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266:. Ebert never talked about what was said, so the only information for posterity on what was discussed is from Groener. According to him, he offered Ebert the loyalty and cooperation of the armed forces in return for some demands: a fight against Bolshevism, a speedy end to the soldiers' councils and restoration of the sole authority of the officers corps, a national assembly and a return to law and order. Ebert seemed still unsettled from the stormy meeting he had just attended and at the end of the conversation, he thanked Groener.
143:. The goal was to shift the blame for the military defeat from the OHL to the politicians of the majority parties. On September 29, 1918, Ludendorff suddenly informed the civilian government that the Western Front could collapse at any moment and that a ceasefire had to be negotiated without delay. However, he suggested that the request for the ceasefire should come from a new government, based on the Reichstag majority. A "revolution from above" was needed. Chancellor
170:, which spread over a substantial part of the country over the next week. On November 9, as the striking masses were marching on Berlin, Prince Max unilaterally and untruthfully declared that Emperor Wilhelm II had abdicated. He then resigned himself and unconstitutionally handed his office over to Ebert, who thus became
281:
As a direct result of the pact, which initially remained secret, the government was not threatened by anti-democratic forces on the right and in the military, at least for the time being. Instead, it was able to focus on the challenges to its authority from the revolutionary left. That led to several
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did not agree immediately to ceasefire negotiations, there was a delay of several weeks. Now, Ludendorff again changed tack and argued in favour of continued fighting and for the exchange of diplomatic notes to be ended. However, when he threatened to resign, a successful bluff several times before,
181:
Ebert's first action as
Chancellor was to issue a proclamation, asking the people to remain calm, get off the streets and to restore peace and order. It failed to work. Ebert found himself in a quandary. He had succeeded in bringing the SPD to power and was now in a position to put into law social
57:
The agreement gave the government the means to defeat the challenge posed to its authority by those on the political left. However, it also drove a wedge between Ebert's Social
Democratic Party and other socialist groups, who accused him of allying himself with the enemy of the revolution. It kept
227:
Ebert was one of those three SPD members and was thus at that stage both the head of government and a leader of the revolution. However, he remained concerned that the situation might get out of control and that the democratic system that he was trying to establish might be swept away by a more
53:
Groener assured Ebert of the loyalty of the armed forces. In return, Ebert promised that the government would take prompt action against leftist uprisings, that he would call a national assembly and most importantly that military command would remain with the professional officer corps.
371:
Another consequence was that many former supporters of the SPD saw Ebert's cooperation with the military, which was essentially the same institution as under the
Emperor, as a betrayal and turned to the USPD or KPD. That contributed to the eventual erosion of support for the
376:
and the resulting political polarisation between extremists on the left and right. Most importantly, the military's "state within the state" status and its refusal to accept the democratic Weimar
Republic led the military under the leadership of General
215:
On
November 10, the SPD, led by Ebert, managed to ensure that a majority of the newly elected workers' and soldiers' councils came from among their own supporters. Meanwhile, the USPD agreed to work with him to share power in the
193:
On the afternoon of
November 9, he asked the USPD to nominate three ministers for the future government, but they were slow to respond. That evening, a group of several hundred followers of labour leaders from Berlin known as the
126:
When it became clear that the war was lost in late summer/fall of 1918, Ludendorff started to favour the "parliamentisation" of the Empire, a constitutional transfer of power to those parties that held the majority in the
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returned a solid majority for the democratic parties (SPD, Zentrum and DDP), Ebert felt that the revolutionary forces had no legitimacy whatsoever left. He and Noske now used the regular army and paramilitary
94:
Historically, the German civil government and the Army supreme command had remained independent of one another with the military only responsible to the Kaiser, not the
Chancellor. During the course of
348:. Not much later he resigned from the army, as had his superior, Hindenburg on June 29, 1919. Groener is considered the most loyal of the military leaders of the Weimar Republic. His successor,
205:
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reforms and improve the lot of the working class. However, as a result of the revolution, his party (and he himself) was forced to share power with those on the left that he despised, the
242:
Groener was mainly interested in preventing the more extreme demands of the revolutionary left regarding the military from being implemented: supreme command to be vested in the
356:(as the Treaty of Versailles did not allow Germany to have a general staff) was unwilling to follow every order given to him by the civilian government. During the right-wing
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Following the initial telephone call, Ebert and
Groener talked each evening over a secret line between the Reichskanzlei in Berlin and the headquarters (first at Spa, then at
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220:. That afternoon, Ebert announced the cooperation between SPD and USPD to several thousand representatives of the councils assembled at
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246:, disciplinary power to be with the soldiers' councils, free election of officers, no rank insignia and no respect for rank off-duty.
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289:, a division that had rebelled over outstanding pay and the quality of their accommodation. In January 1919, during the so-called
239:
about using the army against the revolutionaries at home and with Max von Baden and Ebert about the abdication of the
Emperor.
224:. Eager for a unified socialist front, they approved the parity of three members of the new government each from SPD and USPD.
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Since
Groener saw no point in resuming the fight against the Allies, he advised the government in June 1919 to accept the
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151:, as chancellor to lead peace negotiations with the Allies. The request for a ceasefire went out on October 4.
66:, as a largely self-governing institution that operated outside of civilian control. Future governments of the
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and Emperor Wilhelm II agreed, but the former resigned. In early October, the Emperor appointed a liberal,
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units throughout Germany to dissolve the workers' councils and to restore law and order. In Bavaria, the
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using a secret line, the existence of which had been unknown to Ebert until that time. Groener was at
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this time, on October 26, his resignation was accepted. Ludendorff's successor was Wilhelm Groener.
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intact until the ceasefire could be agreed on. He had also been involved in discussions with
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With the outbreak of the revolt in early November, Groener had been busy trying to keep the
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were both nominally Ludendorff's superiors, Ludendorff was taking the important decisions.
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On October 30, a confrontation between officers and crews on board the German fleet at
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armed confrontations, the first of which occurred only a few weeks after the pact.
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tried to topple the Ebert government. From January 9 to 12, regular troops and
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would thus be dependent on the goodwill or lack thereof of its leadership.
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Late on the evening of November 10, Groener telephoned Ebert at the
352:, who, from October 1, 1919, held the new position of chief of the
273:) as Groener wrote in his memoirs "about the necessary measures".
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77:
295:, the masses again gathered in Berlin and the KPD and USPD under
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radical dictatorship, as had happened in Russia in October 1917.
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the next day with an eye to naming a provisional government, the
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bloodily suppressed the uprising. On January 15, members of the
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On December 24, on Ebert's request regular troops attacked the
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and held an impromptu debate. They called for the election of
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435:. Milton Park, UK: Taylor & Francis. pp. (ebook).
46:, on November 10, 1918. This occurred on the day after the
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set in motion a train of events that would result in the
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1918 German government / military cooperation agreement
408:] (in German). Munich: C.H. Beck. p. 129.
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Deutsche Geschichte im 20. Jahrhundert: ein Lexikon
58:the military, which had been the true power in the
368:under von Seeckt refused to help the government.
567:, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960 page 54
406:German History in the 20th Century. A Lexicon
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262:at the forward-deployed headquarters of the
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432:A History of Modern Germany 1871 to Present
381:to undermine democracy in the early 1930s.
317:"Garde-Kavallerie-Schützendivision" led by
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529:Geschichte in Gestalten:2:F-K (German)
328:Since the January 19 elections to the
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565:The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
111:of the German Army, had become the
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210:Council of the People's Deputies
545:. Deutsches Historisches Museum
206:soldiers' and workers' councils
584:German Revolution of 1918–1919
1:
543:"Ebert-Groener Pakt (German)"
172:Minister President of Prussia
23:was an agreement between the
527:Herzfeld, Hans, ed. (1963).
186:and the Independents of the
50:had brought Ebert to power.
497:Haffner, Sebastian (2002).
398:Schildt, Axel, ed. (2005).
115:ruler of Germany. Although
101:military high command (OHL)
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360:, which involved numerous
321:, murdered Liebknecht and
149:Prince Maximilian of Baden
218:Rat der Volksbeauftragten
429:Orlow, Dietrich (2018).
339:Bavarian Soviet Republic
244:Rat der Volksbeauftragen
90:Wilhelm Groener in 1917.
82:Friedrich Ebert in 1925.
341:was ended in May 1919.
197:Revolutionary Stewards
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364:members in 1920, the
264:Oberste Heeresleitung
176:Chancellor of Germany
109:Quartermaster General
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40:Quartermaster General
32:Chancellor of Germany
594:November 1918 events
346:Treaty of Versailles
287:Reichsmarinedivision
131:: Social Democrats (
103:and, in particular,
379:Kurt von Schleicher
117:Paul von Hindenburg
145:Georg von Hertling
121:Emperor Wilhelm II
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30:, at the time the
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501:. Kindler.
358:Kapp Putsch
184:Spartacists
97:World War I
64:World War I
44:German Army
578:Categories
385:References
366:Reichswehr
354:Truppenamt
237:Wilhelm II
74:Background
362:Freikorps
335:Freikorps
315:Freikorps
306:Freikorps
202:Reichstag
129:Reichstag
113:de facto
309:led by
62:during
42:of the
549:22 May
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271:Kassel
99:, the
34:, and
404:[
551:2013
503:ISBN
437:ISBN
410:ISBN
299:and
188:USPD
174:and
164:Kiel
139:and
119:and
19:The
135:),
133:SPD
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