regent until a successor to Wilhelm II as German emperor had been appointed. Even though von Baden refused the offer, Ebert continued to assume that he could save the monarchy.


Scheidemann's proclamation

The announcement of the abdication from the throne came too late to make any impression on the demonstrators in Berlin. Instead of dispersing, as the SPD newspaper ''
Vorwärts ''Vorwärts'' (, "Forward") is a newspaper published by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Founded in 1876, it was the central organ of the SPD for many decades. Following the party's Halle Congress (1891), it was published daily as ...
'' urged them to do, more and more people poured into the center of Berlin and demonstrated between the seat of the emperor at the Berlin Palace, the seat of the Reich government on
Wilhelmstrasse Wilhelmstrasse (german: Wilhelmstraße, see ß) is a major thoroughfare in the central Mitte and Kreuzberg districts of Berlin, Germany. Until 1945, it was recognised as the centre of the government, first of the Kingdom of Prussia, later of th ...
, and the Reichstag building. In the dining room of the Reichstag building, Philipp Scheidemann, who had been secretary of state under Max von Baden since 3 October and was one of the first Social Democrats to hold a government post in Germany, sat eating lunch at a separate table from Friedrich Ebert. While there Scheidemann learned that Karl Liebknecht intended to proclaim a soviet republic shortly. Scheidemann thought that if the MSPD wanted to retain the initiative, it had to get ahead of its opponents on the left. Therefore, shortly after 2 p.m. – according to his own account "between soup and dessert" – he stepped up to the second window of the second floor north of the main portal of the Reichstag building and proclaimed the Republic. Immediately thereafter, back in the dining room, Scheidemann got into a heated argument with Ebert over Scheidemann's unauthorized action. Ebert pounded on a table in his anger at Scheidemann. "You have no right to proclaim the Republic! What becomes of Germany, a republic or any other form, is for the constituent assembly to decide!" On 9 November 1918, under the headline "Proclamation of the Republic", the ''
Vossische Zeitung The (''Voss's Newspaper'') was a nationally-known Berlin newspaper that represented the interests of the liberal middle class. It was also generally regarded as Germany's national newspaper of record. In the Berlin press it held a special role d ...
'' quoted Scheidemann's speech as follows:
"We have triumphed all along the line; the old is no more. Ebert has been appointed Reich Chancellor, and Lieutenant Göhre, a Reichstag member, has been assigned to the Minister of War. The task now is to consolidate the victory we have won; nothing can prevent us from doing so. The
Hohenzollerns The House of Hohenzollern (, also , german: Haus Hohenzollern, , ro, Casa de Hohenzollern) is a German royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenb ...
have abdicated. See to it that nothing sullies this proud day. Let it be a day of honor forever in the history of Germany. Long live the German Republic."
The Austrian journalist Ernst Friedegg, who had recorded the speech stenographically, published it in 1919 in the German Revolutionary Almanac with slightly different wording:
"The German people have triumphed all along the line. The old rottenness has collapsed; militarism is finished! The Hohenzollerns have abdicated! Long live the German Republic! The parliamentary deputy Ebert has been proclaimed Chancellor of the Reich. Ebert has been charged with putting together a new government. This government will include all socialist parties. Now our task is not to let this brilliant victory, this full victory of the German people, be sullied, and therefore I ask you to see to it that security is not disrupted! We must be able to be proud of this day in all future times! Nothing must happen that we can be reproached with later! Calm, order and security are what we need now! The military governor of Berlin and
Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...
,
Alexander von Linsingen Alexander Adolf August Karl von Linsingen (10 February 1850 – 5 June 1935) was a German general during World War I. Military service Linsingen joined the Prussian Army in 1868 and rose to Corps Commander ( II Corps) in 1909. He was one of th ...
, and the Minister of War, Scheuch, will each have a representative attached. The party representative Göhre will countersign all decrees of Minister of War Scheuch. So, from now on, respect the decrees signed by Ebert and the proclamations signed with the names of Göhre and Scheuch. See to it that the new German Republic which we are going to establish is not endangered by anything. Long live the German Republic."
In contrast, the version of the speech that Scheidemann recorded on a phonograph disk on 9 January 1920 and that was reproduced in his memoirs in 1928, shows significant deviations from the texts of the contemporaneous sources:
"Workers and soldiers! The four years of war were terrible, the sacrifices in possessions and blood erman: that the people had to make were horrific. The ill-fated war has come to an end; the killing is over. The consequences of the war – hardship and misery – will burden us for many years to come. We have not been spared the defeat that we wanted to prevent at all costs. Our proposals for negotiations were sabotaged, we ourselves were ridiculed and slandered. The enemies of the working people, the true internal enemies who are to blame for Germany's collapse, have become silent and invisible. They were the home warriors who perpetuated their demands for conquest until yesterday, just as they waged the most bitter fight against any reform of the constitution and especially of the shameful Prussian electoral system. These enemies of the people are hopefully finished for good. The emperor has abdicated; he and his friends have disappeared. The people have triumphed over them all along the line! Prince Max of Baden has handed the Reich Chancellorship to Deputy Ebert. Our friend will form a workers' government to which all socialist parties will belong. The new government must not be disrupted in its efforts towards peace and its concern for work and bread. Workers and soldiers! Be conscious of the historical significance of this day. Unheard-of things have taken place! Great and immense work is ahead of us. Everything for the people, everything by the people! Nothing must be done to bring dishonor to the workers' movement. Be united, be faithful and do your duty! The old and rotten, the monarchy has collapsed. Long live the new; long live the German Republic!"
Scheidemann's text was considered authentic until the historian Manfred Jessen-Klingenberg, in a source-critical analysis in 1968, was able to plausibly prove the authorship and reliability of Friedegg's anonymously published stenographic notes. Jessen-Klingenberg concluded that Scheidemann had "handed down a self-written forgery of his speech. Admittedly, he had understandable personal and political reasons for this."Jessen-Klingenberg. p. 649. Scheidemann had clearly wanted to assign the blame for the defeat in the war to the opponents of a negotiated peace and by so doing react to the political defamation of the Social Democrats by the perpetrators of the
stab-in-the-back myth The stab-in-the-back myth (, , ) was an antisemitic conspiracy theory that was widely believed and promulgated in Germany after 1918. It maintained that the Imperial German Army did not lose World War I on the battlefield, but was instead ...
who claimed that the war had been lost on the home front by the Left and the Jews, not on the battlefield. Jessen-Klingenberg's interpretation is still considered "not outdated" even after more than fifty years.


Liebknecht's proclamation

In the afternoon of 9 November 1918 at about 4 p.m., Karl Liebknecht proclaimed the "Free Socialist Republic of Germany" in the
Lustgarten The ' () is a park on Museum Island in central Berlin, near the site of the former () of which it was originally a part. At various times in its history, the park has been used as a parade ground, a place for mass rallies and a public park. The ...
in front of the Berlin Palace. Standing on the roof of a vehicle, he said:
"The day of revolution has come. We have compelled the peace. At this moment peace is concluded. The old is no more. The rule of the Hohenzollerns, who for centuries lived in this palace, is over. In this hour we proclaim the Free Socialist Republic of Germany. We salute our Russian brothers who four days ago were shamefully chased awayOn 5 November the German government broke off diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia. ..Through this gate will enter the new socialist freedom of workers and soldiers. We want to raise the red flag of the Free Republic of Germany on the site where the Kaiser's standard flew!"
After the troops surrounding the Palace had abandoned their posts in the face of the growing crowd, Liebknecht spoke a second time from the large window of Portal IV on the Palace's second floor. The speech was reproduced in the ''Vossische Zeitung'' as follows:
"Party comrades, ..the day of freedom has dawned. Never again will a Hohenzollern set foot on this square. Seventy years ago,
Frederick William IV Frederick William IV (german: Friedrich Wilhelm IV.; 15 October 17952 January 1861), the eldest son and successor of Frederick William III of Prussia, reigned as King of Prussia from 7 June 1840 to his death on 2 January 1861. Also referred to ...
stood here on the same spot and had to take off his cap in the face of the procession of those who had fallen on the barricades of Berlin for the cause of freedom, in the face of fifty blood-covered corpses. Another procession is passing by here today. They are the ghosts of the millions who gave their lives for the sacred cause of the proletariat. With split skulls, bathed in blood, these victims of tyranny stagger by, and they are followed by the ghosts of millions of women and children who perished in grief and misery for the cause of the proletariat. And millions and millions of blood sacrifices to the world war follow them. Today an immense crowd of enthusiastic proletarians stands in the same place to pay homage to the new freedom. Party comrades, I proclaim the Free Socialist Republic of Germany, which shall embrace all communities, in which there will be no more servants, in which every honest worker will find the honest reward for his labor. The rule of capitalism, which has turned Europe into a field of corpses, is broken. We call back our Russian brothers. They said to us when they left: 'If you have not achieved in a month what we have achieved, we will turn our backs on you.' And now it has taken barely four days. Even though the old has been torn down .. we must not believe that our task is done. We must exert all our forces to build the government of the workers and soldiers and create a new state order of the proletariat, an order of peace, happiness and freedom for our German brothers and our brothers throughout the world. We extend our hands to them and call upon them to complete the world revolution. Whoever among you wants to see the Free Socialist Republic of Germany and the world revolution fulfilled, raise his hand in oath." All hands rose and shouts resounded: 'Hail the Republic!'. After the applause died away, a soldier standing next to Liebknecht ..shouted: "Long live its first president, Liebknecht!" Liebknecht then concluded: "We are not there yet. President or not, we must all stand together to realize the ideal of the Republic. Hail to freedom and happiness and peace!"
The Berlin newspapers reported on Liebknecht's proclamation even more extensively than on Scheidemann's speech. His words, however, did not have a lasting effect since the left wing of the revolutionaries did not have a sufficient power base and continued to lose influence after the suppression of the
Spartacist uprising The Spartacist uprising (German: ), also known as the January uprising (), was a general strike and the accompanying armed struggles that took place in Berlin from 5 to 12 January 1919. It occurred in connection with the November Revolutio ...
in January 1919. It was not until the
German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
(East Germany) was founded in 1949 that Liebknecht's proclamation was included in one part of Germany's tradition-building. Portal IV of the Berlin Palace was salvaged during the building's post-war demolition and integrated into the new State Council building as the "Liebknecht Portal."


Aftermath

The MSPD leadership initially succeeded in persuading the USPD to join them in an interim government, the
Council of the People's Deputies The Council of the People's Deputies (, sometimes translated as Council of People's Representatives or Council of People's Commissars) was the name given to the government of the November Revolution in Germany from November 1918 until February 19 ...
. The three USPD members, however, resigned from the council on 29 December 1918 due to disagreements with the MSPD and were replaced by two additional MSPD members. January 1919 saw the Spartacist uprising, in the course of which the MSPD leadership deployed right-wing
Freikorps (, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps") were irregular German and other European military volunteer units, or paramilitary, that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenary or private armies, regar ...
troops against the left-wing revolutionaries. On 19 January
elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...
were held for the
Weimar National Assembly The Weimar National Assembly (German: ), officially the German National Constitutional Assembly (), was the popularly elected constitutional convention and de facto parliament of Germany from 6 February 1919 to 21 May 1920. As part of its ...
. It drafted the
Weimar Constitution The Constitution of the German Reich (german: Die Verfassung des Deutschen Reichs), usually known as the Weimar Constitution (''Weimarer Verfassung''), was the constitution that governed Germany during the Weimar Republic era (1919–1933). The c ...
which came into force on 11 August 1919. Article 1 begins with the sentence, "The German Reich is a republic". Despite both the strong desire among many Germans to restore the monarchy and the failure in 1933 of the Weimar Republic, there were never any serious efforts to return to an imperial form of government. In the course of the Spartacist uprising, on 15 January 1919, Karl Liebknecht and
Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, Marxist philosopher and anti-war activist. Successively, she was a member of the Proletariat party, ...
were murdered, with Friedrich Ebert's approval, by members of the Guard Cavalry Rifle Division. Scheidemann became a hated figure in German nationalist and ethnic circles. An assassination attempt was made on him in 1922. After
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 ...
seized power in 1933, he fled into exile in
Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...
. His name was on the first expatriation list of the
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
regime on August 25, 1933. Scheidemann died in
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
in 1939.


References

{{Authority control German Revolution of 1918–1919 Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Chancellors of Germany Members of the Council of the People's Deputies Communist Party of Germany politicians German revolutionaries German Marxists People of the German Revolution of 1918–1919 Weimar Republic