1918 жылғы Берлин қақтығысы: Қаңтар көтерілісінің бастауы

Confrontation in Berlin during the German Revolution

The 1918 Christmas crisis (Weihnachtskämpfe or Weihnachtsaufstand; ) was a brief battle between the socialist revolutionary Volksmarinedivision and regular German army units on 24 December 1918 during the German Revolution of 1918–19. It took place at the Berlin Palace, the main residence of the House of Hohenzollern. Around 67 people were killed, and the event marked the point at which the hitherto largely bloodless revolution turned more violent. The fighting was the immediate cause for the more radical members to leave the revolutionary government and led to resentment among the workers against the Social Democratic government of Friedrich Ebert. This set the scene for the much larger scale violence of January 1919 known as the Spartacist uprising. Since the revolutionary sailors defeated the regular army force sent against them, the engagement was also an important episode in the rise of the right wing Freikorps on which the government increasingly relied.

On 11 November 1918, the Volksmarinedivision was created, initially numbering several hundred revolutionary naval troops from Kiel who had been arrested on arrival in Berlin but released on 9 November. They were joined by several hundred sailors from Berlin and another 2,000 requested from Kiel on 12 November by Stadtkommandant Otto Wels, the military commander of Berlin. Numbering more than 3,000 at its peak, the division was considered the elite force of the revolution. On 15 November, the division staff moved into the Berlin Palace, the former city residence of the Hohenzollern family and Emperor Wilhelm II, while the troops were billeted in the adjoining Marstall. Their task was to guard the government quarter. Politically, the division was close to the radical left, the Independent Social Democrats of the USPD and the "Spartacists". However, having been the backbone of the revolution, over the next four weeks the unit found itself in a significantly different position. It is unclear whether this was due to the fact that it failed to cooperate with the military putsch planned for 6 December and had deposed its commander who was a part of it, or whether the division was an obstacle to Quartermaster General Wilhelm Groener's agreement to use the army to suppress any communist uprising. From the middle of December, Wels seemed to be working towards the dissolution of the unit. There were complaints about art treasures having been stolen from the palace. The temporary government of the Rat der Volksbeauftragten (Council of People's Deputies) now ordered the division to move to new quarters outside of Berlin and to reduce the number of soldiers to 600 from the current level of around 1,000. Ebert talked to Major Kurt von Schleicher, who promised to have loyal troops from the environs of Berlin come to Ebert's help. He also expressed his hope that this would be a chance to "finally strike a blow against the radicals".

As a direct result of the confrontation, which was seen as a political defeat for Ebert, Wels had to resign his post as commander of the city's forces (Stadtkommandant). The division had to leave the Palace and the Marstall but was not dissolved. Their demands for pay had to be satisfied and the reduction in size was postponed. A more important consequence of this event, which the Spartacist leader Karl Liebknecht called "Eberts Blutweihnacht" ("Ebert's Bloody Christmas"), was that the USPD members left the Rat der Volksbeauftragten on 29 December. The next day, SPD members Gustav Noske and Rudolf Wissell took their place. That same day, the Spartacists severed their remaining links with the USPD and set themselves up as the new Kommunistische Partei (KPD). They were joined by some USPD members from Hamburg and Bremen. Thus the more radical elements had been pushed out of the revolutionary government. Rather than working inside it alongside the "Majority" SPD members, the USPD now joined the Spartacists in opposition to the SPD. None of those who had really wanted the revolution were still in power. Moreover, the radical left was deeply divided and there was no sign of a Lenin type leader emerging. However, when the fallen members of the Volksmarinedivision were buried in Friedrichshain thousands of embittered people attended the funeral. They carried placards saying: "Als Matrosenmörder klagen wir an: Ebert, Landsberg und Scheidemann" (Charged as murderers of sailors: Ebert, Landsberg and Scheidemann) and shouted "Down with the traitors!". This foreshadowed the events of January 1919. When Emil Eichhorn refused to accept his dismissal as president of the Berlin police—resulting not least from his support for the revolting sailors—the people took to the streets en masse in his support. This would lead to what has become known as the Spartakusaufstand or Spartakuswoche, but is more accurately referred to as the Januaraufstand ("January Uprising"), since it was mostly an attempt by the revolutionary workers of Berlin to repeat their feat of 9 November and to regain what they had won then and subsequently half lost. The renewed failure of regular troops—after the disintegration of the forces assembled in Berlin for the planned restoration of order on 10 to 15 December—also gave support to those within the military who argued in favour of increased reliance on hard core volunteer troops. Since the middle of November, the OHL had supported the creation by some officers of so called Freikorps, voluntary units of soldiers who were mostly nationalistic, monarchistic and anti revolution, even while the demobilisation of the regular (conscripted) army was ongoing. As a result of the Weihnachtskämpfe, the government—in particular Noske—now joined the OHL in these efforts. These new military forces were intended both to secure the eastern border (e. g. in Posen) and protect the newly formed Baltic states against the Red Army, but also to restore law and order within the Reich.