Revolutionary Stewards
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During the First World War (1914–1918), the Revolutionary Stewards were shop stewards who were independent from the official unions and freely chosen by workers in various German industries. They rejected the war policies of the German Empire and the support which parliamentary representatives of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) gave to the policies. They also played a role during the German Revolution of 1918–19.
November Revolution of 1918: Revolutionary soldiers of the Red Flag on 9 November 1918 at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
Announcement poster of the revolutionary government of 12 November 1918, signed by representative of the Revolutionary Stewards, Emil Barth
Reich Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils in the Prussian Landtag in Berlin on 16 December 1918 during the opening speech of executive council member and representative of the Revolutionary Stewards, Richard Müller
Spartacist uprising, January 1919: barricade fighting in Berlin.
German Revolution of 1918–1919
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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