Description
Serge documents and analyzes the failure of the communist uprising in Germany in 1923. He highlights the enormous revolutionary potential of the workers and the indecision of the leaders, which led to the defeat of the movement.
This Nonfiction work chronicles a bitter historical lesson: how the missed chance for revolution in Germany ensured the isolation of Soviet Russia and spurred the rise of the Stalinist dictatorship.
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• Letter from Germany to a French comrade
• Conference impressions
• Balance sheet of a year
• Anniversary of January 15 : Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg
• News from Germany
• A document on German patriotism
• Amid the collapse of bourgeois Germany
• Reports from Germany
• The general strike in Germany
• Reports from Germany
• The rich against the nation
• The rich against culture
• A fifty-day armed vigil
• Biographies
• Appendix
The German revolution was a tragedy of missed opportunities, of forces that hesitated at the decisive moment.
We saw the workers’ councils, the immense, chaotic energy of a people demanding change.
In the chaos of ’23, the future was still liquid, ready to be poured into any mold.
The failure of the left to unite was a victory for the reaction, a bitter lesson for Europe.
To witness a revolution is to see hope and despair locked in the same brutal embrace.
Chronology
1914
• August 4: War begins. SPD deputies vote for war credits.
1917
• April 5: Spartacist conference, founding of organization that was to become KPD.
1918
• November 9: Proclamation of republic.
1919
• January 15: Murder of Luxemburg and Liebknecht.
• April 13 – May 1: Soviet Republic in Bavaria.
1920
• March 13 – 22: Kapp putsch blocked by general strike.
• October 12 – 17: Halle conference of USPD. Majority votes to join KPD.
1921
• March: March Action.
1923
• January 11: French and Belgian troops occupy Ruhr.
• July 29: Anti-Fascist Day called by KPD.
• August 9 – 11: General strike brings down Cuno government.
• August 13: Stresemann Great Coalition formed, including SPD.
• October 10: Workers’ government formed in Saxony.
• October 13: Workers’ government in Thuringia.
• October 21: Chemnitz conference fails to back general strike.
• October 23 – 24: Hamburg insurrection.
• October 29: Reichswehr removes Saxon government.
• November 2: SPD ministers leave Stresemann government.
• November 8: Hitler’s beer hall putsch.
• November 6 – 12: Fall of Thuringian workers’ government.
• November 23: KPD made illegal.
• November 30: Wilhelm Marx government formed.
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