Early 1919 was a precarious time for the Weimar Republic. Chancellor Ebert was trying to set up a new Republic after the country had been weakened by the war. He was attacked by both extremists on the left and right. One particularly significant left-wing uprising was the 'Spartacist' Revolt of January 1919.

The 'Spartacist' Revolt - a left-wing uprising:
- Dec 1918, the KPD was set up
- The KPD was backed by the Soviet Union, so well funded
- The KPD soon had 33 daily newspapers and 400 000 members
- The KPD was backed by the Spartacist League
- The Spartacist League were extreme socialists from the USPD, the independent socialist party based in Berlin
- They named themselves after the head of the slaves' revolt in Ancient Rome, Spartacus
- The Spartacist League were lead by Rosa Luxemburg (a.k.a. ‘Red Rosa’) and Karl Liebknecht
- 4th Jan 1919, Ebert sacked Emil Eichhorn, Chief of Police in Berlin & popular with workers
- Thousands of workers took to the streets in protest
- The Spartacists saw this as an opportunity and attempted to take control of the situation, trying to use this as an opportunity to undermine the government
- They called for an uprising & general strike in Berlin
- 6th Jan, 100 000 workers took to the streets
- They seized the government’s newspaper and telegraph offices

The Freikorps:
- The German armed forces, after the war, were unable to put down the revolt alone
- Nov 1918, thousands of soldiers released from the army had returned to Germany but had kept their weapons
- Many of these soldiers were right wing and strongly opposed to the communists
- Ebert ordered Reichswehr officers to organises these demobilised soldiers into Freikorps units
- Mar 1919, it is estimated that the Freikorps numbered around 250 000 men

The end of the Spartacist Revolt:
- Ebert turned the Freikorps on the rioters as the revolt grew
- The workers were mainly unarmed and no match for the Freikorps
- 13th Jan, the rebels had been driven off the streets
- 16th Jan, Luxemburg and Liebknecht were arrested and murdered by Freikorps officers
- Liebknecht was shot
- Luxembourg was struck on the head with a rifle butt, shot in the head and her body dumped in a canal
- For the time being, the left-wing communist rebellion had been suppressed

This video is a revision resource for the 'Weimar & Nazi Germany' module of the new Pearson Edexcel 2016 History GCSE (9-1), though may be compatible with other specs from different exam boards.

FOR FULL VERSIONS OF THE NOTES FOR THIS AND OTHER WEIMAR & NAZI GERMANY VIDEOS, FOLLOW THIS LINK: [ Ссылка ]

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