Abstract
The KPD had barely come to birth when it was dragged into a quarrel not of its own making. The USPD People’s Representatives had resigned on 29 December, firstly in protest against Ebert’s order to the Minister of War to use force to free Otto Wels from his captivity by the People’s Naval Division; and secondly because of his failure either to set up a popular militia in place of the old standing army or to take any measures of nationalisation.1 It was logical that the Independents in the Prussian government should also resign; they did so on 3 January. There was now a purely SPD government in power both in Prussia and in the Reich. The Berlin chief of police, Emil Eichhorn, was regarded by the SPD as a ‘danger to public safety’ and a sympathiser with the revolutionaries, whether Spartacists, rebellious sailors or Obleute.2 He was also a member of the USPD. The resignation of the USPD ministers therefore seemed a good opportunity to get rid of him. On 4 January he was dismissed. But he refused to go, relying on the support of a wide spectrum of the Berlin left, including the central executive of the Berlin USPD, the Obleute, and the Spartacists. The Obleute decided on the evening of 4 January to dig their heels in: the retreat had gone far enough, so far and no further. What was the KPD Zentrale to do?
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Notes and References
A. J. Ryder, The German Revolution of 1918, Cambridge, 1967, pp. 192–3.
P. Levi, Was ist das Verbrechen? Die Märzaktion oder die Kritik daran?, Berlin, 1921, p. 33.
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Vorwärts und nicht vergessen, p.199; P. Kuckuk (ed.), Revolution und Räterepublik in Bremen, Frankfurt, 1969, pp.104–6.
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G. Noske, Von Kiel bis Kapp, Berlin, 1920, pp.105–110; Illustrierte Geschichte, p.362.
See e.g. A. Mitchell, Revolution in Bavaria, Princeton, 1965;
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K. Radek, Die Entwicklung der deutschen Revolution und die Aufgaben der Kommunistischen Partei, Berlin, 1919. It was also serialised in KRK.
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D. A. Smart, Pannekoek and Gorter’s Marxism, London, 1978, pp. 35–40.
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M. Hölz, From White Cross to Red Flag, London, 1930, pp. 84–102.
W. Koenen, ‘Zur Frage der Möglichkeit einer Arbeiterregierung nach dem Kapp-putsch’, BzG, 1962, 4, pp. 347–9.
G. Zinoviev, Zwölf Tage in Deutschland, Hamburg, 1921, p. 5.
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© 1984 Ben Fowkes
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Fowkes, B. (1984). From Radical Sect to Mass Party, 1919 to 1920. In: Communism in Germany under the Weimar Republic. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17373-0_2
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