While the world’s attention is focused on Germany for the 25th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, November 9 also marks a the day when Germany’s monarchy was officially ended, with leftists competing to form a republic in its wake.
On Sunday, German’s commemorated 25 years since the fall of a wall that separated the country for decades. There is of course, little question that the events that took place in early November of 1989 not only had tremendous impacts on Germany – paving the way for eventual reunification – but also on the world.
November 9 is also the date of another tremendously important date for Germany, one that influenced that left an indelible mark on the European country’s political landscape and can even be seen as foreshadowing its eventual separation.
In 1918, Germany’s monarchy began to negotiate an armstice with the allies, at the same time as the country was becoming increasingly embroiled in an internal conflict. Under some pressure from the German Social Democratic Party (SDP), political prisoners including communist leader Karl Liebknecht were freed by chancellor Max von Baden.
By November, the external pressure for an abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II and his line was intensifying, as was the activity of revolutionaries looking to follow the example set by the Russians in the previous year. Germany’s “November Revolution” was in full swing, and an insurrection on Berlin was being hatched, looking to mirror the Bolshevik’s storming of the Winter Palace.
On November 9, everything came to a head.
Fearing socialist revolution, the Chancellor unilaterally declared the abdication.
Meanwhile, Liebknecht planned to declare a ‘free, socialist republic’ that day, taking advantage of the momentum and the convergence of people in Berlin looking to take part in the uprising. SPD deputy chairman Philipp Scheidemann learned of Liebknecht’s plans, and preempted it by declaring a German republic from a Reichstag balcony. Liebknecht still went ahead with his declared two hours later, speaking from the Berlin City Palace.
The day marked the definite end of the German monarchy, setting the stage for the formation of the Weimer Republic months later.
This date also marked the begin of the bitter division between German communists and social democrats, given the collaboration of the SPD with the remnants of the monarchy to prevent socialist revolution, including the killing of Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg. This antagonism undoubtedly influenced the German communists refusal to form a coalition with the SPD in 1933, a move that would prove especially unfavorable to the communist.
Seventy-one years before a wall that separated Berlin fell, a series of events which both set and foretold the division of Germany took place.
The Germany that emerged on November 9, 1918 was also split, between revolutionaries and war-weary masses on the one hand, and those scared of a Russian redux on the other.
In 1949, after the next major war devastated Europe (in part thanks to the discord sown in November 1918), these divisions once again emerged, spliting the country into two areas, each purportedly representing the same, divergent political ideas that clashed just over 30 years earlier.
The wall built in 1961 was meant to separate and delineate between these ideals and the systems built from them. But while this barrier, like others built elsewhere since then, can cement differences between sides and positions held, they have proven to be incapable of resolving the political conflicts among adversaries.
