Council of the People's Deputies
The Council of the People's Deputies was the provisional government of Germany during the first part of the German Revolution, from 10 November 1918 to 13 February 1919. Formed initially by three members each from Germany's two main socialist parties, it shaped the transition from the Empire to the Weimar Republic.
The Council of the People's Deputies after the USPD pulled out on 29 December 1918 (from left to right): Philipp Scheidemann, Otto Landsberg, Friedrich Ebert, Gustav Noske, Rudolf Wissell
Erich Ludendorff in 1918. He made the initial decision to have the democratic parties in the Empire take the blame for the lost war.
Prince Maximilian von Baden, the last chancellor of the German Empire
Hugo Haase, the USPD co-chair of the original Council of the People's Deputies
German Revolution of 1918–1919
The German Revolution of 1918–1919, also known as the November Revolution, was an uprising started by workers and soldiers in the final days of World War I. It quickly and almost bloodlessly brought down the German Empire, then in its more violent second stage, the supporters of a parliamentary republic were victorious over those who wanted a soviet-style council republic. The defeat of the forces of the far Left cleared the way for the establishment of the Weimar Republic.
Barricade during the Spartacist uprising of 1919
Erich Ludendorff in 1918. His calculated shifting of responsibility for the war's loss from the army to the civilian government gave rise to the stab-in-the-back myth.
Kiel mutiny: the soldiers' council of the battleship Prinzregent Luitpold. The sign reads in part "Long live the socialist republic."
Proclamation of the Bremen Soviet Republic outside the city hall on 15 November 1918