The Berlin March Battles of 1919 (), also known as Bloody Week (), were the final major event of the German revolution of 1918–1919. The fighting grew out of a general strike by Berlin workers who wanted to implement the revolution's major radical-left demands, including the socialization of key industries, the legal safeguarding of workers' and soldiers' councils and the democratization of the military.
The general strike, which began on 3 March 1919, was supported by the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) and, more reservedly, the Majority Social Democratic Party (MSPD). The government responded with the imposition of a state of siege on Berlin and orders for the deployment of the paramilitary Freikorps. After fierce fighting, the strike leadership ordered on 8 March that the general strike be ended. Estimates of the number killed in the violence ranged from 1,200 to 3,000; many of them were civilians.
The Berlin March Battles contributed to the Majority Social Democratic Party losing influence both locally and nationally. Relations between it and the Communist Party were left permanently in tatters.
Background The March Battles were rooted in a conflict between the moderate and radical elements of the German working class that had carried out the first stage of the German revolution of 1918–1919. Primarily through the spread of workers' and soldiers' councils, it had all but bloodlessly brought down the Hohenzollern monarchy in November 1918. The workers and soldiers aligned with the radical Left, represented by the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD), wanted to build on the councils to socialize key industries, democratize the military and create a council republic similar to the one set up in Soviet Russia a year earlier. The moderate socialists led by Friedrich Ebert and the Majority Social Democrats (MSPD) – along with the overwhelming majority of the middle and upper classes – feared a social revolution like the one in Russia. Ebert and the MSPD wanted a democratically elected assembly to decide Germany's future form of government. They pushed for it be a parliamentary republic.
On 18 December 1918, the Reich Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils meeting in Berlin voted 344 to 98 to reject a proposal by the USPD to establish a council republic and instead passed a motion from the MSPD which called for an election to a national assembly that would write a new constitution for Germany. The MSPD-dominated Congress also voted to support the democratization of the military as laid out in the . Its key demands were that the Council of the People's Deputies – Germany's revolutionary government made up of three MSPD and three USPD members – was to hold the power of command over all army and navy units, all rank insignia were to be abolished, and soldiers' councils were to elect their own leaders and be responsible for discipline. The Army Command, whose support the MSPD was convinced it needed, strongly objected to the Hamburg Points, and they were never implemented.
The January 1919 election to the Weimar National Assembly saw the USPD win only 7.6% of the vote; the KPD, which was just three weeks old at the time, did not participate. The MSPD, with 37.9% of the vote, by far the most of any party, formed a moderate government known as the Weimar Coalition that included itself, the liberal German Democratic Party and the conservative Catholic Centre Party.
The months following the election saw violence and labour unrest across the country. In January 1919, the Spartacist uprising in Berlin by the KPD and backers of a council republic was suppressed by Freikorps troops and government forces that supported the MSPD. There were general strikes in Upper Silesia in January, in the Ruhr in February and in central Germany around Halle, Merseburg, Leipzig and Erfurt from February to early March. During the same period, attempts were made to establish council rule on a local level in Bremen, Brunswick and Bavaria, all of which were put down by forces loyal to the MSPD-led government.
General strike In the general assembly of the Berlin Workers' Council of 26–28 February, a resolution that called for the enactment of the Hamburg Points and condemned the Weimar National Assembly was passed with a wide majority that included MSPD-aligned members. The outcome of the resolution as well as information about the general mood of the factory workers was telegraphed to the government in Weimar.
On February 28 delegates began to discuss a resolution for a general strike to show their support for the strikers in the Ruhr and central Germany, but under pressure from the MSPD the vote was postponed until the next meeting on 3 March. Before the conclusion of the meeting, an election was held to the Executive Council of the Berlin general assembly in which the USPD and MSPD each won seven seats, the Communists two and German Democratic Party one. This gave the Independents and Communists a majority. In the next meeting on 3 March, the vote was decisively in favor of the call for a general strike with the following goals:
Recognition of the workers' and soldiers' councils Complete implementation of the Hamburg Points Release of all political prisoners Lifting of the state of siege Arrest of all those involved in political murders Organization of the workers' guard Dissolution of the Freikorps Resumption of political and economic relations with the Russian Soviet Republic
Nearly all MSPD-aligned members supported the resolution in spite of the Berlin MSPD's warning against a strike in their newspaper Vorwärts the previous day. The KPD had simultaneously drawn up its own strike goals which included a call for a revolutionary tribunal to prosecute the MSPD's political leaders (Friedrich Ebert, Philipp Scheidemann and Gustav Noske). The KPD representatives on the Executive Council, and therefore also on the strike's leadership committee, resigned on 4 March because it included members of the MSPD.
On 3 March, the Prussian state government declared a state of siege over Berlin. Gustav Noske, the Social Democratic Reich Defence Minister, was subsequently provided with extensive civil and military powers. Public demonstrations were banned by his decree along with the distribution of newspapers. Force was authorized against those infringing on the decree. From 3–4 March, violent encounters occurred between police and striking workers. The industry, commerce and transport of Berlin had largely ceased to function by 4 March. Looting of shops by strikers was reported and denounced by the revolutionaries. Noske used the incidents as a pretext to send the Freikorps into Berlin. In particular there was a conflict over the printing of newspapers. The printers did not initially join the strike, which allowed the MSPD newspaper Vorwärts to be published. The Berlin Workers' Council agreed that no newspapers should be published, but the Communists insisted that only the KPD newspaper and USPD's should be published.
On 6 March, the fourth day of the strike, USPD delegates proposed that water, gas and electricity workers should join the strike amidst the increasingly violent situation in Berlin. The MSPD delegates opposed the extension but were outvoted. That prompted their withdrawal from the Berlin Workers' Council and the strike committee, and the MSPD soon appealed for the strike to be called off. The MSPD's control of the Berlin Trade Union Commission proved decisive, as they too called for the strike to end. The printers were the first to return to work. Attempts to negotiate a conditional end to the strike under terms drafted on 7 March proved fruitless. That prompted the resignation of Richard Müller (USPD) from the strike committee, which was followed up with the unconditional cancellation of the general strike on 8 March.
Deployment of the Freikorps Violence between government forces and striking workers began almost immediately after the approval of the general strike resolution on 3 March. The publishing office for was raided and destroyed by government forces that same day. In the afternoon and evening, many workers gathered in the Scheunenviertel district and the Alexanderplatz, and clashes began with police. This was followed by the looting of shops and the storming of police stations for weaponry. The actions were denounced by the strike leadership as being staged by "provocateurs". Vorwärts also stressed that such actions were not those of the strikers.
On 4 March government troops entered the city. On the side of the counterrevolutionaries were five formations: the Freikorps Reinhard, Freikorps Lützow, Freikorps Hülsen, Guards Cavalry Rifle Division and German Protection Division (). Walther von Lüttwitz was in command of all Freikorps in Berlin and the surrounding area, while Wilhelm Reinhard commanded the Freikorps Reinhard, and Waldemar Pabst, known as one of the men behind the murders of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, commanded the Guards Cavalry Rifle Division. In Spandau, revolutionary soldiers guarding a weapons depot were fired on and eventually disarmed. The news of the incident inflamed the anger of the strikers. A unit of Freikorps tried to drive through a crowd, and the commanding officer was intercepted by the strikers. Freikorps forces soon intervened with armored cars and tanks and fired on the crowd, resulting in deaths and injuries. In an attempt to calm the situation, Richard Müller publicly disassociated the strike from those engaging in "trouble-making". The Communists warned in a leaflet against engaging in putschism.
The situation grew more volatile on 5 March after Freikorps forces attacked a detachment from the Volksmarinedivision that had attempted to negotiate the occupation of the police headquarters. As the delegation left the negotiations, a sailor, Rudolf Klöppel, was fatally shot in the back. The incident shifted the allegiance of the sailors, who distributed weapons to strikers and began to actively fight the Freikorps. They were joined by some members of the Republican Soldiers' Army (), which had been formed to protect the revolutionary government led by Ebert. Barricades were erected in the Alexanderplatz, and the most brutal fighting of the strike commenced. The Freikorps attacked with tanks, armored cars, artillery, mortars and machine guns. The fighting continued over the following days in the areas north and east of the Alexanderplatz.
The "Lichtenberg police murder" and other false reports On 8 March, the Lichtenberg Post Office, occupied by Freikorps, was captured by insurgents. They then stormed the police headquarters, which was also taken after heavy fighting. Twenty police officers were taken prisoner but released that night, while the rest, including the police chief, were able to escape. They gave inaccurate reports of supposed atrocities to government troops and the media, alleging that the insurgents had ordered all officers to be executed. The story spread rapidly through bourgeois newspapers and reached Vorwärts as well. Press reports gave figures from 60 to 200 officers killed. In reality, only 2 officers were killed during the fighting. Other false information reported by the media included that of "Spartacist-minded" airmen dropping bombs on civilians, as well as supposed "Spartacist piles" of civilian bodies.