1.
Third Servile War
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The concentrated military effort of a single commander, Marcus Licinius Crassus, finally crushed the rebellion, though the war continued to have indirect effects on Roman politics for years to come. The Third Servile War had significance in the history of ancient Rome in its effect on the careers of Pompey. Their actions as Consuls greatly furthered the subversion of Roman political institutions, to varying degrees throughout Roman history, the existence of a pool of inexpensive labor in the form of slaves was an important factor in the economy. Slaves were acquired for the Roman workforce through a variety of means, including purchase from foreign merchants and the enslavement of foreign populations through military conquest. While there was limited use for slaves as servants, craftsmen, for the most part, slaves were treated harshly and oppressively during the Roman republican period. Under Republican law, a slave was not considered a person, owners could abuse, injure or even kill their own slaves without legal consequence. While there were many grades and types of slaves, the lowest—and most numerous—grades who worked in the fields and this high concentration and oppressive treatment of the slave population led to rebellions. While these were considered serious civil disturbances by the Roman Senate, taking years and direct intervention to quell. The Roman heartland had never seen a slave uprising, nor had ever been seen as a potential threat to the city of Rome. This would all change with the Third Servile War, in the Roman Republic of the 1st century, gladiatorial games were one of the more popular forms of entertainment. In order to supply gladiators for the contests, several training schools, in these schools, prisoners of war and condemned criminals—who were considered slaves—were taught the skills required to fight in gladiatorial games. In 73 BC, a group of some 200 gladiators in the Capuan school owned by Lentulus Batiatus plotted an escape. When their plot was betrayed, a force of about 70 men seized kitchen implements, fought their way free from the school, and seized several wagons of gladiatorial weapons and armor. These escaped slaves were able to defeat a force of troops sent after them from Capua. They initially viewed the revolt as more a major crime wave than an armed rebellion, however, later that year, Rome dispatched a military force under praetorian authority to put down the rebellion. Glabers forces besieged the slaves on Mount Vesuvius, blocking the only way down the mountain. With the slaves thus contained, Glaber was content to wait until starvation forced the slaves to surrender and they moved around the base of Vesuvius, outflanked the army, and annihilated Glabers men. A second expedition, under the praetor Publius Varinius, was dispatched against Spartacus
2.
Berlin
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Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
3.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
4.
Communist Party of Germany
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The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956. In the 1920s it was called the Spartacists, since it was formed from the Spartacus League, during the Weimar Republic period, the KPD usually polled between 10 and 15 percent of the vote and was represented in the Reichstag and in state parliaments. The party directed most of its attacks on the Social Democratic Party of Germany, banned in Nazi Germany one day after Adolf Hitler emerged triumphant in the German elections in 1933, the KPD maintained an underground organization but suffered heavy losses. In East Germany, the party was merged, by Soviet decree, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the SED was renamed the Party of Democratic Socialism and subsequently merged into Die Linke. The KPD was banned in West Germany in 1956 by the Constitutional Court, before the First World War the Social Democratic Party was the largest party in Germany and the worlds most successful socialist party. Although still officially claiming to be a Marxist party, by 1914 it had become in practice a reformist party, in 1914 the SPD members of the Reichstag voted in favour of the war. In November 1918, revolution broke out across Germany, germanys Social Democratic government, which had come to power after the fall of the Monarchy, was vehemently opposed to the KPDs idea of socialism. The Party split a few months later into two factions, the KPD and the Communist Workers Party of Germany, following the assassination of Leo Jogiches, Paul Levi became the KPD leader. Other prominent members included Clara Zetkin, Paul Frölich, Hugo Eberlein, Franz Mehring, August Thalheimer, Levi led the party away from the policy of immediate revolution, in an effort to win over SPD and USPD voters and trade union officials. These efforts were rewarded when a section of the USPD joined the KPD. Through the 1920s the KPD was racked by internal conflict between more and less radical factions, partly reflecting the struggles between Zinoviev and Stalin in Moscow. Germany was seen as being of importance to the struggle for socialism. Eventually Levi was expelled in 1921 by the Comintern for indiscipline, further leadership changes took place in the 1920s. In 1923 a new KPD leadership more favorable to the USSR was elected and this leadership, headed by Ernst Thälmann, abandoned the goal of immediate revolution, and from 1924 onwards contested Reichstag elections, with some success. During the years of the Weimar Republic the KPD was the largest communist party in Europe and it maintained a solid electoral performance, usually polling more than 10% of the vote, and gaining 100 deputies in the November 1932 elections. In the presidential election of the year, Thälmann took 13. 2% of the vote. Critics of the KPD accused it of having pursued a sectarian policy – e. g. the Social Democratic Party criticized the KPDs thesis of social fascism and this scuttled any possibility of a united front with the SPD against the rising power of the Nazis. These allegations were repudiated by supporters of the KPD, the leadership of the SPD, it was said
5.
Spartacus League
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The Spartacus League was a Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. The League was named after Spartacus, leader of the largest slave rebellion of the Roman Republic and it was founded by Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin, and others. The League subsequently renamed itself the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, joining the Comintern in 1919 and its period of greatest activity was during the German Revolution of 1918, when it sought to incite a revolution by circulating the newspaper Spartacus Letters. Luxemburg and Liebknecht—the son of SPD founder Wilhelm Liebknecht—became prominent members of the faction of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. They moved to found an independent organization after the SPD supported Imperial Germanys declaration of war on the Russian Empire in 1914 at the start of World War I. The two were imprisoned from 1916 until 1918 for their roles in helping to organize a demonstration in Berlin against German involvement in the war. After two years of war, opposition to the party line grew inside the SPD. More and more members of parliament refused to vote for war bonds and were expelled, the Spartacus League was part of the USPD in its formation period. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Spartacus League began agitating for a similar course, after the abdication of the Kaiser in the German Revolution of November 1918, a period of instability began, which lasted until 1923. On 9 November 1918, from a balcony of the Kaisers Berliner Stadtschloss, however, earlier on the same night, Philipp Scheidemann of the SPD had declared a republic from the Reichstag. In December 1918, the Spartakusbund formally renamed itself the Communist Party of Germany, in January 1919, the KPD, along with the Independent Socialists, launched the Spartacist uprising. This included staging massive street demonstrations intended to destabilize the Weimar government, the government accused the opposition of planning a general strike and communist revolution in Berlin. With the aid of the Freikorps, Eberts administration quickly crushed the uprising, Luxemburg and Liebknecht were taken prisoner and killed in custody. An excerpt from the Spartacist Manifesto, The question today is not democracy or dictatorship, the question that history has put on the agenda reads, bourgeois democracy or socialist democracy. For the dictatorship of the proletariat does not mean bombs, putsches, riots and anarchy, bill Pelz, The Spartakusbund and the German working class movement, 1914-1919, Lewiston, E. Mellen Press,1988. Eric D. Weitz, “’Rosa Luxemburg Belongs to Us. ’” German Communism,1, pp. 27-64 Eric D. Weitz, Creating German Communism, 1890-1990, From Popular Protests to Socialist State. Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press,1997 David Priestand, Red Flag, A History of Communism, New York, Grove Press,2009 On the Spartacus Programme by Rosa Luxemburg
6.
Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
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The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany was a short-lived political party in Germany during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The organization was established in 1917 as the result of a split of left wing members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the organization attempted to chart a centrist course between electorally oriented revisionism on the one hand and bolshevism on the other. The organization was terminated in 1931 through merger with the Socialist Workers Party of Germany, to avoid confusion, the existing SPD was typically called the Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany from then on. Luise Zietz was one of the agitators in favor of a split in the party in 1917. She became a leader in the creation of the USPDs womens movement, at the same time, the Spartakusbund, led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, separated from the USPD again as well to merge with other left wing groups and form the KPD. In 1920, four delegates from the USPD attended the 2nd World Congress of the Comintern, Ernst Däumig, Arthur Crispien, Walter Stoecker, the USPD split up in the process, with both groups seeing themselves as the rightful USPD and the other one as being outcast. The USPD was instrumental in the creation of the 2½ International in 1921, the party got 20,275 votes in the 1928 Reichstag election, but won no seats. Eric D. Weitz, Creating German Communism, 1890-1990, From Popular Protests to Socialist State, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press,1997 David Priestand, Red Flag, A History of Communism, New York, Grove Press,2009
7.
Council of the People's Deputies
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The Council of the Peoples Deputies was the name given to the government of the November Revolution in Germany from November 1918 until February 1919. The Council also reformed the system of suffrage and extended the right to vote to German women for the first time, the Council was formed on 10 November 1918 after the November revolution had swept away the old order. It was established several thousand revolutionary workers and soldiers councils had assembled at Zirkus Busch in Berlin. Their election or appointment had been initiated the day before by the actions of the Revolutionäre Obleute and this had happened against the will of the leadership of the Social Democrats, led by Friedrich Ebert who had been appointed Chancellor on 9 November. Unable to prevent the assembly, Eberts Social Democrats were able to co-opt the process, in addition, Ebert managed to convince the more radical Independent Social Democrats to join him in a unified socialist government containing three of their members. Thus a coalition between the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany made up the council, until 29 December 1918 there were three members from the SPD and three from the USPD. Ebert and Haase were joint chairmen, the members of the Council had no official portfolios, but Ebert was responsible for military and interior affairs. Since they had no civil service, the Council had to rely on the existing bureaucracy. The Council was formally in charge of the government when the armistice ending World War I was signed on 11 November 1918, on 12 November 1918, the Council issued a proclamation An das deutsche Volk. It announced the following nine points, The State of Emergency is lifted The rights of assembly and this also applies to civil servants There is no censorship. Censorship of theatrical plays is abolished Freedom of expression in speech, by 1 January 1919 at the latest, the eight-hour-workday was to be introduced. The government also promised to do everything to provide sufficient work, a scheme of unemployment assistance that would distribute the burden between Reich, state and municipality was in the works. The earnings ceiling for health insurance would be raised, the lack of housing would be alleviated through supply of housing. The government would work towards securing regular nutrition for the people and it would strive to keep up orderly production and protect property against private infringement, as well as personal freedom and safety. On 15 November 1918, the Council appointed Hugo Preuss as State Secretary of the Interior, the Council passed the Verordnung über die Wahlen zur verfassunggebenden deutschen Nationalversammlung, the law governing the upcoming elections for a national assembly, on 30 November 1918. This codified the changes to the suffrage announced earlier, for the first time in Germany, suffrage was extended to women. The Council also organized the Reichsrätekongress which met at the Preußisches Abgeordnetenhaus at Leipziger Platz in Berlin from 16 to 20 December 1918. By majority vote, this assembly decided to bring forward the elections to an assembly to 19 January 1919
8.
Freikorps
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Freikorps were German volunteer units that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries, the members of which effectively fought as mercenaries, regardless of their own nationality. In German-speaking countries the first so-called Freikorps free regiments were formed in the 18th century from native volunteers, enemy renegades and deserters and these sometimes exotically equipped units served as infantry and cavalry or, more rarely, as artillery. Sometimes in just company strength, sometimes in formations up to several thousand strong, the Prussian von Kleist Freikorps included infantry, jäger, dragoons, and hussars. The French Volontaires de Saxe combined uhlans and dragoons and these units roamed the countryside, killing with impunity. They engaged in confrontations with republican loyalists and engineered some of the more notorious assassinations of the Weimar period. An entire series of Freikorps awards also existed, the very first Freikorps were recruited by Frederick the Great during the Seven Years War. On 15 July 1759, Frederick ordered the creation of a squadron of hussars to be attached to the 1st Regiment of Hussars. He entrusted the creation and command of new unit to Colonel Friedrich Wilhelm von Kleist. This first squadron was raised in Dresden and consisted mainly of Hungarian deserters and this squadron was placed under the command of Lieutenant Johann Michael von Kovacs. At the end of 1759, the first 4 squadrons of dragoons of the Freikorps were organised and they initially consisted of Prussian volunteers from Berlin, Magdeburg, Mecklenburg and Leipzig but later recruited deserters. The Freikorps were regarded as unreliable by regular armies, so they were used as sentries. Even during the last Kabinettskrieg, the War of the Bavarian Succession, germans, Hungarians, Poles, Lithuanians and South Slavs, as well as Turks, Tatars and Cossacks, were believed by all warring parties to be inherently good fighters. The nationality of many soldiers can no longer be ascertained with certainty as the origin was often described imprecisely in the regimental lists. Slavs were often referred to as Hungarians or Croats, and Muslim recruits as Turks, for Prussia, the Pandurs, who were made up of Serbs and Croats, were a clear model for the organization of such free troops. They were often used to ward off Maria Theresas Pandurs, in the era of linear tactics, light troops had been seen necessary for outpost, reinforcement and reconnaissance duties. Because, with exceptions, they were seen as undisciplined and less battleworthy, they were used for less onerous guard. In the so-called petty wars, the Freikorps interdicted enemy supply lines with guerrilla warfare, in the case of capture, their members were at risk of being executed as irregular fighters. In Prussia the Freikorps, which Frederick the Great had despised as vermin, were disbanded and their soldiers were given no entitlement to pensions or invalidity payments
9.
Karl Liebknecht
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Karl Liebknecht was a German socialist and a co-founder with Rosa Luxemburg of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany. He is best known for his opposition to World War I in the Reichstag, the uprising was crushed by the social democrat government and the Freikorps. After their deaths, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg became martyrs for Socialists, according to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, commemoration of Liebknecht and Luxemburg continues to play an important role among the German far left. Liebknechts parents were cousins, his maternal great-grandmother was the sister of one of his paternal great-grandfathers. His father was a co-founder with August Bebel of the Marxist Social Democratic Party of Germany, Karl Liebknecht became an exponent of Marxist ideas during his study of law and political economy in Leipzig and Humboldt University of Berlin. Liebknecht married Julia Paradies on 8 May 1900, the couple had two sons and a daughter before Julia died in 1911. As a lawyer, Liebknecht often defended other left wing socialists who were tried for offences such as smuggling socialist propaganda into Russia and he became a member of the SPD in 1900 and was president of the Socialist Youth International from 1907 to 1910. Liebknecht also wrote extensively against militarism, one of his papers, Militarismus und Antimilitarismus led to his being arrested in 1907 and imprisoned for 18 months in Glatz, Prussian Silesia. In the next year he was elected to the Prussian parliament, Liebknecht was an active member of the Second International and a founder of the Socialist Youth International. In 1912 Liebknecht was elected to the Reichstag as a Social-Democrat and he opposed Germanys participation in World War I, but in order not to infringe the partys unity he abstained from the vote on war loans on 4 August 1914. On 2 December 1914 he was the member of the Reichstag to vote against further loans. He continued to be a critic of the Social-Democratic leadership under Karl Kautsky. In October that year, he married his wife, art historian Sophie Ryss. Liebknecht was arrested and sent to the front during World War I despite his immunity as a member of parliament. Refusing to fight, he served burying the dead, and due to his deteriorating health was allowed to return to Germany in October 1915. On 31 December 1918/1 January 1919, Liebknecht was involved in the founding of the Communist Party of Germany, together with Luxemburg, Jogiches and Zetkin, Liebknecht was also instrumental in the January 1919 Spartacist uprising in Berlin. Initially he and Luxemburg opposed the revolt, but they joined it after it had begun, the uprising was brutally opposed by the new German government under Friedrich Ebert with the help of the remnants of the Imperial German Army and militias called the Freikorps. By 13 January, the uprising had been extinguished, Liebknecht and Luxemburg were captured by Freikorps troops on 15 January 1919 and brought to the Eden Hotel in Berlin, where they were tortured and interrogated for several hours
10.
Capital punishment
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Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is a government sanctioned practice whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime. The sentence that someone be punished in such a manner is referred to as a death sentence, etymologically, the term capital in this context alluded to execution by beheading. Fifty-six countries retain capital punishment,103 countries have abolished it de jure for all crimes, six have abolished it for ordinary crimes. Capital punishment is a matter of controversy in various countries and states. In the European Union, Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits the use of capital punishment, also, the Council of Europe, which has 47 member states, prohibits the use of the death penalty by its members. The United Nations General Assembly has adopted, in 2007,2008,2010,2012 and 2014, non-binding resolutions calling for a moratorium on executions. Although most nations have abolished capital punishment, over 60% of the population live in countries where executions take place, such as China, India. Execution of criminals and political opponents has been used by nearly all societies—both to punish crime, in most countries that practise capital punishment it is reserved for murder, terrorism, war crimes, espionage, treason, defection or as part of military justice. In many countries use the death penalty, drug trafficking is also a capital offence. In China, human trafficking and serious cases of corruption are punished by the death penalty, in militaries around the world courts-martial have imposed death sentences for offences such as cowardice, desertion, insubordination, and mutiny. The use of formal execution extends to the beginning of recorded history, most historical records and various primitive tribal practices indicate that the death penalty was a part of their justice system. Communal punishment for wrongdoing generally included compensation by the wrongdoer, corporal punishment, shunning, banishment, usually, compensation and shunning were enough as a form of justice. The response to crime committed by neighbouring tribes or communities included a formal apology, a blood feud or vendetta occurs when arbitration between families or tribes fails or an arbitration system is non-existent. This form of justice was common before the emergence of a system based on state or organized religion. It may result from crime, land disputes or a code of honour, acts of retaliation underscore the ability of the social collective to defend itself and demonstrate to enemies that injury to property, rights, or the person will not go unpunished. However, in practice, it is difficult to distinguish between a war of vendetta and one of conquest. Elaborations of tribal arbitration of feuds included peace settlements often done in a religious context, compensation was based on the principle of substitution which might include material compensation, exchange of brides or grooms, or payment of the blood debt. Settlement rules could allow for animal blood to replace human blood, the person offered for execution did not have to be an original perpetrator of the crime because the system was based on tribes, not individuals
11.
Rosa Luxemburg
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Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist, anti-war activist, and revolutionary socialist of Polish-Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen. In 1915, after the SPD supported German involvement in World War I, she and Karl Liebknecht co-founded the anti-war Spartacus League, during the November Revolution she co-founded the newspaper Die Rote Fahne, the central organ of the Spartacist movement. She considered the Spartacist uprising of January 1919 a blunder, Friedrich Eberts majority Social Democratic government crushed the revolt and the Spartakusbund by sending in the Freikorps. Freikorps troops captured and executed Luxemburg and Liebknecht, Luxemburgs body was thrown in the Landwehr Canal in Berlin. Nonetheless, some have regarded Luxemburg and Liebknecht as martyrs of the socialist cause, Luxemburg was born to a Jewish family in Zamość on 5 March 1871, in Russian-controlled Congress Poland. She was the fifth and youngest child of timber trader Eliasz Luxemburg, Luxemburg later stated that her father imparted an interest in liberal ideas in her, while her mother was religious and well read with books kept at home. The family spoke German and Polish, and Luxemburg also learned Russian, the family moved to Warsaw in 1873. After being bedridden with a hip ailment at the age of five, starting in 1880, Luxemburg attended a gymnasium. From 1886, she belonged to the Polish, left-wing Proletariat Party, in 1887, she passed her Matura examinations. After fleeing to Switzerland to escape detention in 1889, she attended the University of Zurich, where she studied philosophy, history, politics, economics and she specialized in Staatswissenschaft, the Middle Ages, and economic and stock exchange crises. Her doctoral dissertation, The Industrial Development of Poland, was presented in the spring of 1897 at the University of Zurich. Her dissertation was published by Duncker and Humblot in Leipzig in 1898 and she was an oddity in Zurich as one of the very few women with a doctorate. She plunged immediately into the politics of international Marxism, following in the footsteps of Georgi Plekhanov, in 1893, with Leo Jogiches and Julian Marchlewski, Luxemburg founded the newspaper Sprawa Robotnicza, which opposed the nationalist policies of the Polish Socialist Party. Luxemburg believed that an independent Poland could arise and exist only through socialist revolutions in Germany, Austria and she maintained that the struggle should be against capitalism, not just for the Polish independence. Her position of denying a national right of self-determination under socialism provoked a philosophic disagreement with Vladimir Lenin and she and Leo Jogiches co-founded the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania party, after merging Congress Polands and Lithuanias social democratic organizations. Luxemburg wanted to move to Germany to be at the centre of the party struggle, in April 1897 she married the son of an old friend, Gustav Lubeck, in order to gain a German citizenship. They never lived together and they divorced five years later. She returned briefly to Paris, then moved permanently to Berlin to begin her fight for Eduard Bernsteins constitutional reform movement, Luxemburg hated the stifling conservatism of Berlin
12.
German Empire
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The German Empire was the historical German nation state that existed from the unification of Germany in 1871 to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918, when Germany became a federal republic. The German Empire consisted of 26 constituent territories, with most being ruled by royal families and this included four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory. Although Prussia became one of kingdoms in the new realm, it contained most of its population and territory. Its influence also helped define modern German culture, after 1850, the states of Germany had rapidly become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron, chemicals, and railways. In 1871, it had a population of 41 million people, and by 1913, a heavily rural collection of states in 1815, now united Germany became predominantly urban. During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire operated as an industrial, technological, Germany became a great power, boasting a rapidly growing rail network, the worlds strongest army, and a fast-growing industrial base. In less than a decade, its navy became second only to Britains Royal Navy, after the removal of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck by Wilhelm II, the Empire embarked on a bellicose new course that ultimately led to World War I. When the great crisis of 1914 arrived, the German Empire had two allies, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, however, left the once the First World War started in August 1914. In the First World War, German plans to capture Paris quickly in autumn 1914 failed, the Allied naval blockade caused severe shortages of food. Germany was repeatedly forced to send troops to bolster Austria and Turkey on other fronts, however, Germany had great success on the Eastern Front, it occupied large Eastern territories following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 was designed to strangle the British, it failed, but the declaration—along with the Zimmermann Telegram—did bring the United States into the war. Meanwhile, German civilians and soldiers had become war-weary and radicalised by the Russian Revolution and this failed, and by October the armies were in retreat, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had collapsed, Bulgaria had surrendered and the German people had lost faith in their political system. The Empire collapsed in the November 1918 Revolution as the Emperor and all the ruling monarchs abdicated, and a republic took over. The German Confederation had been created by an act of the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, German nationalism rapidly shifted from its liberal and democratic character in 1848, called Pan-Germanism, to Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarcks pragmatic Realpolitik. He envisioned a conservative, Prussian-dominated Germany, the war resulted in the Confederation being partially replaced by a North German Confederation in 1867, comprising the 22 states north of the Main. The new constitution and the title Emperor came into effect on 1 January 1871, during the Siege of Paris on 18 January 1871, William accepted to be proclaimed Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. The second German Constitution was adopted by the Reichstag on 14 April 1871 and proclaimed by the Emperor on 16 April, the political system remained the same. The empire had a parliament called the Reichstag, which was elected by universal male suffrage, however, the original constituencies drawn in 1871 were never redrawn to reflect the growth of urban areas
13.
Paul von Hindenburg
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Hindenburg retired from the army for the first time in 1911, but was recalled shortly after the outbreak of World War I in 1914. He first came to attention at the age of 66 as the victor of the decisive Battle of Tannenberg in August 1914. As Germanys Chief of the General Staff from August 1916, Hindenburgs reputation rose greatly in German public esteem. He and his deputy Erich Ludendorff then led Germany in a de facto military dictatorship throughout the remainder of the war, in line with Lebensraum ideology, he advocated sweeping annexations of territories in Poland, Ukraine, and Russia in order to resettle Germans there. Hindenburg retired again in 1919, but returned to life in 1925 to be elected the second President of Germany. In 1932, Hindenburg was persuaded to run for re-election as German president, although 84 years old and in poor health, Hindenburg was re-elected in a runoff. He was opposed to Hitler and was a player in the increasing political instability in the Weimar Republic that ended with Hitlers rise to power. He dissolved the Reichstag twice in 1932 and finally, under pressure, in February, he signed off on the Reichstag Fire Decree, which suspended various civil liberties, and in March he signed the Enabling Act of 1933, which gave Hitlers regime arbitrary powers. Hindenburg died the year, after which Hitler declared the office of President vacant. Hindenburg was embarrassed by his mothers non-aristocratic background and hardly mentioned her at all in his memoirs and his paternal lineage was considered highly distinguished, in fact, he was descended from one of the most respected ancient noble families in Prussia. His paternal grandfather was Otto Ludwig von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, Hindenburg was also a descendant of Martin Luther and his wife Katharina von Bora through their daughter Margareta Luther. Hindenburgs younger brothers and sister were Otto, Ida and Bernhard, Hindenburg was proud that one of his ancestors, Colonel Otto Frederich von Hindenburg had lost a leg at the Battle of Torgau in 1760 and had been awarded an estate at Neudeck by Frederich the Great. Hindenburg received a typical Junker upbringing, being taught the virtues of duty, discipline, obedience to authority and loyalty to Prussia, Hindenburgs governess was known to shout Quiet in the ranks. Before entering the Prussian Cadet Corps in 1859, the 12-year old Hindenburg soberly wrote up his last will and testament in case he should die, Hindenburgs favorite reading materials were war and adventure stories with The Pathfinder by James Fenimore Cooper being his favorite. As a cadet, Hindenburg was admired for his commitment to duty, obsession with details, however, he was considered of mediocre intelligence and utterly lacking in a sense of humor, a dedicated if somewhat dull cadet. After his education at schools in Berlin and Wahlstatt, Hindenburg was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1866. He fought in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, during the Seven Weeks War of 1866, Hindenburg wrote his parents, I rejoice in this bright-colored future. For the soldier war is the state of things…If I fall, it is the most honorable
14.
Friedrich Ebert
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Friedrich Ebert was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the first President of Germany from 1919 until his death in office in 1925. Ebert was elected leader of the SPD on the death in 1913 of August Bebel, in 1914, shortly after he assumed leadership, the party became deeply divided over Eberts support of war loans to finance the German war effort in World War I. He tried to isolate those in the party opposed to the war, Ebert was a pivotal figure in the German Revolution of 1918–19. When Germany became a republic at the end of World War I and his policies at that time were primarily aimed at restoring peace and order in Germany and containing the more extreme elements of the revolutionary left. With their help, Eberts government crushed a number of leftist uprisings that were ironically pursuing goals similar to those of the SPD and this has made him a controversial historical figure. Ebert was born in Heidelberg on 4 February 1871 as the seventh of nine children of the tailor Karl Ebert, three of his siblings died at a young age. Although he wanted to attend university, this proved impossible due to the lack of funds of his family, instead, he trained as a saddle-maker from 1885 to 1888. After he became a journeyman in 1889 he travelled, according to the German custom, from place to place in Germany, seeing the country, in Mannheim, he was introduced by an uncle to the Social Democratic Party, joining it in 1889. Ebert was on the black list of the due to his political activities. Between 1889 and 1891 he lived in Kassel, Braunschweig, Elberfeld-Barmen, Remscheid, Quakenbrück and Bremen, after settling in Bremen in 1891, Ebert made a living doing odd jobs. In 1893, he obtained an editorial post on the socialist Bremer Bürgerzeitung, in May 1894, he married Louise Rump, a manual labourer, who had been employed as a housemaid and in labelling boxes and who was active in union work. He then rented a pub that became a centre of socialist, in 1900, Ebert was appointed a trade-union secretary and elected a member of the Bremer Bürgerschaft as representative of the Social Democratic Party. In 1904, Ebert presided over the convention of the party in Bremen. He became a leader of the wing of the Social Democratic Party and in 1905 Secretary-General of the SPD. At the time, he was the youngest member of the Parteivorstand, meanwhile, Ebert had run for a Reichstag seat several times in constituencies where the SPD had no chance of winning,1898 Vechta,1903 and 1906 Stade. However, in 1912, he was elected to the Reichstag for the constituency of Elberfeld-Barmen and this was the election that also made the SPD the strongest party in the Reichstag with 110 out of a total of 397 members, surpassing the Centre Party. On the death of August Bebel on 13 August 1913, Ebert was elected as joint party chairman at the convention in Jena on 20 September with 433 out of 473 votes, when the July Crisis of 1914 erupted, Ebert was on vacation. Similar policy disputes caused Ebert to end his alliance with several left-wing members of the Reichstag and start to work closely with the Centre Party
15.
Waldemar Pabst
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Waldemar Pabst was a German soldier and political activist, involved in far right and anti-communist activity in both his homeland and Austria. In Austria he played a part in organising rightist militia groups before being deported due to his activities. Pabst subsequently faded from public life in Nazi Germany as he was never more than associated with the Nazis. Born in Berlin, Pabst was the son of a museum director, Pabst saw active service in the First World War, mainly on the Western Front in Belgium and most notably at the Battle of Verdun. In 1916 he was withdrawn from the front and redeployed as a member of the German General Staff, under the order of General Erich Ludendorff, Pabst joined the Garde-Kavallerie-Schützen-Division in March 1918, late in the war. As chief of staff, Pabst converted the regiment from cavalry to infantry. The regiment would become noted as the fiercest counter-revolutionary force in Germany at the time, Pabst first came to prominence during the Communist and left-wing uprisings that immediately followed the war. As commander of the guard, Captain Pabst was instrumental in such actions as the recapture of the Vorwärts building on 11–12 January 1919. His actions saw him promoted to the role of Chief of Staff, and as such, effectively commander, of the Horse Guards Division and he saw Bolshevism as a world danger and took part in anti-revolutionary activities across Germany. He was also active with Russian émigrés, founding the Russian National Political Committee under the presidency of General Vasily Biskupsky. It was Pabst who gave the order that the captured Communist leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht should be killed, and he would later boast that I had them executed. At the time however, his report claimed that he had taken them into protective custody, but that they had been lost to an angry mob. Ultimately however both victims were shot, Pabst himself was not brought to court martial. Indeed, Pabsts Freikorps Mördenzentrale, a centre for summary execution based in the Hotel Eden, Pabst briefly left Germany to take on a role advising Major Alfred Fletcher, the commander of the Baltische Landeswehr in Latvia. He served this group as secretary and supervisor of administrative affairs, however, with the troops already in the citys suburbs, General Georg Ludwig Rudolf Maercker got wind of the plot and convinced General von Hofmann that it was a bad idea. With this plan thwarted, Pabst and the conspirators shifted their attention away from the Reichswehr, in the immediate aftermath of the putsch, Pabst took refuge in Miklós Horthys Hungary where he was soon joined by co-conspirator Walther von Lüttwitz. Despite the failure of the putsch, Pabst would often speak proudly of his involvement in the episode, Pabst eventually went to Austria, settling in the city of Innsbruck. In Austria he linked up with the Heimwehr in Tyrol and played a role in ensuring that the sometimes shaky dual leadership of Richard Steidle
16.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
17.
General strike
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A general strike is a strike action in which a substantial proportion of the total labour force in a city, region, or country participates. General strikes are characterised by the participation of workers in a multitude of workplaces, General strikes first occurred in the mid-19th century, and have characterised many historically important strikes. An early predecessor of the strike may have been the secessio plebis in ancient Rome. In the Outline Of History, H. G. Wells recorded the general strike of the plebeians, the plebeians seem to have invented the strike, which now makes its first appearance in history. Wells noted that he made a mean use of their political advantages to grow rich through the national conquests at the expense not only of the defeated enemy. The plebeians, who were expected to obey the laws, but were not allowed to know the laws, were successful, in 450 BC. in a concession resulting from the rebellion of the plebeians, the laws of Rome were written for all to peruse. The general strike action became a feature of the political landscape with the onset of the Industrial Revolution. For the first time in history, large numbers of people were members of the working class, they lived in cities. By the 1830s, when the Chartist movement was at its peak, the first theorist to formulate and popularise the idea of a general strike for the purpose of political reform was the radical pamphleteer William Benbow. On 28 January 1832 Benbow published a pamphlet entitled Grand National Holiday, Benbow began to advocate direct and even violent action for political reform, in particular he advanced his idea for a national holiday and national convention. The striking workers were to support themselves with savings and confiscated parish funds, benbows idea of a Grand National Holiday was adopted by the Chartist Congress of 1839, Benbow having spent time in Manchester during 1838-9 promoting his the cause and his pamphlet. In 1842 the demands for wages and conditions across many different industries finally exploded into the first modern general strike. Instead of being a spontaneous uprising of the masses, the strike was politically motivated and was driven by a hard-headed agenda to win concessions. Probably as much as half of the industrial work force were on strike at its peak - over 500,000 men. The local leadership marshaled a growing working class tradition to politically organise their followers to mount a challenge to the capitalist. The mass abandonment of plantations by black slaves and poor whites during the American Civil War has, controversially, in his classic history Black Reconstruction in America, W. E. B. The trickling streams of fugitives swelled to a flood, once begun, the general strike of black and white went madly and relentlessly on like some great saga. The next large scale strike took place over half a century later in Belgium
18.
Social democracy
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In this period, social democrats embraced a mixed economy based on the predominance of private property, with only a minority of essential utilities and public services under public ownership. By 1868–1869, Marxism had become the official theoretical basis of the first social democratic party established in Europe, in this period, social democracy became associated with reformist socialism. The origins of social democracy have been traced to the 1860s, with the rise of the first major party in Europe. 1864 saw the founding of the International Workingmens Association, also known as the First International, another issue in the First International was the role of reformism. Although Lassalle was not a Marxist, he was influenced by the theories of Marx and Engels, however unlike Marxs and Engelss The Communist Manifesto, Lassalle promoted class struggle in a more moderate form. While Marx viewed the state negatively as an instrument of class rule that should only exist temporarily upon the rise to power of the proletariat and then dismantled, Lassalle accepted the state. Lassalle viewed the state as a means through which workers could enhance their interests, Lassalles strategy was primarily electoral and reformist, with Lassalleans contending that the working class needed a political party that fought above all for universal adult male suffrage. The ADAVs party newspaper was called Der Sozialdemokrat, Marx and Engels responded to the title Sozialdemocrat with distaste, Engels once writing, But what a title, Sozialdemokrat. Why dont they simply call it The Proletarian. Marx agreed with Engels that Sozialdemokrat was a bad title, there was a Marxist faction within the ADAV represented by Wilhelm Liebknecht who became one of the editors of the Die Sozialdemokrat. Friction in the ADAV arose over Lassalles policy of an approach to Bismarck that had assumed incorrectly that Bismarck in turn would be friendly towards them. This approach was opposed by the partys Marxists, including Liebknecht, opposition in the ADAV to Lassalles friendly approach to Bismarcks government resulted in Liebknecht resigning from his position as editor of Die Sozialdemokrat and leaving the ADAV in 1865. Though the SDAP was not officially Marxist, it was the first major organization to be led by Marxists and Marx. The party adopted stances similar to those adopted by Marx at the First International, there was intense rivalry and antagonism between the SDAP and the ADAV, with the SDAP being highly hostile to the Prussian government while the ADAV pursued a reformist and more cooperative approach. In spite of such militant rhetoric to appeal to the working class, in 1875 Marx attacked the Gotha Program that became the program of Social Democratic Party of Germany in the same year in his Critique of the Gotha Program. Marx was not optimistic that Germany at the time was not open to a means to achieve socialism. In addition he noticed a change over the relations between the two classes. The Reform Acts of 1867 and 1884 make an approach to universal suffrage. The Fabian Society was founded as a group from the Fellowship of the New Life due to opposition within that group to socialism
19.
Bolsheviks
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The RSDLP was a revolutionary socialist political party formed in 1898 in Minsk in Belarus to unite the various revolutionary organisations of the Russian Empire into one party. In the Second Party Congress vote, the Bolsheviks won on the majority of important issues and they ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Bolsheviks or Reds came to power in Russia during the October Revolution phase of the Russian Revolution of 1917, with the Reds defeating the Whites, and others during the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922, the RSFSR became the chief constituent of the Soviet Union in December 1922. Their beliefs and practices were often referred to as Bolshevism, in the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, held in Brussels and London during August 1903, Lenin and Julius Martov disagreed over the membership rules. Lenin wanted members who recognise the Party Programme and support it by material means, Julius Martov suggested by regular personal assistance under the direction of one of the partys organisations. Lenin advocated limiting party membership to a core of active members. A main source of the factions could be attributed to Lenin’s steadfast opinion. It was obvious at early stages in Lenin’s revolutionary practices that he would not be willing to concede on any party policy that conflicted with his own predetermined ideas and it was the loyalty that he had to his own self-envisioned utopia that caused the party split. He was seen even by fellow party members as being so narrow minded that he believed there were only two types of people, Friend and enemy—those who followed him, and all the rest. Leon Trotsky, one of Lenins fellow revolutionaries, compared Lenin in 1904 to the French revolutionary Robespierre, Lenins view of politics as verbal and ideological warfare and his inability to accept criticism even if it came from his own dedicated followers was the reason behind this accusation. The root of the split was a book titled What is to be Done. that Lenin wrote while serving a sentence of exile, in Germany, the book was published in 1902, in Russia, strict censorship outlawed its publication and distribution. One of the points of Lenin’s writing was that a revolution can only be achieved by the strong leadership of one person over the masses. After the proposed revolution had overthrown the government, this individual leader must release power. Lenin also wrote that revolutionary leaders must dedicate their lives to the cause in order for it to be successful. Lenins view of a socialist intelligentsia showed that he was not a supporter of Marxist theory. For example, Lenin agreed with the Marxist idea of eliminating social classes, most party members considered unequal treatment of workers immoral, and were loyal to the idea of a completely classless society, so Lenin’s variations caused the party internal dissonance. Although the party split of Bolsheviks and Mensheviks would not become official until 1903, as discussed in What is to be Done. Lenin firmly believed that a political structure was needed to effectively initiate a formal revolution
20.
October Revolution
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It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd on 25 October 1917. During this time, urban workers began to organize into councils wherein revolutionaries criticized the provisional government and this immediately initiated the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the worlds first self-proclaimed socialist state. The revolution was led by the Bolsheviks, who used their influence in the Petrograd Soviet to organize the armed forces, Bolshevik Red Guards forces under the Military Revolutionary Committee began the takeover of government buildings on 24 October 1917. The following day, the Winter Palace, was captured, the long-awaited Constituent Assembly elections were held on 12 November 1917. The Bolsheviks only won 175 seats in the 715-seat legislative body, coming in second behind the Socialist Revolutionary party, the Constituent Assembly was to first meet on 28 November 1917, but its convocation was delayed until 5 January 1918 by the Bolsheviks. On its first and only day in session, the body rejected Soviet decrees on peace and land, as the revolution was not universally recognized, there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. At first, the event was referred to as the October coup or the Uprising of 25th, in Russian, however, переворот has a similar meaning to revolution and also means upheaval or overturn, so coup is not necessarily the correct translation. With time, the term October Revolution came into use and it is also known as the November Revolution having occurred in November according to the Gregorian Calendar. The Great October Socialist Revolution was the name for the October Revolution in the Soviet Union after the 10th anniversary of the Revolution in 1927. The February Revolution had toppled Tsar Nicolas II of Russia, however, the provisional government was weak and riven by internal dissension. It continued to wage World War I, which became increasingly unpopular, a nationwide crisis developed in Russia, affecting social, economic, and political relations. Disorder in industry and transport had intensified, and difficulties in obtaining provisions had increased, gross industrial production in 1917 had decreased by over 36% from what it had been in 1914. In the autumn, as much as 50% of all enterprises were closed down in the Urals, the Donbas, at the same time, the cost of living increased sharply. Real wages fell about 50% from what they had been in 1913, russias national debt in October 1917 had risen to 50 billion rubles. Of this, debts to foreign governments constituted more than 11 billion rubles, the country faced the threat of financial bankruptcy. In these months alone, more than a million took part in strikes. Workers established control over production and distribution in many factories and plants in a social revolution, by October 1917, there had been over 4,000 peasant uprisings against landowners. When the Provisional Government sent punitive detachments, it only enraged the peasants
21.
Social Democratic Party of Germany
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The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany. The party, led by Chairman Martin Schulz since 2017, has one of the two major contemporary political parties in Germany, along with the Christian Democratic Union. The SPD has governed at the level in Germany as part of a grand coalition with the CDU. The SPD participates in 14 state governments, nine of them governed by SPD Minister-Presidents, the SPD is a member of the Party of European Socialists and of the Socialist International, and became a founding member of the Progressive Alliance on 22 May 2013. Established in 1863, the SPD is the oldest extant political party represented in the German Parliament and was one of the first Marxist-influenced parties in the world. The General German Workers Association, founded in 1863, and the Social Democratic Workers Party, founded in 1869, merged in 1875, under the name Socialist Workers Party of Germany. From 1878 to 1890, any grouping or meeting that aimed at spreading socialist principles was banned under the Anti-Socialist Laws, in 1890, when the ban was lifted and it could again present electoral lists, the party adopted its current name. In the years leading up to World War I, the party remained ideologically radical in official principle, by 1912, the party claimed the most votes of any German party. Despite the agreement of the Second International to oppose the First World War, after 1918 the SPD played an important role in the political system of the Weimar Republic, although it took part in coalition governments only in few years. Adolf Hitler prohibited the party in 1933 under the Enabling Act – party officials were imprisoned, killed or went into exile, in exile, the party used the name Sopade. In the Soviet Zone of Occupation, the Soviets forced the Social Democrats to form a party with the Communists. In the Western zones, the Communist Party was later banned by West Germanys Federal Constitutional Court, since 1949, in the Federal Republic of Germany, the SPD has been one of the two major parties, with the other being the Christian Democratic Union. From 1969 to 1982 and 1998 to 2005 the Chancellors of Germany were Social Democrats whereas the other years the Chancellors were Christian Democrats, the SPD was established as a Marxist party in 1875. After World War II, under the leadership of Kurt Schumacher, the SPD re-established itself as a socialist party, representing the interests of the working class and the trade unions. With the Godesberg Program of 1959, however, the party evolved from a socialist working-class party to a modern social-democratic party working within capitalism. The current party platform of the SPD espouses the goal of social democracy, according to the party platform, freedom, justice, and social solidarity, form the basis of social democracy. The coordinated social market economy should be strengthened, and its output should be distributed fairly, the party sees that economic system as necessary in order to ensure the affluence of the entire population. The SPD also tries to protect the poor with a welfare state
22.
Wilhelm II, German Emperor
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Wilhelm II or William II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was the eldest grandchild of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and his leading generals, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, dictated policy during the First World War with little regard for the civilian government. An ineffective war-time leader, he lost the support of the army, abdicated in November 1918, and fled to exile in the Netherlands. Wilhelm was born on 27 January 1859 at the Crown Princes Palace, Berlin to Prince Frederick William of Prussia and his wife, Victoria, Princess Royal, the eldest daughter of Britains Queen Victoria. At the time of his birth, his great-uncle Frederick William IV was king of Prussia, a traumatic breech birth left him with a withered left arm due to Erbs palsy, which he tried with some success to conceal. His left arm was about 6 inches shorter than his right arm, historians have suggested that this disability affected his emotional development. In 1863, Wilhelm was taken to England to be present at the wedding of his Uncle Bertie, William attended the ceremony in a Highland costume, complete with a small toy dirk. During the ceremony the four-year-old became restless and his eighteen-year-old uncle Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, charged with keeping an eye on him, told him to be quiet, but Wilhelm drew his dirk and threatened Alfred. When Alfred attempted to subdue him by force, Wilhelm bit him on the leg and his grandmother, Queen Victoria, missed seeing the fracas, to her Wilhelm remained a clever, dear, good little child, the great favourite of my beloved Vicky. His mother, Vicky, was obsessed with his damaged arm and she blamed herself for the childs handicap and insisted that he become a good rider. The thought that he, as heir to the throne, should not be able to ride was intolerable to her, riding lessons began when Wilhelm was eight and were a matter of endurance for Wilhelm. Over and over, the prince was set on his horse. He fell off time after time but despite his tears was set on its back again, after weeks of this he finally got it right and was able to maintain his balance. Wilhelm, from six years of age, was tutored and heavily influenced by the 39-year-old teacher Georg Hinzpeter, Hinzpeter, he later wrote, was really a good fellow. Whether he was the tutor for me, I dare not decide. The torments inflicted on me, in this riding, must be attributed to my mother. As a teenager he was educated at Kassel at the Friedrichsgymnasium, in January 1877, Wilhelm finished high school and on his eighteenth birthday received as a present from his grandmother, Queen Victoria, the Order of the Garter. After Kassel he spent four terms at the University of Bonn, studying law and he became a member of the exclusive Corps Borussia Bonn
23.
Prince Maximilian of Baden
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Maximilian Alexander Friedrich Wilhelm Margrave of Baden, also known as Max von Baden, was a German prince and politician. He was heir to the Grand Duchy of Baden and in October and November 1918 briefly served as Chancellor of the German Empire and he was named after his maternal grandfather, Maximilian de Beauharnais, and bore a resemblance to his cousin, Emperor Napoleon III. Max received an education at a Gymnasium secondary school and studied law. In 1900, he married Princess Marie Louise of Hanover at Gmunden, upon the order of Queen Victoria, Prince Max was brought to Darmstadt in the Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine as a suitor for Victorias granddaughter, Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt. Alix was the daughter of Victorias late daughter, Princess Alice and she was in love with Nicholas II, the future Tsar of Russia. After finishing his studies, he trained as an officer of the Prussian Army, following the death of his uncle Grand Duke Frederick I of Baden in 1907, he became heir to the grand-ducal throne of his cousin Frederick II, whose marriage remained childless. He also became president of the Erste Badische Kammer, in 1911, Max applied for a military discharge with the rank of a Generalmajor. Upon the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he served as a staff officer at the XIV Corps of the German Army as the representative of the Grand Duke. Shortly afterwards, however, he retired from his position as he was dissatisfied with his role in the military and was suffering ill health. In 1916, he became president of the German-American support union for prisoners-of-war within the YMCA world alliance. Due to his liberal stance he came into conflict with the policies of the Oberste Heeresleitung supreme command under Paul von Hindenburg and he openly spoke against the resumption of the unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917, which provoked the declaration of war by the United States Congress on 6 April. Hahn maintained close links with Secretary of State Wilhelm Solf and several Reichstag deputies like Eduard David, David pushed for Max to be appointed Chancellor in July 1917, after the fall of Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg. Max then put forward for the position in early September 1918, pointing out his links to the social democrats. Hertling, after consulting Vice-Chancellor Friedrich von Payer, suggested Prince Max of Baden as his successor to the Emperor. However, it took the support of Haußmann, Oberst Hans von Haeften and Ludendorff himself, to have Wilhelm II appoint Max as Chancellor of Germany. Max was to head a new government based on the majority parties of the Reichstag, when Max arrived in Berlin on 1 October he had no idea that he would be asked to approach the Allies about an armistice. Max was horrified and fought against the plan, moreover, he also admitted openly that he was no politician and that he did not think additional steps towards parliamentarisation and democratisation feasible as long as the war continued. Consequently, he did not favour a liberal reform of the constitution, however, Emperor Wilhelm II convinced him to take the post and appointed him on 3 October 1918
24.
Weimar Republic
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Weimar Republic is an unofficial, historical designation for the German state between 1919 and 1933. The name derives from the city of Weimar, where its constitutional assembly first took place, the official name of the state was still Deutsches Reich, it had remained unchanged since 1871. In English the country was known simply as Germany. A national assembly was convened in Weimar, where a new constitution for the Deutsches Reich was written, in its fourteen years, the Weimar Republic faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremism, and contentious relationships with the victors of the First World War. The people of Germany blamed the Weimar Republic rather than their leaders for the countrys defeat. However, the Weimar Republic government successfully reformed the currency, unified tax policies, Weimar Germany eliminated most of the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles, it never completely met its disarmament requirements, and eventually paid only a small portion of the war reparations. Under the Locarno Treaties, Germany accepted the borders of the republic. From 1930 onwards President Hindenburg used emergency powers to back Chancellors Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen, the Great Depression, exacerbated by Brünings policy of deflation, led to a surge in unemployment. In 1933, Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor with the Nazi Party being part of a coalition government, the Nazis held two out of the remaining ten cabinet seats. Von Papen as Vice Chancellor was intended to be the éminence grise who would keep Hitler under control, within months the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933 had brought about a state of emergency, it wiped out constitutional governance and civil liberties. Hitlers seizure of power was permissive of government by decree without legislative participation and these events brought the republic to an end, as democracy collapsed, a single-party state founded the Nazi era. The Weimar Republic is so called because the assembly that adopted its constitution met at Weimar, Germany from 6 February 1919 to 11 August 1919, but this name only became mainstream after 1933. To the right of the spectrum the politically engaged rejected the new democratic model, the Catholic Centre party, Zentrum favoured the term Deutscher Volksstaat while on the moderate left the Chancellors SPD preferred Deutsche Republik. Only during the 1930s did the term become mainstream, both within and outside Germany, after the introduction of the republic, the flag and coat of arms of Germany were officially altered to reflect the political changes. The Weimar Republic retained the Reichsadler, but without the symbols of the former Monarchy and this left the black eagle with one head, facing to the right, with open wings but closed feathers, with a red beak, tongue and claws and white highlighting. If the Reichs Eagle is shown without a frame, the charge and colors as those of the eagle of the Reichs coat of arms are to be used. The patterns kept by the Federal Ministry of the Interior are decisive for the heraldic design, the artistic design may be varied for each special purpose. The achievements and signs of movement were mostly done away with after its downfall
25.
Revolutionary Stewards
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During the First World War, 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 gave to these policies and they also played a role during the German Revolution of 1918–19. The SPD, at the time the largest workers party in Europe, Karl Liebknecht was initially the only SPD member of the Reichstag who publicly rejected the measure. He was absent for the vote in August and then voted against the measure in December 1914, with the split between the USPD and the Majority SPD there was a party in the Reichstag opposing the so-called policy of party truce between the various political forces. The Stewards supported the USPDs outright opposition to the war, since most of the union functionaries supported the political truce, the Stewards created an opposition of industrial workers against the First World War in Germany. This was in part a reaction to the number of deaths on the front. Their most important speakers were Richard Müller and Emil Barth, the Revolutionary Stewards were especially strongly represented in the Berlin armament industry. They were in inspired by the success achieved by the communist bolshevists under Lenin. The strikers demanded fundamental political changes within Germany as well as a just peace agreement with Russia that did not include territorial claims by the German Empire against the New Russia and these demands were not met by the Supreme Army Command and the imperial government of Chancellor Georg von Hertling. In the early days of November 1918, the Revolutionary Stewards were one of the few political groups demanding an end to the monarchy. In addition, unlike the Majority SPD of Friedrich Ebert they were also in favour of socialisation of industries, in Berlin, the Stewards numbered around 80 to 100. The core group numbered only about a dozen, on 8 November, driven by events to accelerate their plan, the Stewards called for a general strike in Berlin on the next day. The Spartacists, the SPD and the supported the call. On 9 November, workers and soldiers councils were formed, the headquarters of police was occupied, imperial Chancellor Max of Baden announced that Emperor Wilhelm II had abdicated and handed over his office to Friedrich Ebert. In the afternoon Ebert grudgingly asked the USPD to nominate three ministers for the future government, yet that evening a group of several hundred followers of the Stewards occupied the Reichstag and held an impromptu debate. They called for the election of soldiers and workers councils the next day and they were to assemble at Zirkus Busch and elect a provisional revolutionary government—the Rat der Volksbeauftragten. On 10 November, the SPD, led by Ebert managed to ensure that a majority of the newly elected workers and soldiers came from among their own supporters. Meanwhile, the USPD agreed to work with him and share power in the Rat der Volksbeauftragten, however, the Stewards had anticipated that they would fail to prevent the SPD from dominating the Rat der Volksbeauftragten
26.
Lernaean Hydra
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The Lernaean Hydra or Hydra of Lerna, more often known simply as the Hydra, was a serpentine water monster in Greek and Roman mythology. Its lair was the lake of Lerna in the Argolid, which was also the site of the myth of the Danaids, Lerna was reputed to be an entrance to the Underworld and archaeology has established it as a sacred site older than Mycenaean Argos. In the canonical Hydra myth, the monster is killed by Heracles, more known as Hercules, using sword and fire. According to Hesiod, the Hydra was the offspring of Typhon and it possessed many heads, the exact number of which varies according to the source. Later versions of the Hydra story add a feature to the monster, for every head chopped off. The Hydra had poisonous breath and blood so virulent that even its scent was deadly, the oldest extant Hydra narrative appears in Hesiods Theogony, while the oldest images of the monster are found on a pair of bronze fibulae dating to ca.700 BCE. In both these sources, the motifs of the Hydra myth are already present, a multi-headed serpent that is slain by Heracles. While the fibulae portray a six-headed Hydra, its number of heads was first fixed in writing by Alcaeus, simonides, writing a century later, increased the number to fifty, while Euripides, Virgil and others did not bother to give an exact figure. Heraclitus the paradoxographer rationalized the myth by suggesting that the Hydra would have been a single-headed snake accompanied by its offspring, like the initial number of heads, the monsters capacity to regenerate lost heads varies with time and author. The first mention of this ability of the Hydra occurs with Euripides, palaephatus, Ovid and Diodorus Siculus concur with Euripides, while Servius has the Hydra grow back three heads each time, the Suda does not give a number. Depictions of the dating to ca.500 BCE show it with a double tail as well as multiple heads, suggesting the same regenerative ability at work. The Hydra had many parallels in ancient Near Eastern religions, the constellation is also sometimes associated in Babylonian contexts with Marduks dragon, the Mushhushshu. Eurystheus sent Heracles to slay the Hydra, which Hera had raised just to slay Heracles, upon reaching the swamp near Lake Lerna, where the Hydra dwelt, Heracles covered his mouth and nose with a cloth to protect himself from the poisonous fumes. He shot flaming arrows into the Hydras lair, the spring of Amymone and he then confronted the Hydra, wielding either a harvesting sickle, a sword, or his famed club. The chthonic creatures reaction to this decapitation was botanical, two back, an expression of the hopelessness of such a struggle for any but the hero. The weakness of the Hydra was that it was only if it retained at least one head. The details of the struggle are explicit in the Bibliotheca, realizing that he could not defeat the Hydra in this way and his nephew then came upon the idea of using a firebrand to scorch the neck stumps after each decapitation. Heracles cut off each head and Iolaus cauterized the open stumps, seeing that Heracles was winning the struggle, Hera sent a giant crab to distract him
27.
Gustav Noske
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Gustav Noske was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. He served as the first Minister of Defence of the Weimar Republic between 1919 and 1920, Noske has been a controversial figure because, although he was a member of the socialist movement, he used army and paramilitary forces to bloodily suppress the socialist/communist uprisings of 1919. Noske was born on 9 July 1868 in Brandenburg an der Havel and he was the son of the weaver Karl Noske and the manual labourer Emma Noske. From 1874 to 1882 he went to primary and secondary school, in 1882 to 1886 he was apprenticed as a basket maker at the Reichsteinische Kinderwagenfabrik and travelled to Halle, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Liegnitz as a journeyman. In 1884, Noske joined the Social Democratic Party and he became a union member. In 1892, Noske was elected chairman of the Brandenburg SPD and he married Martha Thiel at Brandenburg in 1891. They had one son and two daughters, from 1897 to 1902 Noske was politically active at the local level and worked as an editor at social democratic newspapers in Brandenburg and Königsberg. From 1902 to 1918 he was editor at the paper Volksstimme in Chemnitz. In 1906, Noske was elected to the German Parliament for the SPD where he remained through 1918 as representative of the Chemnitz constituency, within the SPD he was an expert on military, navy and colonial issues. After 1912, Noske was Koreferent of the Reichstag for the Navy budget, in 1914, he published a book Kolonialpolitik und Sozialdemokratie in which he argued in favour of German colonialism. He was known as a reformist and as someone who was not much interested in theoretical debates. During the First World War, Noske was part of the wing of the SPD which also included Friedrich Ebert and Philipp Scheidemann. Noske supported the war loans, but he argued in favour of a stronger political position for the Reichstag. In 1916 to 1918, he was the speaker of a commission appointed by the government to investigate military procurement. In this function, Noske helped to shed light on the practices involved. In October 1918, Noske became a member of the leadership of the SPD Reichstag group, when the Kiel mutiny started in early November, Prince Max von Baden, the new chancellor, sent Noske to Kiel to negotiate an end to the revolt. The mutineers welcomed Noske and elected him as Chairman of the Soldiers Council, within days he had succeeded in restoring the authority of the officers and in making those mutineers who had remained in Kiel resume their normal duties. Max von Baden and his successor as chancellor Friedrich Ebert, who was a personal friend of Noskes, were very pleased with Noskes achievement
28.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
29.
Wilmersdorf
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Wilmersdorf, an inner-city locality of Berlin, lies south-west of the central city. Formerly a borough by itself, Wilmersdorf became part of the new borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in Berlins 2001 administrative reform, the village near Berlin was first mentioned in 1293 as Wilmerstorff, probably founded in the course of the German Ostsiedlung under the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg. From the 1850s on Deutsch-Wilmersdorf was developed as a settled, affluent residential area. The former borough of Wilmersdorf included the localities of Halensee, Schmargendorf, Halensee-Grundschule, a primary school, is in Halensee, near Wilmersdorf. Zentrale Schule fur Japanisch Berlin e. V, a weekend Japanese supplementary school, is held at the - Established April 1997. The Japanische Ergänzungsschule in Berlin e. V, another weekend Japanese school, is held at Halensee-Grundschule. Jérôme Boateng, footballer for Bayern Munich and Germany, grew up in the area, franz Pfemfert published Die Aktion, the anti-nationalist, anti-militarist expressionist journal from premises at Nassauische Straße 17, 1911-1932. Margarete Kahn one of the first women to obtain a doctorate in Germany, maria von Maltzan, german countess, part of the german resistance against Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, saved the lives of many Jewish people in Berlin. Lived at Detmolder Straße 11, 1909-1997 Media related to Wilmersdorf at Wikimedia Commons
30.
Landwehr Canal
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The Landwehr Canal, or Landwehrkanal in German, is a 10. 7-kilometre long canal parallel to the Spree river in Berlin, Germany, built between 1845 and 1850 according to plans by Peter Joseph Lenné. It connects the upper part of the Spree at the Osthafen in Friedrichshain with its part in Charlottenburg, flowing through Kreuzberg. Lenné designed a canal with sloped walls, a width of 20 m at the surface. In the course of two enlargements, it reached a breadth of 22 m and a depth of 2 m, today the waterway is mainly used by tourist boats and pleasure craft. The Landwehr Canal leaves the Spree River in the Osthafen in Friedrichshain and it immediately descends through the Schleusenufer and heads in a straight line south west to its junction with the Neukölln Ship Canal, which provides a connection to the Teltow Canal. Although this has since been filled and partially converted to a public garden, further west in Kreuzberg, the canal is paralleled for about 1 kilometre by the U1 line of the Berlin U-Bahn, which runs here as an elevated railway. Shortly after that, the elevated U2 line crosses the canal, after entering Tiergarten, the canal flows between the Großer Tiergarten Park and the Berlin Zoological Garden. Here the canal passes through the Unterschleuse and is bridged by the Berlin Stadtbahn and this historic elevated railway carries S-Bahn, Regional-Express and InterCity trains. The Landwehr Canal rejoins the Spree River in Charlottenburg, immediately opposite the entrance to the Charlottenburg Canal at a waterways crossroad known as Spreekreuz. After Rosa Luxemburg was murdered on January 15,1919, her body was dumped into the Landwehr Canal, in 1920 Anna Anastasia Anderson attempted suicide by jumping into the water. In 1932 initial construction of the Shell-Haus overlooking the canal was completed, on 27 April 1945 the Russian Army was closing in on the German Armys final defensive stronghold in the Tiergarten district of Berlin. On 8 June 1962 a party of fourteen East German refugees commandeered the river steamer Friedrich Wolff, erected steel plates around the wheelhouse and sailed from the Spree into the Landwehr Canal. An East German patrol boat intercepted them and opened fire, but West German police returned fire and all landed safely on the canal bank, in the West
31.
Bavarian Soviet Republic
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The Bavarian Soviet Republic was the short-lived attempt to establish a socialist state in the Free State of Bavaria during the German Revolution. It took the form of a council republic. Its name is rendered in English as the Bavarian Council Republic or the Munich Soviet Republic after its capital of Munich. It sought independence from the recently proclaimed Weimar Republic. The crowd marched to the barracks and won over most of the soldiers to the side of the revolution. That night, the King went into exile, though he advocated a socialist republic, he distanced himself from the Russian Bolsheviks, declaring that his government would protect property rights. For a few days, the Munich economist Lujo Brentano served as Peoples Commissar for Trade, Eisners Independent Social Democrats were defeated in the January 1919 election, coming in sixth. This assassination caused unrest and lawlessness in Bavaria, and the news of a revolution in Hungary encouraged communists and anarchists to seize power. Not long ago it was discovered that Adolf Hitler played a role in the Bavarian Soviet Republic, in the footage, Hitler and a few men from his unit are seen walking in Eisners procession. Furthermore, one of Heinrich Hoffmanns photos of the procession showed Hitler in attendance, after Communist Party of Germany seized power, it appears that Hitler did not join a Freikorps with his comrades or desert his post to fight the communists in the streets. This incident suggests that Hitler’s opinions concerning nationalism, socialism and Marxism were still not resolved, on 7 March 1919, the leader of the majority Social Democratic Party of Germany, Johannes Hoffmann, formed a coalition government, but was unable to muster political support. On 6 April 1919, a republic was formally proclaimed. Initially, it was ruled by USPD members such as Ernst Toller, and anarchists like Gustav Landauer, Silvio Gesell, Toller, a playwright, described the revolution as the Bavarian Revolution of Love. His government members were not always well-chosen, for instance, the Foreign Affairs Deputy Dr. Franz Lipp, declared war on Switzerland over the Swiss refusal to lend 60 locomotives to the Republic. On Sunday,12 April 1919, the Communist Party seized power, Leviné also had plans to abolish paper money and reform the education system, but never had time to implement them. On 30 April 1919, eight men, including the well-connected Prince Gustav of Thurn and Taxis, were accused as right-wing spies, the Thule Societys secretary, Countess Hella von Westarp, was also executed. About 700 men and women were arrested and summarily executed by the victorious Freikorps troops, Leviné was condemned to death for treason, and was shot by a firing squad in Stadelheim Prison. Gustav Landauer was beaten and shot by a mob of soldiers, one notable supporter of the movement was the young artist Georg Schrimpf, then aged 20, who was arrested when the movement was crushed
32.
Hungarian Soviet Republic
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The Hungarian Soviet Republic or Hungarian Republic of Councils was a short-lived independent communist state established in Hungary in the aftermath of World War I. It was the successor of the Hungarian Democratic Republic and lasted only from 21 March to 1 August 1919, the state was led by Béla Kun and was not recognized by France, the UK or the US. It was the second socialist state in the world to be formed after the October Revolution in Russia brought the Bolsheviks to power. De facto, the Hungarian Soviet Republic didnt have an independent foreign policy, it had to follow and fulfill the commands, instructions, the Hungarian Republic of Councils had military conflicts with the Kingdom of Romania, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and the evolving Czechoslovakia. It collapsed on 1 August 1919 when Hungarians sent representatives to negotiate their surrender to the Romanian forces, as the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy collapsed in 1918, an independent Hungarian Democratic Republic was formed after the Aster Revolution. Official proclamation of the republic was on 16 November 1918 and its president became Mihály Károlyi, Károlyi struggled to establish the governments authority and to control the country. Led by Béla Kun, the first members returned to Hungary and it recruited members while propagating partys ideas, radicalising many Social Democrats in the process. By February 1919, the party numbered 30,000 to 40,000 members, including many unemployed ex-soldiers, young intellectuals, the Communists came to power as the only group with an organised fighting force, promising Hungary would be able to defend its territory without conscription. Kun founded a newspaper, called Vörös Újság and concentrated on attacking Károlyis liberal government, during the following months, the Communist Partys power-base rapidly expanded. Their supporters began to stage aggressive demonstrations against the media, in one crucial incident, a demonstration turned violent on 20 February and the protesters attacked the editorial office of the Social Democrats official paper, called Népszava. In the ensuing chaos, seven people—including policemen—were killed, the government arrested the leaders of the Communist party, banned Vörös Újság and closed down the partys buildings. The arrests were particularly violent, with police officers openly beating the communists and this resulted in a wave of public sympathy for the Communist Party. On 1 March, Vörös Újság was given permission to again. The leaders were permitted to receive guests in their prison, which allowed them to keep up with political affairs, on 20 March, Károlyi announced that Dénes Berinkey government would resign. Mihály Károlyi resigned on 21 March, president Károlyi, who was an outspoken anti-Communist, was not informed about the fusion of the communist and social democrat parties. Thus, while believing to have appointed a social democratic government, on 21 March, he informed the Council of Ministers that only Social Democrats could form a new government, as they were the party with the highest public support. Béla Kun and his communist friends were released from the Margit Ring prison on the night of 20 March,1919. Liberal president Károlyi was arrested by the new communist regime on the first day, later he could manage to escape
33.
Slovak Soviet Republic
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The Slovak Soviet Republic comprised a very short-lived Communist state in southeast Slovakia from 16 June to 7 July 1919 with its capital city in Prešov. It was headed by the Czech journalist Antonín Janoušek, in 1918, Czechoslovak troops began occupying northern Hungary in accordance with the territorial promises that the Triple Entente made to Czechoslovak politicians during World War I. However, Slovakia was occupied by Hungarian troops from the Hungarian Soviet Republic, historian Peter A. Toma argues that Slovakia lacked the prerequisites for a serious revolutionary movement. What did happen was orchestrated by Hungarians living there, most Hungarians soon turned against the radicalism of the movement. A Slovakian Social Democrats led the opposition to the Bolsheviks, the puppet state that briefly existed closely imitated the parent Hungarian Soviet Republic and made little provision for distinctly Slovakian needs and characteristics. Following a brief war between Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Romania, Slovakia was incorporated into Czechoslovakia, Hungarian Soviet Republic Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic German Revolution of 1918–1919 Spartacist uprising Toma, Peter A. The Slovak Soviet Republic of 1919 American Slavic & East European Review 17#2 pp 203-215
34.
Sebastian Haffner
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Raimund Pretzel, better known by his pseudonym Sebastian Haffner, was a German journalist and author. He wrote mainly about recent German history and his most known work is The Meaning of Hitler, a short biography and analysis of Hitler. In 1938 he emigrated from Nazi Germany with his Jewish fiancée to London and he encountered difficulties at first since he was hardly able to speak English at the time, had no money and no financial support, and his fiancée was pregnant. He adopted the pseudonym Sebastian Haffner so that his family, who remained in Germany and it was a combination of Johann Sebastian Bach and of Mozarts Haffner Symphony, later he used the signature of this piece on his vehicle registration plate. His book Offensive against Germany was commissioned by George Orwell and T. R. Fyvel for Searchlight Books, under the auspices of his mentor, David Astor, Haffner wrote for the London Sunday newspaper, The Observer, and became its editor-in-chief. He then wrote for a German newspaper, Die Welt, until 1962, Haffner was a frequent guest on the television show Internationaler Frühschoppen, hosted by Werner Höfer, and even had his own television program on the German channel Sender Freies Berlin. Haffner is considered as one of the most successful German authors in the history of the 19th and 20th century writing for a broad and he wrote most of his works in German, some of which have been translated into English, French, Spanish, Hebrew and other languages. The manuscript of Defying Hitler, discovered posthumously by his son, Oliver Pretzel, is a memoir of the Nazis rise to power, stern-Buch, Hamburg 1969, 2nd edition, Die deutsche Revolution 1918/1919 – wie war es wirklich. München, Kindler Verlag 1979, ISBN 3-463-00738-X 3rd edition, 1918/1919 – eine deutsche Revolution, reinbek bei Hamburg, Rowohlt,1981, ISBN 3-499-17455-3 4th edition, 1918/1919 – eine deutsche Revolution. Reinbek bei Hamburg, Rowohlt,1986, ISBN 3-499-17455-3 5th edition, reinbek bei Hamburg, Rowohlt,1988, ISBN 3-499-17455-3 6th edition, Der Verrat. Berlin, Verlag 1900,1993, ISBN 3-930278-00-6 7th edition, 1918/1919 – als Deutschland wurde, wie es ist. Berlin, Verlag 1900,1994, ISBN 3-930278-00-6 8th edition, 1918/1919 – als Deutschland wurde, wie es ist. Berlin, Verlag 1900,1995, ISBN 3-930278-00-6 9th edition, Berlin, Verlag 1900,2000, ISBN 3-930278-00-6 10th edition, Der Verrat. Berlin, Verlag 1900,2002, ISBN 3-930278-00-6 11th edition, Kindler,2002, ISBN 3-463-40423-0 12th edition, Die deutsche Revolution – 1918/19. Rororo Taschenbücher,2004, ISBN 3-499-61622-X 13th edition, Die deutsche Revolution – 1918/19, anaconda Verlag,2008, ISBN 3-86647-268-41978 The Meaning of Hitler ISBN 0-674-55775-1, translated from Anmerkungen zu Hitler, Publishing house. 1979 Preußen ohne Legende 1980 Überlegungen eines Wechselwählers, Publishing house, ISBN 3-463-00780-01985 Im Schatten der Geschichte, Historisch-politische Variationen. ISBN 3-421-06253-61987 Von Bismarck zu Hitler, Ein Rückblick, Publishing house Kindler GmbH, ISBN 3-463-40003-01989 The Ailing Empire, English translation of Von Bismarck zu Hitler. ISBN 0-88064-136-31989 Der Teufelspakt, Die deutsch-russischen Beziehungen vom Ersten zum Zweiten Weltkrieg, Manesse Verlag, ISBN 3-7175-8121-X1997 Zwischen den Kriegen
35.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
36.
Chris Harman
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Chris Harman was a British journalist and political activist, and a member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party. He was formerly the editor of International Socialism and Socialist Worker, born Christopher John Harman into a working-class family, he attended Leeds University and the London School of Economics where he began a doctorate under the supervision of Ralph Miliband. He was instrumental in publishing the magazine of the LSE Socialist Society, The Agitator and his main role in the IS was as a theorist and he produced numerous books and articles on a wide variety of topics. Almost all his writing appeared in the publications of the IS and SWP or has been published by related publishing houses, Harman died on 7 November 2009, following a cardiac arrest while lecturing at the Socialist Days conference of the Center for Socialist Studies in Cairo, Egypt. He is buried in Highgate Cemetery, London, a few yards from Karl Marxs tomb, RIP Chris Harman, The Third Estate Blog,7 November 2009 Obituary by Alex Callinicos, Socialist Worker,9 November 2009. Obituary by Michael Rosen, The Guardian,9 November 2009
Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
Karl Liebknecht 
Paul von Hindenburg
Friedrich Ebert
Media related to Spartakusaufstand at Wikimedia Commons