Christmas fights

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The Christmas battles (sometimes also known as the Christmas Uprising or Christmas riots) were military clashes in Berlin during the November Revolution between the People's Navy Division and regular troops, which reached its climax on December 24, 1918. The disputes sparked off wages that were not paid and the thefts of the sailors quartered in the Berlin City Palace and in the New Marstall . They formed the external reason for the breakup of the coalition of the two social democratic parties MSPD and USPD in the Council of People's Representatives .

prehistory

For several weeks there had been a dispute over the People's Navy Division, which had been formed in Berlin during the November Revolution. On December 12th, the Prussian Finance Minister Hugo Simon (USPD) accused their relatives, who were quartered in the Berlin City Palace , of being responsible for the disappearance of valuable art treasures. The Council of People's Representatives planned to take reliable sailors from the People's Naval Division into the Republican Army and to dismiss the rest after they had been compensated. On December 13th, however, the People's Naval Division refused to vacate the castle. The responsible city commander Otto Wels (SPD) then gave the unit an ultimatum until December 16 at noon. The troops refused and put a machine gun division on alert. The division protested in front of the Imperial Council Congress .

At the same time, tensions between the majority Social Democrats on the one hand and the USPD and other left-wing groups on the other intensified. On December 21st, the revolutionary stewards unanimously called on the USPD members in the Council of People's Representatives to resign from the government. Within the government, the differences between the two coalition parties hardened, not least in matters of military policy: the majority Social Democrats did not want to implement the "Hamburg points" unanimously adopted by the Reichsrätekongress, according to which military rank insignia and the off-duty carrying of weapons were abolished, officers were to be elected and the entire army would have to be controlled by the workers 'and soldiers' councils with their newly elected central council at the head. This would have ended the cooperation with the Supreme Army Command (OHL), which the MSPD chairman Friedrich Ebert had agreed through his telephone conversation with the Imperial Quartermaster General Wilhelm Groener on November 9 or 10, 1918, the so-called Ebert-Groener Pact . For its part, the OHL had held back in the days of the November Revolution, but at the beginning of December was working on plans to break the power of the workers 'and soldiers' councils and, above all, their influence on the soldiers of the army, and to proclaim Ebert as transitional president with dictatorial powers: To this one General Arnold Lequis had set up a general command in Berlin . However, the Prussian War Minister Heinrich Schëuch had refused to take over the supreme command, which is why Lequis acted autonomously. Ebert knew of the formation of the General Command, but was not informed about the objectives of the OHL associated with it. Nevertheless, the invasion of some troops on December 10th and the offer of dictatorial powers shook the confidence of the council movement in Ebert.

In the socially heterogeneous People's Naval Division, there was no consensus on military-political questions, but it was intended to provide an opportunity for the coalition to break up. It is not certain whether the majority Social Democrats in the Council of People's Representatives deliberately seized this opportunity to force the USPD members out of the government, or whether they only wanted to stop the thefts. On December 21, 1918, the Council of People's Representatives asked the responsible city command of Berlin to ensure that the People's Navy Division should vacate the city palace and give the keys to the command. In return, the troops were to receive the outstanding wages of 80,000 marks. From January 1919, the People's Navy Division should then be significantly reduced. On December 23, the sailors declared that they would not hand over the keys to the city commander in Wels, as requested, but only to the People's Representative Emil Barth (USPD). They invoked an agreement with Hugo Haase (USPD) about which the other people's representatives knew nothing. Wels refused to pay the mentioned wages - in view of the upcoming Christmas holidays a sensitive means of pressure - and demanded a decision from Council Chairman Ebert.

Occupation of the Reich Chancellery

As a result, the People's Naval Division marched to the city headquarters on December 23rd to emphasize their demands. In addition, a section of sailors, which was supposed to guard the Reich Chancellery , established the government and brought the switchboard under its control. During the negotiations in the city command, there was an exchange of fire in front of the building between members of the People's Navy Division and the Republican soldiers. Two sailors were killed. As a result, the People's Naval Division captured Wels and took him hostage to the stables, where he was mistreated. Ebert initially relied on a negotiated solution and tried on December 23 to avoid bloodshed between the mutinous sailors and the regular troops under General Arnold Lequis, who were advancing to protect the government .

When he heard that Wels was in mortal danger, Ebert saw no other option and turned to the Prussian War Ministry on December 24 via a telephone line that was not controlled by the sailors and asked for military help. According to the historian Ulrich Kluge, he renounced the support of 3,000 loyal soldiers that the Potsdam Workers 'and Soldiers' Council wanted to provide - possibly in order to be able to justify the use of regular troops through proven defenselessness. According to Walter Mühlhausen's biography of Ebert, he asked the armed revolutionaries, who were very numerous in and around Berlin, for support, but only eighty men had turned up. Quartermaster General Groener had already advised Ebert by telephone the day before from Kassel to take decisive action against the People's Navy Division and had himself authorized by him to take military action. He had promised to put four divisions at the disposal of the government, but in the general dissolution of the army he only got 1,800 men together.

Fight for the city palace

Christmas fights in the pillar hall of the Berlin Palace

The three majority Social Democratic People's Representatives Ebert, Philipp Scheidemann and Otto Landsberg instructed the Prussian War Minister Schëuch on December 24th to “do what is necessary to free Wels”. There were no restrictions whatsoever with this instruction, which had also been issued without consulting the coalition partner: As Ulrich Kluge writes, it was a “blanket power of attorney”. General Lequis gave the order to capture the castle and the stables with 1,200 infantry, numerous machine guns and four and a half field batteries . The bombardment began on Christmas Eve 1918 around eight o'clock in the morning and could easily have killed the city commanders trapped there. Lequis no longer seems to have come to his rescue, he rather wanted to take action against the hated revolutionaries. The outnumbered soldiers who still obeyed the OHL managed to storm the castle, and some time later the People's Navy Division was ready to hand over the stables. However, during a break in the fire, the sailors received support from the security service, which was subordinate to Police President Emil Eichhorn (USPD). In addition there were the “Red Soldiers' Guard” and armed workers who broke through the barriers, involved soldiers loyal to the government in discussions, whose officers mistreated and caused unrest. The units loyal to the government suffered from considerable losses, also because it was clear to them that their attack endangered the lives of the sailors in the castle and stables. They cleared the castle again and Ebert gave the order to stop the fighting. A total of 56 soldiers from government troops and eleven sailors, but also civilians, were killed.

consequences

Due to the literal "disappearance" of the regular soldiers loyal to the government at Christmas 1918, the Council of People's Representatives now did not have a single operational army unit at its disposal. If the soldiers of the People's Naval Division had been Spartacists , they could easily have usurped power. But for them it was only about the outstanding wages. When members of the Spartakusbund wanted to occupy the Reich Chancellery on the following day, they were prevented from doing so by a large demonstration made up of majority Social Democrats organized by Otto Wels.

The Christmas battles ended with a military defeat for the General Command and a political defeat for the government. Now she had to renegotiate with the mutinous sailors. In order to achieve the evacuation of the occupied buildings and the release of Wels, the council promised that the outstanding wages would be paid and that the current strength of the People's Naval Division would be integrated into the Republican Army. In addition, he had to agree to the dismissal of Wels as city commander.

Although the majority Social Democratic members of the government had found themselves in an emergency situation and the People's Naval Division had acted arbitrarily, the events for many workers and soldiers in Berlin were proof that the MSPD had allied itself with counter-revolutionary forces. The public burial of the killed sailors turned into a mass demonstration. On posters carried along read: "We complain about the murder of sailors to Ebert, Landsberg and Scheidemann."

The Council of People's Representatives after the departure of the USPD: Landsberg, Scheidemann, Noske, Ebert, Rudolf Wissell .

As things stand, the request for help from members of the Council of People's Representatives to the military was without alternatives. However, Ebert failed to coordinate the action with the responsible Prussian war minister. This put the government completely in the hands of the military. The Ebert-Groener Pact of November 1918 was thus strengthened, according to Ulrich Kluge, the political alliance between the majority social democracy and the military was only concluded during the Christmas battles. In a joint meeting of the Council of People's Representatives and the Central Council of the Socialist Republic there was a debate lasting several hours in which the USPD criticized the blanket authority for the troops and the bombardment of the Marstall. The central council, dominated by the MSPD, approved the action of the people's representatives Ebert, Landsberg and Scheidemann. Hugo Haase answered evasively when asked whether the USPD people's representatives were ready to take action against the Spartacus group with the support of the military, if necessary. The position of the Central Council was the final impetus for the USPD to leave the Council of People's Representatives. This decision was announced on the night of December 28-29, 1918.

Another consequence was that Gustav Noske, as the new people's representative for the army and navy, increasingly relied on the promotion of voluntary corps after the defeat of the regular troops .

Eichhorn was also due to be dismissed, because the Berlin police chief had proven to be disloyal. When the Prussian Prime Minister Paul Hirsch (MSPD) took this unavoidable step on January 4, 1919, he triggered mass protests that led to the January uprising , the bloody suppression of which deepened the split in the German workers' parties.

In terms of foreign policy, the Christmas battles delayed the meeting of the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 because, as the New York Times wrote, in view of the chaotic events, it was impossible to foresee when a German government would meet with sufficient authority and assertiveness to conclude a peace treaty.

literature

  • Scott Stephenson: The Final Battle: Soldiers of the Western Front and the German Revolution of 1918. Cambridge University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-51946-5 .
  • Heinrich August Winkler : From Revolution to Stabilization. Workers and the labor movement in the Weimar Republic 1918 to 1924 . Berlin, Bonn, 1984, ISBN 3-8012-0093-0 , pp. 109-113

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinrich August Winkler : Weimar 1918–1933. The history of the first German democracy , Beck, Munich 1993, p. 52
  2. ^ Hans Mommsen : Rise and Fall of the Republic of Weimar 1918–1933 . Paperback edition, Ullstein, Berlin 1998, p. 51.
  3. ↑ a b Ulrich Kluge: Soldiers' Councils and Revolution. Studies on military policy in Germany 1918/19 . Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1975, p. 261 f.
  4. ^ Hagen Schulze : Weimar. Germany 1917–1933 (= The Germans and their Nation , Volume 4). Siedler, Berlin 1994, p. 177 f.
  5. ^ Ulrich Kluge: Soldiers' Councils and Revolution. Studies on military policy in Germany 1918/19 . Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1975, p. 262.
  6. ^ Ulrich Kluge: Soldiers' Councils and Revolution. Studies on military policy in Germany 1918/19 . Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1975, p. 263
  7. ^ Walter Mühlhausen: Friedrich Ebert 1871–1925. President of the Weimar Republic . JHW Dietz Nachf., Bonn 2006, p. 143.
  8. ^ Hans-Ulrich Wehler : German history of society . Volume 4: From the beginning of the First World War to the founding of the two German states 1914–1949 . CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2003, p. 217.
  9. ^ Ulrich Kluge: Soldiers' Councils and Revolution. Studies on military policy in Germany 1918/19 . Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1975, p. 264
  10. ^ A b Heinrich August Winkler: Weimar 1918–1933. The history of the first German democracy , Beck, Munich 1993, p. 54
  11. ^ Henning Köhler : Germany on the way to itself. A history of the century . Hohenheim-Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, p. 148.
  12. ↑ a b Ulrich Kluge: Soldiers' Councils and Revolution. Studies on military policy in Germany 1918/19 . Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1975, p. 265.
  13. ↑ Arnulf Scriba: Christmas fights 1918. Overview in the LeMO ( DHM and HdG )
  14. ^ Hans-Ulrich Wehler: German history of society . Volume 4: From the beginning of the First World War to the founding of the two German states 1914–1949 . CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2003, p. 217.
  15. ^ Sönke Neitzel : World War and Revolution. 1914–1918 / 19 . be.bra-Verlag, Berlin 2008, p. 160 f.
  16. ^ Hagen Schulze: Weimar. Germany 1917–1933 (= The Germans and their Nation , Volume 4), Siedler, Berlin 1994, p. 178.
  17. ^ Heinrich August Winkler: The long way to the west . Volume 1: German history from the end of the Old Reich to the fall of the Weimar Republic. CH Beck, Munich 2000, p. 388 ff.
  18. ↑ Marcus M. Payk: Peace through Law? The rise of modern international law and the conclusion of peace after the First World War. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-057845-4 , p. 188 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).