Preface¶
Core Argument¶
This preface establishes the German Revolution of 1918–1923 as a subject of supreme historical and political importance, one whose lessons have been criminally neglected. The author’s core argument is that the German working class, despite displaying exemplary courage and possessing the most powerful labour movement in the world, suffered a catastrophic defeat that paved the way for fascism. This outcome was not inevitable, but was determined by the treacherous role of the workers’ leaders, above all the Social Democratic Party, which capitulated to imperialism in 1914 and subsequently sabotaged every revolutionary opportunity.
The text draws on the Marxist method of historical materialism, explicitly rejecting bourgeois historiography’s denial of causal laws in history. It invokes Marx’s dictum that history repeats itself, first as tragedy then as farce, and Hegel’s observation that people do not learn from history, precisely to argue that the task is to break this cycle through conscious study. The author positions himself within the revolutionary tradition, citing the early Congresses of the Communist International and the writings of Lenin, Trotsky, and Ted Grant as the theoretical foundation for the analysis that follows.
A substantial portion of the preface is devoted to demonstrating the scale and richness of the revolutionary wave. The author catalogues a series of explosive episodes often overlooked: the Bavarian Soviet Republic under Kurt Eisner and then Leviné, the Red Army’s conquest of the Ruhr in 1920, the March 1921 uprising in Hamburg, and the repeated general strikes that defeated the Kapp Putsch. The claim is that the German proletariat had more chances to take power than any other in history, and that its failure was a world-historical tragedy, as significant in the negative sense as the October Revolution was in the positive.
The polemical thrust is directed against two targets. The first is bourgeois historiography, which denies historical laws and reduces revolutions to high-sounding dramas of princes and states. The second, more important target is the reformist leadership of the German labour movement, which is held criminally responsible for the defeat. The preface also contains an implicit polemic against pessimism and fatalism: the defeat was not inevitable, and the purpose of studying it is to prepare the new generation for the stormy events that confront capitalism today. The book is presented as a contribution to building the revolutionary International that can change the course of history.