Appendix I. The German Revolution of 1923¶
Core Argument¶
Appendix I: The German Revolution of 1923
The failure of the German Revolution of 1923 marked the definitive end of the revolutionary wave that had opened in 1917, extinguishing the last realistic prospect of averting Hitler’s rise, the Holocaust, and the Second World War. The German Communist Party had grown to half a million members after the USPD’s Halle Congress voted to join the Communist International, but ultra-left adventurism—exemplified by the disastrous March 1921 insurrection—cost the party two-thirds of its strength. Lenin and Trotsky countered this with the united front policy, insisting on propaganda and joint action with reformist workers before any attempt to seize power. By 1922, the party had rebuilt through patient factory council work and transitional demands.
The French occupation of the Ruhr in January 1923 unleashed hyperinflation that pauperised workers and the middle class alike. Workers streamed into the Communist Party, and the Proletarian Hundreds, an armed militia, formed spontaneously. Yet the party leadership prevaricated. Stalin opposed insurrection, arguing the German Communists lacked the resources the Bolsheviks had possessed in 1917. Trotsky argued for fixing a date, but Brandler refused. The Stresemann government called off passive resistance, declared martial law, and prepared to crush the left-wing governments in Saxony and Thuringia, forcing a decisive confrontation.
The Chemnitz Factory Councils conference on 22 October was intended to launch a general strike. Brandler appealed, but the Social Democrats wavered and threatened to walk out if the Communists pressed the resolution. The entire plan collapsed, leaving party members disorientated with no alternative. The conference was a fiasco. Insurrection plans were suspended, but the order never reached Hamburg, where hundreds of Communists staged an abortive uprising, holding out for a week before being bloodily suppressed. The central government demanded the Saxony government resign; its ministers refused and were met with military force on 29 October. A general strike was called but petered out after a new Social Democrat-led government formed. The initiative was lost. The German Communist Party was declared illegal on 3 November, its press suspended, its activists arrested. The attempted revolution was defeated.
The failure was one of vacillating leadership, incapable of making the necessary turn. As Trotsky wrote in December 1923, the party adopted a new orientation only in October, leaving too little time to develop its dash. Preparations were feverish; the masses could not follow; the party’s lack of assurance communicated itself, and at the decisive moment it retreated without giving battle. The situation was ripe, but the leadership lagged behind.