The fall of Germany’s monarchy was not the
culmination of some sinister grand plan. The Social Democratic Party, which replaced
the Kaiser’s regime in 1918, didn’t even really lead the revolution and had to catch
up with citizens on the streets. But unlike some other places, Germany was
a mostly cohesive nation-state, and the monarchy was instrumental in originally uniting the
country. So then, why couldn’t its imperial system,
the brainchild of Otto von Bismarck, survive the end of World War One? Why did Kaiser Wilhelm II have to abdicate? Well, Germany’s Social Democrats were instrumental
players in establishing the Weimar Republic. They were the largest grouping in the German
Parliament, the Reichstag, and they represented a genuinely popular pro-worker, pro-peace
mandate. Which was all well and good, but Imperial
Germany was not a parliamentary democracy. Before the revolution real power rested with
the Emperor, and Kaiser Wilhelm II was far from a democrat or a pacifist. He, and Germany’s militaristic ruling class,
were focused totally on winning the war. With Wilhelm’s blessing, Field Marshal Paul
von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff had effectively been military dictators of
the country since 1916. From the people’s perspective then, the
Kaiser was complicit in offering up an entire generation to the war as sacrificial lambs. On the homefront blockades that had lasted
for years and a loss of colonial territories also brought about shortages of food and other
vital supplies. That’s not to say that Germans were totally
united in their opposition though. In fact, the Social Democrats towards the
end of the war had split into two factions (the Majority and Independent SPD), but everyone
was certainly upset. Ludendorff himself informed the Kaiser that
the war could not be won on the 29th of September, 1918, and the military high
command then encouraged Wilhelm to begin the process of democratising his empire. Why would they do that? Two reasons: One, they believed (rightly)
that the Entente powers would more readily negotiate with a democratic Germany, and two,
more cynically, von Hindenburg and Ludendorff wanted the blame for the war―that make no
mistake they had lost―to fall upon a socialist civilian government. The Kaiser was very much on board with that
shift-the-blame plan, and on the third of October Wilhelm appointed his last Imperial
Chancellor, Prince Max von Baden to head a reformist government. Von Baden included the first Social Democrats
in the history of the Reich in his cabinet―notably Philipp Scheidemann―and began to legislate
for a number of reforms that were supposed to limit the Kaiser’s power but keep Wilhelm
on the imperial throne. However, whatever they might have liked it
to look like, and how it was made to look later, Germany’s entire system, embodied by the person of the Kaiser,
was totally discredited by the disaster that was WW1. The people felt that their rulers had failed
them, and appointing a liberal Chancellor and just letting a few socialists into government
was not going to be enough to placate them. But plenty of Emperors had suffered angry
citizens before. They can be stopped if your army remains loyal,
and the Kaiser’s, while it was battered by the war, still could have been. Unfortunately for Wilhelm II it wasn’t going
to be. The straw that broke the camel’s back came
about on October 30th 1918 when seamen stationed in Kiel were given orders to sail out and
engage the Royal Navy. The men flatly refused and began to protest
after several were shot. Emboldened by the sailors, Kiel’s workers
turned that mutiny into the sparks of revolution when they joined them on strike on November
4th. With hindsight, the question now was not whether
the Kaiser’s regime would fall, but whether it would only be Wilhelm II’s personal departure
or the end of the monarchy entirely? The Emperor didn’t necessarily realise that
though, and remained at his military command post at Spa in occupied Belgium, while Prince
von Baden worked to save his dynasty in Berlin. Already by November 2nd, the Socialists in
the cabinet were pressing the Chancellor to demand the Kaiser’s abdication. They could do that because the Majority Social
Democrats, led by Friedrich Ebert, were the most powerful and popular political force
in the country. But the MSPD wasn’t devoutly republican
and its leadership may very well have accepted a symbolic monarchy in the style of Britain’s
parliamentary system, if only Wilhelm would go, and if events hadn’t gotten ahead of
them. For the moment, anyway, the political right
was biding its time, so the only real competitor to Ebert’s Social Democrats came from the farther-left USPD and
particularly the Spartakusbund, another splinter group that later reorganised
as the Communist Party of Germany. Founded by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht,
the Spartacists began as an anti-war faction of the Social Democrats in 1914. They then joined the breakaway USPD when the
party split three years later, and inspired by the Russian October Revolution, began to
call for the overthrow of state and society and the establishment of a German Soviet regime. Suffice to say, they definitely weren’t
fans of men wearing crowns. Come the last week of the war the challenge
that they presented Ebert and the bulk of the Social Democrats was to manage a balancing
act. On the one hand, the political system of Bismarck
and fifty-years-past was going to be replaced: following the mutiny at Kiel, crowds of workers
and soldiers began to form in urban centres across Germany all demanding peace and a new
government to negotiate it. On the other hand, Ebert saw risk in promoting
taking to the streets, as most Social Democrats feared the agitation of Marxists like the
Spartakusbund who may very well have used that to start a Russian Bolshevik-style bloody
civil war if left unchecked. On the 6th of November, the Socialist Ministers Scheidemann and Gustav Bauer demanded that
von Baden represent the Social Democrats fully in cabinet, and, again, the abdication of
the Kaiser. The first demand was accepted. Things went a step further in Bavaria, Germany’s
2nd largest state, after the capitulation of neighbouring Austria-Hungary to the Entente. The centuries-old von Wittlesbach dynasty
there was forced from power and a republic was proclaimed in Munich on November 8th by
the USPD and MSPD working in tandem; intentionally to the exclusion of their Spartacist cousins. Back in Berlin on November 9th a contingent
of MSPD politicians led by Ebert confronted the Chancellor. That morning their patience had broken. A General Strike was organised, and the Berlin
garrison had sided with the strikers. The rest of the army, still commanded by Field
Marshal von Hindenburg was unwilling to fight against the bulk of Germany’s population,
and of course, he personally still hoped to pin blame for an armistice on the democrats
and Marxists. And yet, with virtually no one of significance
wanting him to stay, Kaiser Wilhelm just couldn’t bring himself to voluntarily go into exile. Briefly, he considered abdicating as Emperor,
but not from the lesser title King of Prussia. That was shot down as legally impossible by
von Baden So with millions on the streets, the army
unwilling to fight for the Kaiser, and the country paralysed by strikes, von Baden handed
over power to the MSPD at their meeting. Technically that was also illegal. Even under a recently amended Constitution
the present Chancellor couldn't just hand the job over to whomever he liked. Of course, the thing about revolutions is that
during them laws go out the window, so Germany’s new Chancellor Friedrich Ebert became.
Von Baden’s last act in government was to announce Wilhelm’s abdication, forgoing
actually asking him first. Germany was still not a republic though, that
happened minutes later when Philipp Scheidemann announced the end, not just of Wilhelm, but
of the monarchy outright in a speech to strikers gathered around the Reichstag. Clearly, consultation had fallen completely
out of fashion as he did so without first informing his party leader. Ebert was furious, but the deed had been done. Scheidemann’s justification was to emulate
Bavaria, outmanoeuvre the Spartacists, and hopefully, keep the revolution peaceful. Unhappy about that, 1919 became a much bloodier
year in contrast to the massive but largely peaceful protests that brought down the Kaiser. Predictably, the Spartacists did try to overthrow
the new government, but that was a fight between Social Democracy and Bolshevism, not over
monarchy. As for Wilhelm II, once Max von Baden relinquished
power he could see that the game was up, and fled from Spa to the Netherlands where he
lived in exile for another twenty-three years. The ex-Kaiser never set foot in Germany again,
and even willed that his body not be returned home until the monarchy is restored. He’s still in the Netherlands. The empire that Wilhelm lost worked for decades
before WW1 though. To find out how, you should check out the
video on the German Empire’s creation and Bismarck, its Iron Chancellor to the left. And as always, I’ve been James and I’ll
see you there.
