Vor allem deshalb, da sie viele Säulen des alten Kaiserreichs (Institutionen wie z.B. Therefore we must draw a thick, visible dividing line between us and the Bolsheviks.In the same month in which Otto Braun's article appeared (October 1918), another series of strikes swept through Germany with the participation of over 1 million workers. Their program was democracy, pacifism and anti-militarism. If this was the case in Russia, the Bolsheviks no doubt could rely on the majority of the people. and remained waiting on an assembly square. By the evening of 4 November, Kiel was firmly in the hands of about 40,000 rebellious sailors, soldiers and workers, as was Wilhelmshaven two days later. bei Dirk, Dähnhardt, Ralf Hoffrogge, Working-Class Politics in the German Revolution. In the restructuring of the state, Ebert wanted to win over the middle-class parties that had already cooperated with the SPD in the Reichstag in 1917, as well as the old elites of the German Empire.

In the first months of 1919, there were further armed revolts all over Germany. They called themselves "On 3 March 1918, the newly established Soviet government agreed to the With Russia knocked out of the war, the German Supreme Command could now move part of the eastern armies to the In spite of the optimism created by the surrender of Russia early in 1918, there could be no question that the military situation on the Western Front had become more precarious for the Germans after the United States entered the war in April 1917. The left-wing extremists accused the ruling Social Democrats of having betrayed the ideals of the workers' movement by preventing a communist revolution and unleashing the Freikorps upon the workers. Ebert did his best to act in agreement with the old powers and intended to save the monarchy. As planned, three members of each socialist party were elected into the "Council of People's Representatives": from the USPD, their chairman On the evening of 10 November, there was a phone call between Ebert and General In the turmoil of this day, the Ebert government's acceptance of the harsh terms of the Entente for a truce, after a renewed demand by the Supreme Command, went almost unnoticed. "In fact, the Imperial Government and the German Army shirked their responsibility for defeat from the very beginning and tried to place the blame for it on the new democratic government. In addition to that, on 12 January, the anti-republican Freikorps, which had been raised more or less as The Freikorps brutally cleared several buildings and executed the occupiers on the spot. On the left, the actions of the SPD Leadership during the revolution drove many of its former adherents to the Communists.

It turned out that even units such as the People's Navy Division were not willing to support the armed revolt and declared themselves neutral. Former imperial administrators and the councils depended on each other: the former had the knowledge and experience, the latter had political clout. The Emperor welcomed the so-called "truce" (On 2 December 1914, Liebknecht voted against further war bonds, the only deputy of any party in the Reichstag to do so. In order to demonstrate some success to his followers, he demanded the abdication of the emperor as of 6 November. 61–79.See: Ralf Hoffrogge, From Unionism to Workers' Councils – The Revolutionary Shop Stewards in Germany 1914–1918, in: Immanuel Ness and Dario Azzellini(Eds): Ours to Master and to Own: Worker's Control from the Commune to the Present, Chicago 2011On East German historiography of the German Revolution see Mario Keßler: Die Novemberrevolution in der Geschichtswissenschaft der DDR – Die Kontroversen des Jahres 1958 und ihre Folgen im internationalen Kontext, in: Nevertheless, Ebert, who was in touch with the Supreme Command in Kassel via a secret phone line, gave orders to attack the Residence with troops loyal to the government on the morning of 24 December. The left wings of both parties and the Revolutionary Stewards wanted to go beyond that and establish a "direct democracy" in the production sector, with elected delegates controlling the political power. Instead, they supported the government's decision to call for elections for a constituent national assembly as soon as possible. They themselves were now disbanded and integrated into the newly formed Freikorps.