November Revolution in Braunschweig

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November 8, 1918: Declaration of abdication of Duke Ernst August von Braunschweig ( transcription on the picture description page)
Sailors 'revolt : Soldiers' council on board the SMS Prinzregent Luitpold

The November Revolution in Braunschweig was an uprising carried out by workers and soldiers in Braunschweig shortly before the end of the First World War , which led to the abdication of Ernst August , the last Duke of Braunschweig on November 8, 1918 , and to the conversion of his country into a democratic free state by May 1919 . Initiated by the Kiel sailors' uprising , it was part of the nationwide November Revolution that brought about the overthrow of the monarchies in the German Empire and its states .

As in the rest of the empire , the uprising brought about far-reaching political and social changes in Braunschweig. The events of the years 1918-19, are intended to establish parliamentary democracy , the Weimar Republic led had lasting impact on the further political development.

Historical context

In the final phase of the First World War, the German Empire found itself in a serious economic, social and political crisis. The Supreme Command had already end September 1918 declared the military situation than Germany hopeless, General Ludendorff therefore called for an armistice . In order to fulfill a central demand of the US President Woodrow Wilson , the Reich government was put on a parliamentary basis from the beginning of October and the liberal Prince Max von Baden was appointed by Kaiser Wilhelm II as the new Reich Chancellor. After becoming aware of the Allies' further armistice conditions , Ludendorff tried to continue despite his admission the previous month that the war was lost.

Address by a member of the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council at the Reichstag , November 1918

When, after the sailors' uprising in Kiel, the resulting “ November Revolution ” was carried across the country on November 3rd, strikes broke out across Germany . Workers 'and soldiers' councils were formed in numerous cities . On November 7th, Ludwig III. Deposed by Bavaria as the first German monarch, in Munich Kurt Eisner proclaimed the Free State of Bavaria as a republic (see also including the following events under the Munich Soviet Republic ). At the same time, the Allied Commander-in-Chief, Marshal Foch , was negotiating an armistice with German politicians. On November 9, 1918 the revolution reached Berlin , where Chancellor Prince Max von Baden announced the abdication of Wilhelm II and transferred the chancellorship to Friedrich Ebert ( SPD ). In the afternoon of the same day, Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed the first German republic, whereupon Karl Liebknecht ( Spartakusbund ) proclaimed the “ Free Socialist Republic of Germany ” . From November 11, 1918, at 11 a.m., the guns fell silent - the First World War was over.

The situation in Braunschweig at the end of the First World War

Queuing for bread in the so-called " turnip winter "
Shortage of the war years:
save soap! … but how?

Towards the end of 1918, Braunschweig was preparing for the fifth winter of the war. The supply of food, important daily necessities and fuel had deteriorated with every further year of the war. The social benefits of the companies had also been continuously reduced. The black market flourished. As in large parts of Europe, the Spanish flu was rampant in Braunschweig and claimed numerous victims. In the final phase of the war, members of the “Spartakusgruppe Braunschweig” under the leadership of August Merges , a member of the USPD , built a network for deserters . The negative news from the fronts did not stop, the casualties rose steadily, 15,000 soldiers of the Duchy of Braunschweig had already fallen. Towards the end of the war, the youngest deployable years began to be called up , while at the same time thousands of soldiers from the front - through what had happened, for example. Some of them traumatized for the rest of their lives - returning to an uncertain future. The urban workers and bourgeoisie had been seething for years. As early as December 1914, Merges, together with August Thalheimer , Albert Genzen and August Wesemeier , who later became President of the Braunschweig State Parliament , gathered dissatisfied people in the "Braunschweig Revolution Club".

On May 1, 1916, the first strike of young workers, the “austerity strike ” , was triggered by an ordinance of the Braunschweig General Command, which forbade young people to freely dispose of their full wages. The greater part was paid directly into a savings account that the wage earner could only access under certain conditions. The primary aim of this measure was to encourage young people to save during wartime; in truth, however, it gave the state more funding to wage war. Due to the strike, the General Command withdrew the ordinance on May 6th. From August 15 to 20, 1917, under the motto “Peace! Loaf! Freedom! ” Carried out the first general strike in the city.

In the pre-war social democracy in Braunschweig, the left wing of the party was of relatively great importance in terms of numbers and influence. This was also evident when the SPD split in 1917: In Braunschweig the majority of the members switched to the USPD , only a minority stayed in the SPD (then called MSPD ) - in the rest of the Reich it was mostly the other way around. The local SPD organ, the “ Braunschweiger Volksfreund ”, was one of the few social democratic newspapers in which opponents of the war and the party leadership's truce policy also had their say after the start of the war (partly due to August Thalheimer's editorial membership until 1916) . Braunschweig proved to be a particularly fertile breeding ground for revolutionary movements, which in this radicalism could hardly be found in the rest of the empire.

November 1918: The revolution reaches Braunschweig

The Brunswick Castle

At the beginning of November all kinds of rumors were circulating in the city. For November 3rd, the Spartakists had organized a large protest meeting on Leonhardplatz, at which Merges was the main speaker. In order to lure even more people there and at the same time to intimidate the bourgeoisie, the rumor was spread that Karl Liebknecht was coming to Braunschweig and would speak at this event, and that 1000 sailors would also come to the city - neither of which happened, but from the point of view of the Revolutionary nevertheless did not miss its effect.

In the course of November 6, 1918, the first sailors from Kiel and Wilhelmshaven reached Braunschweig and were received by merges. While the revolutionaries were still deliberating in the evening, the first unrest broke out. The next day a large demonstration took place, a large crowd marched through the city, the Rennelberg prison was stormed and prisoners freed, revolutionaries occupied the Braunschweig train station , the post office and the castle guard , various official buildings such as the police headquarters of the Braunschweig Police Department in Münzstrasse, workers at Büssing and other factories were mobilized. Thousands stood from Münzstrasse to Hagenmarkt . Almost the entire Braunschweig garrison defected to the rebels. Welfen- Duke Ernst-August had given the site elder the instruction to avoid bloodshed at all costs.

November 8, 1918: The Duke abdicates

Ernst August Duke of Braunschweig and Lüneburg

On November 8, 1918, thousands again took to the streets. During the day, around 20,000 people gathered between Ackerhof and Schlossplatz and waited for something to happen. In the morning, Merges and a group of armed men occupied the SPD's “Volksfreund” building, giving the left-wing radicals their own mouthpiece with the newspaper that appears there. While Merges was speaking to the crowd from a balcony around 10 a.m., the red flag was hoisted on the castle.

In the afternoon, a delegation under Merges' leadership went to Duke Ernst-August's palace and asked him to abdicate . After a brief period of reflection and after consulting with his ministers, he signed the document and left Braunschweig the following day with his family for Gmunden into exile in Austria . Before that, Ernst-August had caused his ministers to resign as a whole and to place their official business in the hands of the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council.

On the evening of November 8th, Sepp Oerter (USPD) arrived in the city from Leipzig. A few days before these events, Heinrich Jasper (SPD), later Brunswick Prime Minister, had been telegraphed from his unit on the Eastern Front to Braunschweig by the Reich Government in order to control the activities there, but he only met in the city on November 11th on - too late to be able to undo what happened.

"Socialist Republic of Braunschweig"

Front page of the Volksfreund from November 8, 1918
November 8, 1918: The delegation of the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council (from left to right: Friedrich Schubert, Henry Finke, August Merges , Paul Gmeiner , Hermann Schweiß and Hermann Meyer)
Revolutionary troops on a truck in the city

After the duke's abdication, a workers 'and soldiers' council took over political leadership; its chairman was the "Hussar Schütz" (in reality an infantryman and a journalist by profession). In Braunschweig, November 9, 1918 was comparatively calm compared to Berlin ( when Wilhelm II abdicated and Scheidemann proclaimed the republic ). The Workers 'and Soldiers' Council decided to set up a " Red Guard " based on the Soviet model in Braunschweig . It consisted of a little over 1,000 men whose primary task, in addition to the "defense of the republic", was to restore and maintain law and order as well as to ensure that the front soldiers returning to the former duchy - those of the until recently Changes considered impossible neither knew nor suspected anything - did not try to restore the status quo ante . On November 14th, however, the “Red Guard” was renamed “People's Army” in order to offer the bourgeois press less attack surface. In addition, the Guard quickly made itself extremely unpopular with the population through various arbitrary acts such as house searches and confiscation of food.

On November 10, 1918, a large demonstration marched from the castle to the Brunswick state parliament on the Eiermarkt , where a sole government of the USPD was proclaimed by the workers 'and soldiers' council. The "Socialist Republic of Braunschweig" was proclaimed and August Merges was unanimously elected its first president on the proposal of Sepp Oerter. The “ Council of People's Commissars ” on the other hand, with Oerter as chairman, exercised the actual power of government. Eight “People's Commissars” belonged to the council: the only woman (and thus Germany's first female minister): Minna Faßhauer (national education), Karl Eckardt (work), Gustav Gerecke (nutrition), August Junke (justice), Michael Müller (transport and trade , replaced by Rudolf Löhr on January 28, 1919 ), Sepp Oerter (Interior and Finance), Gustav Rosenthal (revolutionary defense, replaced by Herling on January 28, 1919) and August Wesemeier (City of Braunschweig).

Merges, a radical advocate of the Soviet-style Soviet republic , now intended to establish a republic based on the Russian model in the former Duchy of Braunschweig. Oerter, on the other hand, leader of the Braunschweig USPD and an influential member of the government, had spoken out from the start in favor of a parliament elected by the people, which should work as an additional body alongside the council representation. The long-term goal of the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council was to create a unified German state in which the state of Braunschweig was to be absorbed; The immediate goal, however, was initially to establish a socialist state and economic system in the state of Braunschweig. On November 15, 1918, the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council adopted a draft electoral law granting all persons over 20 years of age the secret, equal and direct right to vote.

December 1918

The Brunswick bourgeoisie, which had hardly appeared up to now, reacted to what had happened so far on the part of the workers and soldiers on December 1, 1918 with a large gathering in "Brünings Saalbau", in which it was for the first time clearly and publicly Expressed rejection and opposition to the revolutionary government.

In the days that followed, the population looted the barracks and stole a large number of firearms, which made the situation in the city more acute and unpredictable. Meanwhile, middle-class newspapers all over Germany reported "corpses on the streets of Braunschweig" - which, although not true, exacerbated the situation. Returning Braunschweig infantry first had to stop in Rüningen , a suburb, and, in view of the reports in the national press, prepared for the invasion of the city and possible skirmishes. When the troops actually moved into the city center, but found no corpses anywhere or saw any destruction and finally got into conversation with the population, the soldiers quickly realized that they had been deceived and they closed themselves (with the exception of the officers ) Insurgents.

On December 22nd, 1918, elections to the state parliament took place in Braunschweig - it was the first elections in Germany after the collapse of the German Empire. The outcome of this election was completely unexpected for the USPD: Although it had been the dominant political force until then, it only won 14 out of 60 seats, while the MSPD (under Heinrich Jasper) 17, the two bourgeois parties, the "state electoral association" and the German People's Party (DVP) brought it together to 29 seats. In the city of Braunschweig, the USPD was the strongest party with 33.4%, but here too it fell far below its expectations. Despite the result, the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council was unwilling to cede its powers to the new, democratically elected state parliament. Instead, it was decided to consult with like-minded people in order to create a republic of its own and finally become independent from Berlin.

January 1919

Consequences of the January uprising in Berlin

On January 1, 1919, the Spartakusbund and other left-wing revolutionary groups founded the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). The Spartacus uprising in Berlin lasted from January 5th to 12th and was suppressed after bloody fighting with Freikorps troops.

The rebellious Spartakists in the capital were supported at a mass demonstration on January 7th in Braunschweig. The Braunschweig Spartakists occupied the buildings of bourgeois newspapers and blew up meetings of the bourgeois parties. The Workers 'and Soldiers' Council declared that all Prussian troop transports that crossed the state of Braunschweig would be disarmed.

The murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in Berlin by members of the Guard Cavalry Rifle Division on January 15, 1919 led to unrest across Germany, some of which was similar to civil war , which lasted into May in some areas. In Braunschweig, 30,000 people demonstrated against the political double murder on January 20th. The situation in the city then worsened. Wilhelm Schlink, rector of the Technical University of Braunschweig in 1919 , reported that on January 27, 1919, he had received information from students about the impending march of Freikorp troops to calm the situation in Braunschweig.

"Northwest German Republic"

The motto of the Braunschweig USPD and the Spartakists was "Away from Berlin". In view of what had happened in the capital , the situation in Braunschweig slowly but surely seemed to escalate and head towards an event that was anything but desired by the Reich government under Friedrich Ebert - the political detachment of the state of Braunschweig from the Reich.

The events in Braunschweig accelerated noticeably and the tone became sharper on both sides - the Council of People's Commissars toyed with the idea of ​​establishing a "Northwest German Republic" to strengthen its own political position, which from Berlin's point of view would be an attack on unity of the empire represented. The Northwest German Republic was to consist of ten socialist Free States, including the “Greater Brunswick Solution”: the Free State of Brunswick-Lüneburg, with a state area that also included part of Anhalt from Cuxhaven to the Harz and from Lüneburg - but without Hanover . A congress was therefore held in Braunschweig on January 25, 1919, to which representatives from the Free State of Oldenburg , from the Bremen Council Republic , Düsseldorf , Leipzig , Essen , Hamburg and Hanover appeared to discuss the matter. All parties - with the exception of the USPD - rejected the project in the strongest possible terms, which meant that it had already failed at the outset.

Sepp Oerter commented on the behavior of the Spartakists in a letter of December 31, 1918 to Kurt Eisner as follows:

“If the revolution [in Braunschweig] fails, it is because of the loud mouths of the local Spartacus people. We overcome the bourgeoisie. It would be okay. But the Spartacus people make all positive work impossible. For them, revolution is nothing more than a racket and destruction of economic life, unless it has been shattered as a result of the war. In the constant struggle against incompetence and stupidity, I wear my strength. I want to finally get to positive work. "

February 1919

At the constituent meeting of the Braunschweig state parliament on February 10, 1919, the chairman of the workers 'and soldiers' council, the "Husar Schütz", presented the government program and then handed over the draft of a constitution for the state of Braunschweig. On February 22, 1919, a coalition government consisting of the USPD and the SPD was formed under the chairmanship of Sepp Oerter (Oerter’s cabinet ) and the state parliament passed the provisional constitution, which made parliament the bearer of all state power - thus expressing a clear decision for parliamentary democracy brought. At the end of February, the state parliament was stormed by unemployed - President Merges had to resign. Demonstrations were now the order of the day in Braunschweig.

March 1919

On March 4, 1919, the Spartakists finally proclaimed the Soviet republic in Braunschweig - but this was already revoked the next day (which further sank the reputation of the revolutionaries, not only among the bourgeois Braunschweig population). On March 8, the USPD and the Spartacus League decided to unite. On March 26, 1919, the KPD decided to separate from the SPD.

Various Braunschweiger newspapers reported that people who were close to Lenin had stayed in the castle for talks several times, including Karl Radek , who was commissioned by Lenin . At the state party conference of the SPD in Seesen on March 9th, Heinrich Jasper indicated that a coup by the Spartakists could also be expected in Braunschweig .

April 1919: Freikorps troops in Braunschweig

trigger

At the beginning of April 1919 the situation in the city deteriorated dramatically. The view of the government in Berlin was: "From the end of 1918, Braunschweig had been politically the 'center of the communist movement and the source of all difficulties for carrying out the ongoing work of the Reich government'." After miners in the Ruhr area went on strike and on 7. On April 1st the Munich Soviet Republic was proclaimed, the action committee, works committees and shop stewards in Braunschweig decided on the same day a general strike to establish a Soviet republic.

On April 9, 1919, the Spartakists called a general strike on Schlossplatz . The aim of the strike was, on the one hand, to overthrow the coalition government in Braunschweig, and, on the other, to establish council rule throughout Germany. For this purpose the following demands were made:

  • All power to the workers' councils
  • Removal of the "murderer government" Ebert / Scheidemann
  • Connection to the Russian Soviet Republic
  • Dissolution of the National Assembly and all state assemblies
  • Arming the Workers
  • Liberation of all political prisoners

The state workers' council added three of its own to these:

  • Immediate start of socialization through the introduction of works councils
  • Dissolution of all volunteer corps
  • Creation of a people's army

The Reich government rejected these demands on the grounds that they were utopian and therefore impossible to implement.

Impending civil war in the state of Braunschweig

General Maercker
April 1919: Troops of the Maercker Freikorps parade on the Löwenwall

Due to the general strike, all public places were closed with immediate effect; Food could only be sold between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. and between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. All shops, with the exception of grocery stores, had to close. From 20 clock was curfew . The “Volksfreund” wrote that the “decisive battle for the republic” had begun. One of the consequences of the strike was that passing trains were no longer dispatched, which blocked the important east-west traffic and thus the supply of food and coal to large parts of Germany. The backlog caused by this triggered a Germany-wide traffic chaos. Braunschweig officials and freelancers then went on a counter strike. From April 11, 1919, public life in the city came to a standstill. The tone from Berlin became sharper, whereupon the People's Representative Eckardt, to whom the "Red Troops" in Braunschweig were subordinate, declared that troops of the Reich government trying to occupy Braunschweig would be prevented by armed force - the state of Braunschweig was threatened with a civil war .

Since the Reich government found this situation to be economically and politically untenable, Reichswehr Minister Gustav Noske commissioned the general of the Freikorps troops Maercker to restore law and order in the city and country of Braunschweig. On April 13, 1919, the Reich government declared Braunschweig to be under siege .

On the evening of April 14th, a plane dropped leaflets over the city with a call from the general, in which he explained the seriousness of the situation to the citizens of the city and threatened corresponding consequences in the event of resistance. Thereupon Oerter called Maercker, who was in Magdeburg , on April 15 and asked him not to march into Braunschweig. However, Maercker said it was too late to negotiate now. On the same day, the incumbent Braunschweig state government managed to end the general strike with reference to the state of siege. Despite this success, the Reich government declared her deposed on the following day, but remained in office until April 30, as Maercker was unable to form a new government in the following weeks.

In view of the threatening situation and the imminent invasion of the city by the Reichswehr , the state government issued the following appeal to the population on April 16:

"Those who resist the government troops with gun in hand are sinning against the workers and the population as a whole and against the well-being of the city and the state of Braunschweig."

The Council of People's Representatives also made an appeal to the population:

"If even one shot is fired when the government troops march in, the result will be that great bloodshed and infinite ruin will break out on the city of Braunschweig."
"Workers, citizens and all persons must see it as their most sacred duty not to oppose the advancing troops."
"[...] delivers every weapon!"

On the same day, the strike leadership finally decided to restart work - but it was too late. On the evening of the 16th, the revolutionary troops were given an ultimatum to vacate the castle and barracks, which they did immediately. Hermann Wallbaum (see below under "Literature"), eyewitness to the events, commented on the situation: "When the Maercker troops came forward, everything [= the propagated resistance] collapsed."

The state of Braunschweig under siege

The Reich government had already announced publicly a few days earlier:

In order to maintain public safety, the area of ​​the Free State of Braunschweig is hereby under siege. The commander of the Voluntary Landjäger Corps, Major General Maercker, is entrusted with the implementation of the resulting measures.
Weimar, April 13, 1919
The Reich President
signed Ebert
Countersigned:
signed Scheidemann
President of the Reich Ministry
signed Noske
Reichswehr Minister

April 17, 1919: Entry of the Maercker Freikorps

Hotel "Deutsches Haus"
Heinrich Jasper

In the early morning hours of April 17, 1919, around 10,000 men moved in six columns. Partly with armored cars and armored trains , concentrically towards Braunschweig. These included soldiers from four divisions of the Landesjägerkorps, Cavalry Rifle Command 11 (training infantry regiment, dragoons ), 2nd Marine Brigade Ehrhardt , voluntary troops of the X. Army Corps (dragoons and lancers ), as well as those in Münster and Hanover, the newly established Braunschweig volunteer department. Although both the military and the population expected considerable resistance in the occupation of the city, nothing happened - the invasion took place completely peacefully and without any bloodshed. The soldiers were greeted with cheers by the population and showered with flowers. Within a few hours, all strategic points were occupied by Freikorps soldiers. Connecting roads and railway lines were secured by the Braunschweig infantry regiments 92 and 17.

General Maercker arrived at the hotel "Deutsches Haus" at Ruhfäutchenplatz (where it still exists today) at around 10 am and set up his headquarters there. The state of siege was immediately enforced: the Volkswehr and Volksmarine were disbanded and instead the Braunschweig Jäger Battalion and a resident army were set up. August Merges fled to Berlin while Sepp Oerter stayed in Braunschweig. The Oerter government was dismissed with immediate effect and the state workers' council was dissolved. Oerter, Eckardt and numerous others were taken into protective custody. For Oerter, however, it consisted of getting a room in the “German House”. He was released a few days later. Within a very short time, “ public order, ” as the Reich government understood it, was restored.

Maercker and Jasper were negotiating the formation of a new government for Braunschweig. When the negotiations failed, however, the governing state assembly elected a cabinet on April 30, which included Jasper.

In view of the peaceful atmosphere in the city and country of Braunschweig, the state of siege was eased considerably after just a few days. The traffic and economic situation visibly relaxed. On Easter Monday 1919, Maercker held a military parade on the Löwenwall as the last demonstration of state power .

On April 30, 1919, the Braunschweiger Landtag elected a new government , which was formed by a coalition of the SPD, USPD and DDP . Heinrich Jasper became the new Prime Minister .

May 1919

Due to the unexpectedly peaceful and quickly relaxing situation in the city, the Freikorps troops were able to leave Braunschweig again on May 10, 1919 - this time for Leipzig , where they marched in with 18,000 soldiers the next day.

The Reich government then announced in June:

The state of siege imposed by decree of April 13, 1919 on the area of ​​the Free State of Braunschweig is lifted.
Berlin, June 5, 1919
The Reich President
signed Ebert
Countersigned:
signed Scheidemann
President of the Reich Ministry
signed Noske
Reichswehr Minister

The city and state of Braunschweig were independent again. One of the most important tasks of the new Braunschweig government was to reorganize the finances of the Free State and thus contribute to a revitalization of the domestic economy, because the revolution had cost the country seven million marks in "revolutionary defense". In addition, it was feared that the Reich government could demand several million marks in damages . The numerous strikes in the country had accelerated inflation and at the same time lowered the productivity of the economy considerably. The result of the events of the past six months since the end of the war was devastating for Braunschweig: The rift between workers and bourgeoisie had deepened, the polarization of the respective points of view intensified.

literature

Representations of contemporary witnesses

Teutonicus (= pseudonym of Hermann Schroff): Braunschweig under the rule of the red flag (eyewitness reports around 1920)
  • Hans Wilhelm-Binder, Peter Dürrbeck, Jürgen Klose (eds.): The red flag over the Braunschweig castle. November Revolution 1918/19 in Braunschweig. Hermann Wallbaum tells. In: Building block for the history of the Braunschweig workers' movement . Self-published, Braunschweig approx. 1978.
  • Robert Gehrke , Robert Seeboth (Ed.): 50 Years of the November Revolution . A documentary about the revolutionary struggles of the Brunswick workers on the eve of the November revolution . Self-published, Braunschweig 1968.
  • Maercker : From the Imperial Army to the Reichswehr. History of the voluntary Landjäger Corps. A contribution to the history of the German revolution . Koehler, Leipzig 1921.
  • Teutonicus (di Hermann Schroff): Braunschweig under the rule of the red flag. Opinions, moods and facts . without publisher, place or year (approx. 1920).

Literary processing

  • Homo (di Richard Wagner ): Gypsy blood in the filing cabinet. Biographical novel . Thüringer Verlags-Anstalt, Jena 1924 (the autobiographical novel by the contemporary witness and editor of the people's friend Richard Wagner describes the November Revolution in Braunschweig and the work of August Merge). Digitized version (username: Richard password: Wagner).
  • Ehm withered : in the morning mist . Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1953 (In the novel by the contemporary witness Welk, the November Revolution in Braunschweig and the time up to the suppression of the “Socialist Republic of Braunschweig” are presented. The novel is based on Welk's own experiences and on historical research by his wife. August Merges and others historical persons are represented by their names slightly alienated.)

Web links

Commons : 1918 in Braunschweig  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reinhard Bein: Braunschweig between right and left. The Free State 1918 to 1930. Braunschweig 1990, p. 4
  2. ^ Hans Wilhelm-Binder, Peter Dürrbeck, Jürgen Klose (eds.): The red flag over the Braunschweig castle. November Revolution 1918/19 in Braunschweig. Hermann Wallbaum tells. In: Module on the history of the Braunschweig workers' movement , self-published, Braunschweig approx. 1978, p. 32
  3. ↑ Ursula Schelm-Spangenberg: The German People's Party in Braunschweig. Foundation, development, sociological structure, political work In: ​​Braunschweiger Werkstücke, Volume 30, Braunschweig 1964, p. 36
  4. ^ Hans Wilhelm-Binder, Peter Dürrbeck, Jürgen Klose (eds.): The red flag over the Braunschweig castle. November Revolution 1918/19 in Braunschweig. Hermann Wallbaum tells. In: Module on the history of the Braunschweig workers' movement , self-published, Braunschweig approx. 1978, p. 26
  5. ^ Declaration of the state of siege over the area of ​​the Free State of Braunschweig at documentarchiv.de
  6. ^ Abolition of the state of siege over the area of ​​the Free State of Braunschweig at documentarchiv.de
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on May 1, 2006 .