Political violence in Germany (1918–1933)

Political violence in Germany (1918–1933)
Part of the interwar period
Johann Lehner (*1901) photographed with government troops on May 3, 1919, moments before they murdered him because they had mistaken him for a Bavarian Soviet Republic official.
Date 29 October 1918 — 23 March 1933 (14 years, 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days) Location Germany Result Nazi Party seizes power All opposition political parties are banned Nazi totalitarian state established
Belligerents
Weimar Republic Iron Front Reichsbanner SPD	Far-left Communist Party of Germany Bavarian Soviet Republic Free Workers' Union of Germany	Far-right Freikorps Der Stahlhelm Organisation Consul Nazi Party
Commanders and leaders
Friedrich Ebert Paul von Hindenburg	Rosa Luxemburg † Paul Levi Karl Radek Ernst Thälmann Kurt Eisner † Ernst Toller Gustav Landauer † Eugen Leviné † Erich Mühsam	Erich Ludendorff Wolfgang Kapp Hermann Ehrhardt Alfred Hugenberg Adolf Hitler Ernst Röhm

Germany saw significant political violence from the fall of the Empire and the rise of the Republic through the German Revolution of 1918–1919, until the rise of the Nazi Party to power with 1933 elections and the proclamation of the Enabling Act of 1933 that fully broke down all opposition. The violence was characterised by assassinations by and confrontations between right-wing groups such as the Freikorps (sometimes in collusion with the state), and left-wing organisations such as the Communist Party of Germany.

Incidents of violent unrest in Weimar Republic

• German Revolution of 1918–1919
  • Skirmish of the Berlin Schloss
  • Spartacist uprising
  • Bremen Soviet Republic
  • Berlin March Battles
  • Bavarian Soviet Republic
  • Würzburg Soviet Republic
• Reichstag Bloodbath
• Kapp Putsch
• Ruhr uprising
• March Action
• Küstrin Putsch
• Hamburg Uprising
• Beer Hall Putsch
• Blutmai
• Altona Bloody Sunday

Further reading

• Blasius, Dirk (2008). Weimars Ende. Bürgerkrieg und Politik 1930–1933 [The end of Weimar. Civil war and politics 1930–1933]. Frankfurt: S. Fischer Verlag. ISBN 978-3-596-17503-1.
• Brown, Timothy S. (2009). Weimar Radicals: Nazis and Communists Between Authenticity and Performance. Berghahn.
• Schumann, Dirk (2009). Political Violence in the Weimar Republic, 1918–1933: Fight for the Streets and Fear of Civil War. Berghahn.

See also

• Adolf Hitler's rise to power
• Beer Hall Putsch
• German Revolution of 1918–1919
• Revolutions of 1917–1923