A People's History of the German Revolution, 1918-1919 by William A. Pelz

Author:William A. Pelz
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Publisher: Book Network Int'l Limited trading as NBN International (NBNi)
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The new “socialist” government ordered the papers to be returned to their former owners. By November 11, the revolutionaries had to abandon this short-lived outpost of far-left agitation.

A curious incident illustrates the confusion that accompanied the November Revolution. A group of revolutionary soldiers found themselves in possession of a truckload of banknotes. They decided to hand these over to, what they saw as, the revolution. So, the soldiers dumped a mountain of money onto the floors of the USPD’s caucus room. The USPD leaders had no idea what to do with this windfall and finally meekly returned it to the Reichsbank.

They later regretted their actions and wished they had retained the currency for use by revolutionaries. As one historian has remarked, “this episode shows how the revolutionaries of November 9 underestimated the staying power of the state apparatus. It was a misunderstanding that would contribute to the failure of the Revolution.”50 In handing back to the Reichsbank this forest of paper wealth, the revolutionaries had shown their honesty but not their wisdom.

The issue of power arose when the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils allowed a six man Council of People’s Deputies to be formed on November 10.51 This, the first decisive battle between the forces of moderation and those of revolution within the peoples’ movement took on the question of who would govern: democratically controlled councils or a traditional parliamentary government.52

The Councils, which were by their very nature revolutionary institutions, could not co-exist with the conventional, bourgeois political structures that the SPD bureaucrats intended to create. The institutional muscle of German Social Democracy proved more powerful than revolutionary idealism; the majority of delegates elected to the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils were either members or supporters of the SPD.53

In such a situation, conflict was inevitable and could not be long forestalled. It was the belief of the revolutionary left that the council movement was inherently an attack on capitalism regardless of its momentary moderate makeup. As people radicalized, the Councils might have become the natural vehicle for this sentiment and this might quickly change the political outlook of these institutions. This democratic faith in the working masses contrasts sharply with frantic efforts of the right-wing SPD leaders to usurp the power of the movement.

In addition, the government proposed by the SPD was to be one that would not interfere with the property rights of the great industrialists and landowners. When the Executive Committee of the Councils became paralyzed, the Council of People’s Deputies took over more and more power. On November 23, the Executive Committee officially conceded power to the Council of People’s Deputies.54 With the decision to hold elections for a National Assembly, the Council Movement was effectively finished.55

Rosa Luxemburg sarcastically commented: “What is the program of the new government? It proposes the election of a President, who is to have a position intermediate between that of the King of England and that of the President of the United States. He is to be, as it were, King Ebert.”56 This development

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