Spartacist uprising — general strike and armed struggle in Berlin in Jan. 1919 in connection with the November Revolution that broke out following Germany's defeat in WW1
The Spartacist uprising was a failed armed revolt in Berlin that shaped the fragile early Weimar Republic and ended with the extrajudicial killing of KPD leaders.
Key Facts
- Duration
- 5–12 January 1919
- Death toll
- roughly 150–200, mostly insurgents
- Government leader
- Friedrich Ebert, MSPD
- KPD leaders killed
- Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, 15 Jan 1919
- National Assembly elections
- 19 January 1919, held as scheduled
- Spartacus League founded
- 1914, by Luxemburg and Liebknecht
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Following Germany's defeat in World War I, a revolution broke out that left power contested between the provisional MSPD government, which favored parliamentary social democracy, and the newly formed Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which sought to establish a council republic modeled on Bolshevik Russia. This fundamental conflict over the form the new German state should take drove radicals toward insurrection.
From 5 to 12 January 1919, armed insurgents linked to the KPD and the Spartacus League seized key sites in Berlin in an attempt to overthrow the provisional government led by Friedrich Ebert. The MSPD government deployed regular troops and Freikorps units to suppress the revolt. Fighting lasted eight days before government forces prevailed, with a death toll of approximately 150–200, mostly among the insurgents.
The uprising's failure allowed elections for the National Assembly to proceed on 19 January 1919 as planned. The Assembly subsequently drafted the Weimar Constitution, establishing Germany's first national democracy. However, the extrajudicial executions of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht on 15 January, carried out with at least tacit government approval, damaged the MSPD's legitimacy and fueled lasting antagonism between Social Democrats and Communists throughout the Weimar period.
Work
Spartacist Uprising (Januaraufstand)
The uprising and the subsequent killing of KPD leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht became defining symbols of the conflict between Social Democracy and Communism in the Weimar Republic, shaping left-wing political culture and memory in Germany throughout the twentieth century.