Appendix V. Chronology

1914

3 August: SPD group in the Reichstag decides by 78 votes to 14 to approve government’s requested war loans.

4 August: Outbreak of First World War. SPD in German Parliament votes unanimously for the first War Loans Bill.

2 December: Karl Liebknecht votes alone in the Reichstag against the second War Loans bill.

1915

5-8 September: Left of Second International meet at Zimmerwald, Switzerland, in antiwar conference.

1917

8 March (23 February in the old style): The Russian Revolution starts.

6-8 April: USPD formed.

7 November (25 October): The Bolshevik-led Russian Revolution overturns Provisional Government.

22 December: Start of peace negotiations between Russia and Germany at Brest-Litovsk.

1918

14 January: Mass strikes in Austria-Hungary.

28 January: Revolution in Finland - workers’ government installed.

28 January: Strikes break out of over one million in Berlin and over 50 other cities.

3-4 October: Prince Max of Baden appointed Chancellor; SPD leaders join the government.

16 October: 5000 join Berlin demonstration of USPD in Berlin to demand overthrow of government.

27-28 October: Naval mutinies break out in Kiel.

30 October: Social Democratic government formed in Austria after mass demonstrations.

31 October: Start of Hungarian revolution.

4 November: Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council formed at Kiel.

7-8 November: Revolutionary uprising of workers, sailors and soldiers spreads throughout Germany. Bavarian monarchy overthrown; republic declared in Munich, led by SPD-USPD-Peasants’ League coalition.

9 November: Republic declared in Berlin; Ebert becomes Chancellor over SPD-USPD coalition. Rosa Luxemburg released from prison.

10 November: Formation of government of the Council of People’s Representatives of three SPD members (Ebert, Scheidemann and Landsberg) and three USPD members (Haase, Dittmann and Barth).

11 November: Armistice signed with Allies. Spartacus League formed.

12 November: Council of People’s Representatives announces its intention of “implementing the socialist programme”. Republic declared in Austria.

16 November: Republic declared in Hungary.

19 November-17 December: Strikes start in Saxony and the Ruhr.

6 December: Right-wing putsch in Berlin fails.

16-20 December: First national Congress of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils in Berlin decides to call elections for a National Assembly on 19 January, 1919 and also calls for immediate socialization measures.

29 December: Founding congress of KPD opens. USPD members leave the Council of People’s Representatives.

December (late): Freikorps troops move into Berlin; increasing clashes with workers.

1919

4 January: Prussian SPD government fires police chief Eichorn, provoking fighting.

5 January: Revolutionary Committee in Berlin; “Spartacist Uprising”.

8 January: Noske’s troops attack workers’ positions.

12 January: Last resistance of Berlin workers crushed by Noske’s troops.

15 January: Liebknecht and Luxemburg murdered by Freikorps.

19 January: Elections for National Assembly. KPD boycott; SPD/USPD get 45% of vote.

6 February: National Assembly meets at Weimar.

11 February: Ebert elected President of the Republic.

13 February: Scheidemann forms first Weimar coalition government of SPS, DDP (German Democratic Party) and the Centre Party (Catholics).

21 February: USPD prime minister of Bavaria, Eisner, assassinated by monarchist.

2-6 March: Founding Congress of Communist International.

7 April: Bavarian Soviet Republic declared in Munich; eventually crushed (1 May) by Reichswehr and Bavarian Freikorps.

8-14 April: Second national Congress of Workers’, Peasants’ and Soldiers’ Councils meets; supports a bourgeois parliamentary republic.

28 June: Treaty of Versailles.

1920

24 February: NSDAP programme announced by Hitler.

13-17 March: Kapp-Lüttwitz putsch; Ebert and ministers flee.

24 March: Noske and army chief Reinhardt resign.

6 June: Reichstag elections. SPD vote drops from 37.9% to 21.6%, USPD rises from 7.6% to 18%. KPD gets 2%.

July: Second Congress of Communist International.

October: Halle Congress of USPD; majority agrees to join with KPD as part of Communist International.

1921

27 March: “March Action” called by KPD.

26-29 July: Hitler becomes leader of Nazis.

4 December: Comintern adopts “United Front” tactic at ECCI.

1923

10 January: Germany defaults on reparations.

11-12 January: French and Belgian armies occupy the Ruhr. Government urges “passive resistance”.

September: Hyperinflation reaches peak. Mass strikes.

26 September: State of Emergency in Bavaria.

27 September: State of Emergency throughout Germany declared by Ebert.

23 October: Abortive Hamburg rising.

29 October: Suppression of Socialist/Communist governments in Saxony and Thuringia.

2 November: SPD ministers resign.

8-9 November: Hitler’s Munich putsch.

1924

21 January: Lenin dies.

4 May: Second Reichstag elections.

7 December: Third Reichstag elections.

1925

28 February: Ebert dies.

27 April: Hindenburg elected President.

1928

31 January: Trotsky exiled to Alma Ata.

20 May: Fourth Reichstag elections; Nazis only get 12 seats out of 474; SDP and KPD get 42% of vote.

1929

28-29 October: The Wall Street crash leads the American market to lose over $30 billion in two days, 24% of the Dow Jones.

1930

27 March: Hermann Müller and his SDP cabinet resign from government; Heinrich Bruning is appointed his successor as Chancellor.

14 September: Fifth Reichstag elections; Nazis get 107 seats, SPD 143, KPD 77.

26 September: Trotsky writes The Turn in the Communist International and the Situation in Germany in exile, to appear later that year in the Russian Bulletin of the Opposition.

1931

July: Financial crisis; leads real per capita income to fall to 24% below 1913 level and unemployment to reach 31% within a year.

26 November: Trotsky writes Germany, the Key to the International Situation in exile, to appear in the Bulletin of the Opposition in December.

1932

27 January: Trotsky writes What Next?; originally in Russian, it is immediately translated into German by Left Oppositionists.

20 April: Hindenburg re-elected President.

13 April: SA and Nazi paramilitary groups suppressed.

30 May: Von Papen appointed Chancellor.

17 June: SA ban lifted.

20 July: Von Papen deposes Prussian government.

31 July: Sixth Reichstag elections; Nazis get 230 seats, SPD 133, KPD 89.
14 September: Trotsky writes Germany: The Only Road in exile, calling for the working class to unite against Nazism.

6 November: Seventh Reichstag elections; Nazis get 196 seats (33%), SPD/KPD 221 (37%).

17 November: Von Papen resigns.

1933

30 January: Hitler appointed Chancellor.

27 February: Reichstag fire.

28 February: Mass arrests of KPD members and occupation of KPD premises.

5 March: Eighth Reichstag elections; Nazis get 288 seats, SPD/KPD 201.

6 March: KPD banned.

23 March: Enabling Act passed through Reichstag giving Hitler dictatorial powers.

1934

30 June-2 July: The Night of the Long Knives.

1936

19-24 August: The first of the three Moscow Trials; tries many of the Old Bolsheviks including Trotsky (in his absence), Kamenev and Zinoviev.

1939

23 August: Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed, now commonly referred to as the Stalin-Hitler Pact.

September: Outbreak of Second World War.