Ebert-Groener Pact
In the Ebert-Groener-Pakt (also "Pact with the old powers" or Ebert-Groener alliance ), Friedrich Ebert as SPD chairman and member of the Council of People's Representatives and General Wilhelm Groener agreed on behalf of the Supreme Army Command during the November Revolution of 1918 joint action against radical left groups. On the part of Ebert, intended to ensure an orderly transition from monarchy to democracy , it led de facto to the bloody suppression of uprisings aimed at the establishment of a socialist society. The pact initially stabilized the Weimar Republic that had emerged from the revolution . However, in connection with the subordination of the monarchist and anti-republican Reichswehr to the direct jurisdiction of the Reich President ( state within the state ), it prevented a democratic reform.
prehistory
The Supreme Army Command (OHL), which in the course of the war had effectively become the ruler in the German Reich , had to admit the German defeat to the political leadership at the end of September 1918. She now advocated a transfer of power to the democratic majority parties in the Reichstag in order to shift the blame for the devastating defeat on to the new government. At the beginning of October, a democratically legitimized government under Max von Baden was formed and democratic reforms were introduced in order to be able to achieve an acceptable peace based on the 14-point program of US President Woodrow Wilson (→ October reform ). When the Allies did not react to these changes, the pressure grew on Kaiser Wilhelm II , who was considered to be the main culprit in the war to abdicate. The First Quartermaster General of the OHL Erich Ludendorff , who then decided to resist again, had to resign on October 26th, when Wilhelm Groener was appointed as his successor . A few days later the Kaiser traveled from Berlin to the headquarters of the OHL in Spa .
At about the same time, after the naval command of October 24, 1918 , with which the naval command wanted to send the German high seas fleet into a militarily senseless final battle, the Kiel sailors' uprising became known . The uprising spread to the whole country, since the whole population was dissatisfied with the leadership mainly due to the food shortage and the large number of deaths, and a revolution occurred which the leadership could not counter. The revolution was primarily determined by the two rival socialist parties : on the one hand by the left-wing radical USPD , founded in 1917 , which strived for a socialist soviet republic , on the other hand by the majority social democrats organized in the MSPD with a parliamentary system as their goal.
On November 8th the German delegation left for the armistice negotiations in Compiègne . On the following day, Max von Baden, on his own initiative, announced the abdication of Wilhelm and the resignation of the Crown Prince, after the proclamation of the republic by Philipp Scheidemann in the afternoon he handed over the office of Chancellor to the SPD chairman Friedrich Ebert. This spoke out clearly against revolutionary-anarchic endeavors, as they had arisen in Russia through the October Revolution , instead he saw democratization as an important step on the way to socialism. On November 10th, the Council of People's Representatives , which consisted of three members each from the MSPD and the USPD, took over the government.
reasons
While the left forces wanted the revolution to continue, the Social Democrats wanted to stabilize the situation. In order to achieve this it was necessary, in their opinion, to work together with the elites of the empire in the military, business and administration . These supported the position of the MSPD, and the delicate cooperation was decided by the majority of MSPD members in the workers 'and soldiers' councils and the bypassing of USPD members in the council of people's representatives. As a consequence, the USPD members resigned from the Council of People's Representatives at the end of December.
The old leadership was mainly needed to
- to bring the soldiers back to Germany as quickly as possible after the loss of the war and to demobilize them,
- to fulfill the further Allied armistice conditions in order to end the English blockade of German seaports,
- to protect the new state against the radical left Spartacists and to prevent a civil war like the one that had started in Russia after the revolution a year earlier,
- to improve the food supply,
- to convert the war economy to a peace economy and to bring the soldiers back to normal work,
- to rebuild the transport system.
In the course of the revolution the revolutionaries had set up a republican military army , but this was unreliable.
Groener and the Army Command were interested in working with the new government in order to
- to protect the existence of the army and the officer corps ,
- to prevent a continuation of the revolution and the victory of Bolshevism ,
- bring about a peace treaty,
- to be able to quickly bring the remaining troops back to Germany.
Groener basis for the merger with the SPD was imperial patriotism , which replaced the loyalty to the person of the emperor.
content
After Groener in the so-called Great Headquarters in Spa on the one hand and Ebert in the Berlin Reich Chancellery on the other hand, the first telegraphic contact between Groener and the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, both telephoned over a secret telephone line in the evening. Groener, who proceeded without consulting General Field Marshal Hindenburg, assured the new government of the loyalty of the field army. Their common goals were the restoration of law and order and the defense against Bolshevism. The OHL, whose authority among the soldiers increasingly declined, even ordered the formation of workers 'and soldiers' councils (so-called trust councils ) in order to be able to better control the council movement; however, according to the agreement between Ebert and Groener, sole command remained with the officers. From November 11th, the General Staff and the OHL organized the orderly repatriation of the field army from the western front according to the tight schedule of the armistice agreement signed on the early morning of November 11th. This was with a strength of about 6 million men along a line from Ghent via Mons / Bergen, Charleville-Mézières and Sedan to Pont-à-Mousson, still in Belgium or eastern France and had to move within a few weeks to over the Withdraw the Rhine line. Even after the planned relocation of the OHL from Spa to Wilhelmshöhe Palace near Kassel on November 15, 1918, the close contacts, mostly by telephone, remained, which particularly influenced the situation of Ebert and the battles over the Berlin Palace on Christmas Day 1918 .
consequences
The alliance between Groener and Ebert had clearly negative long-term consequences, as no army loyal to the republic was created. Through the alliance with the old Reichswehr leadership in 1918/19, the MSPD prevented a possibly threatened civil war; Nevertheless, there was considerable excess of violence by the right-wing troops. Through the alliance and the excesses that were attributed to it, the MSPD also lost many followers. The old elites of the empire in the military, administration and education, who were declared anti-democrats, were imported into the new republic and in some cases (such as Wolfgang Kapp ) became dangerous enemies of the republic. It was neglected to fill positions with new, democratically minded people, but this might not have been feasible in view of the time pressure and the mass of problems. The councils could not have helped the MSPD either, since they saw themselves only as transitional organs and dissolved themselves after they had voted for a parliamentary republic on December 16, 1918. The USPD left the Council of People's Representatives on December 29, 1918 after regular OHL troops fought a socialist uprising in the Christmas battles. The SPD lost many supporters to the USPD and to the KPD that was formed at the end of December 1918 and advocated a revolutionary path. The newly formed Reichswehr and the Freikorps were extremely reliable when it came to fighting communist or socialist insurgents - which they demonstrated in the suppression of the Spartacus uprising in January 1919 - but refused, for example. For example, obedience to the right-wing Kapp Putsch in 1920 ("Reichswehr does not shoot at Reichswehr"). The Reichswehr persisted in a wait-and-see attitude and waited for an opportunity that would make the military a key element again. It thus became a state within a state .
The pact was made public in 1925 by Groener in his testimony in the stabbing trial against Ebert.
literature
- Wilhelm Groener : Memoirs. Youth, General Staff, World War I (= German historical sources of the 19th and 20th centuries 41, ISSN 0344-1687 ). Published by Friedrich Hiller von Gaertringen. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1957.
- Gerhard W. Rakenius: Wilhelm Groener as the first quartermaster general. The policy of the Supreme Army Command 1918/19 (= Defense Science Research - Department of Military History Studies 23). Boldt, Boppard 1977, ISBN 3-7646-1685-7 (At the same time: Freiburg (Breisgau), University, dissertation, 1974: Wilhelm Groener. The activity of the Supreme Army Command 1918/19. ).
- Heinz Hürten (arr.): Between Revolution and Kapp Putsch. Military and domestic politics 1918–1920 (= sources on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Row 2: Military and Politics 2). Droste, Düsseldorf 1977, ISBN 3-7700-5091-6 .