Hamburger points

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Hamburg points of December 18, 1918 are a resolution of the 1st Reichsrätekongress on the democratization of the military in the wake of the November Revolution 1918. They were intended to secure the organizational changes in the military that were actually implemented among the home troops by the soldiers' councils established during the revolution . The council congress demanded that the government could only exercise command and control under the control of a newly created central council of workers and soldiers' councils. As a symbol of the fight against militarism , all badges of rank and the wearing of arms outside of the service were abolished. In the future, the soldiers should be able to choose their superiors themselves. The soldiers' councils should ultimately be responsible for maintaining discipline. In addition, a militia-like people's armed forces should take the place of the standing army .

These demands are named after their originators from the Hanseatic city. The Hamburg delegate Walther Lamp'l , with the consent of the representatives of the Berlin troops, submitted the following seven points at the beginning of the 3rd meeting:

  1. The command over the army and navy practice the People's Representatives under control of the Executive Council of.
  2. As a symbol of the smashing of militarism and the abolition of cadaver obedience, the removal of all badges of rank and the ban on off-duty arms are ordered.
  3. The soldiers' councils are responsible for the reliability of the units and for maintaining discipline. [...] There are no longer any superiors who are not on duty.
  4. Removal of the previous armpits, non-commissioned officers 'stress, etc., cockades, armpit flaps and side guns is exclusively a matter for the soldiers' councils and not for individuals. [...] The congress demands the abolition of all orders and decorations and the nobility.
  5. The soldiers choose their leaders themselves. [...]
  6. Officers [...] (can) remain in their positions in the interest of demobilization if they declare that they will not do anything against the revolution.
  7. The abolition of the standing army and the establishment of the people's armed forces are to be accelerated.

After fierce negotiations among the political factions and under pressure from the Berlin soldiers who had appeared before the Congress with a deputation, the points were adopted by the Congress almost unanimously

In addition, a motion was passed calling for "all measures to be taken immediately to disarm the counter-revolution".

The Supreme Army Command under General Wilhelm Groener succeeded in enforcing an ultimatum that the points should only apply to the Home Army, but not to the field army. On January 19, one month after the congress, the Prussian War Minister Walther Reinhardt issued "Implementation Regulations" for the Hamburg points, which completely restored the command of the officers. The background to this was the January Uprising in Berlin, which had recently been suppressed . After the suppression of the strikes and uprisings in February and March 1919 and with the passing of the law on the creation of a provisional Reichswehr by the Weimar National Assembly on March 6, 1919, nothing remained of these Hamburg points.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Richard Müller: A History of the November Revolution . 14th edition. Die Buchmacherei, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-00-035400-7 , p. 434 f .
  2. ↑ Ralf Hoffrogge: Reich, Councilors and Republic - the stenographic reports of the first Reichsrätekongresses 1918. (pdf, 4.5 MB) In: Labornet Germany . November 6, 2018, p. 17 , accessed February 4, 2019 .