challenges from the left

• Many workers had hoped for the establishment of a series of soviets, factory councils and the nationalisat of industry, but these hopes did not materialise. The decision to give power to parliament and the lack of reforms led to the departure of the Independent Socialists from the Council of People's Representativ and to the formation of the Communist Party (KPD)
• The KPD attempted to seize power, through the Spartacist Revolt, in Berlin in January 1919. Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, two of its leaders, murdered and the revolt was put down by the Freikorp.
• spartacist revolt

  • in January 1919 100,000 workers went on strike and demonstrated in the centre of Berlin
  • the demonstration was taken over by the spartacist leadership
  • newspaper and communication buildings were seized
  • the demonstrators armed themselves
  • many protestors returned home frustrated by the lack of planning by the spartacists
  • the government had employed the freikorps to put down the rising
  • over 100 workers were killed even those who surrendered
  • karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were arrested and murdered
• • the Spartacists were communists who wanted Germany to be run by the working classes
  • they believed that power and wealth should be shared equally among the population
  • they wanted to replicate the russian revolution of 1917 by overthrowing the central government, establishing soviets in place of central government in German towns and cities by using violent methods
• when was the Spartacist uprising 


  January 1919
• There were further challenges from the left and soviets were set up in Munich and Bremen. However, these also crushed. An uprising also broke out in the Ruhr in March 1920 and the KPD soon controlled much of the region. This was crushed by the Freikorps.