How defeat in 1918 ended the monarchy and created a republic

German soldiers were closer to Paris in the spring of nineteen eighteen than at any time since nineteen fourteen, so how was the Kaiser gone within eight months? You might guess that enemy armies marched into Germany and forced him out. They didn't. On the day the fighting stopped, the German army still stood in France and Belgium. To see what happened, start with the people waiting at home.

Begin at home, where the war was being lost slowly. Britain's navy blockaded German ports, which meant food and raw materials from abroad could not get in. On some courses the story of Germany starts right here, at the end of the war. In nineteen sixteen the potato harvest failed as well, and the winter that followed became the turnip winter, because many families lived on turnips, a crop usually fed to animals. Rationing, hunger and disease spread, and by the end of the war about two million German soldiers were dead. Now think about the people queuing in the cities in nineteen seventeen. Why would that hunger turn people against their own rulers? Because their own government kept choosing to fight on while they went hungry, and the Kaiser stood at its head. Workers began to strike, and in January nineteen eighteen hundreds of thousands walked out, demanding peace and bread. That is war weariness, people worn out by a war with no end in sight. It drained support from the government that kept the war going, and from the Kaiser at the top.

Now the battlefield, where things fell apart fast. Russia had dropped out of the war, so in March nineteen eighteen Germany moved troops west and launched the spring offensive, a huge attack meant to win before American soldiers arrived in large numbers. It gained ground, but it ran out of men and supplies. From August the Allies, now with fresh American troops, pushed the German army steadily back. At the end of September General Erich Ludendorff, one of the two generals running Germany's war, told the Kaiser the war was lost. He asked for a new government of politicians to seek peace. In October Prince Max of Baden became Chancellor, the head of the government, with members of the Reichstag's parties in his cabinet. The Reichstag was the German parliament, and now its parties helped to rule. Prince Max began asking the Allies for peace. Now weigh up what that admission from the generals did. Why did the generals admitting defeat leave the Kaiser so weak? Because his authority rested on the army and on victory. Once his own generals said the war was lost, he had nothing left to offer, and people began to ask why he should stay at all.

Then the navy lit the fuse. At the end of October the admirals ordered the fleet out for one last battle against the British navy. Think about what that order meant to men who knew the war was lost. How do you think the sailors responded? They refused. At Kiel, on the third of November, the sailors mutinied, meaning they refused orders and took control from their officers. Workers and soldiers joined them and set up councils, committees that took over the running of towns. Within days the councils had spread from city to city, and on the eighth of November Bavaria, in the south, declared itself a republic. On the ninth of November, in Berlin, Prince Max announced that the Kaiser had abdicated, which means given up the throne. He handed the government to Friedrich Ebert, leader of the SPD, the Social Democratic Party. That afternoon another SPD leader, Philipp Scheidemann, proclaimed a republic from a balcony of the Reichstag. A republic is a country with no king or emperor at its head. On the tenth of November the Kaiser crossed into the Netherlands, and he never returned. That same night Ebert struck a deal with General Wilhelm Groener, Ludendorff's successor. The army would protect the new government against revolution, and the government would leave the army's officers in place. Now a different question, about the eleventh of November. Who signed the armistice on the eleventh of November, a general or a politician? A politician. Matthias Erzberger, a minister from the Centre Party, signed the armistice, the ceasefire that ended the fighting. And the German army was still in France and Belgium when the guns fell silent. Hold on to that fact, because the video on why the Treaty of Versailles made the Republic unpopular shows how it was later turned against the new Republic. One name is missing from all of this. Adolf Hitler was an unknown corporal in a military hospital, temporarily blinded by gas, when the war ended. The man now leading Germany was Ebert. An examiner writing about a question on these years records that some students thought that Hitler was in power at this point. Those answers put Hitler in charge of a Germany he would not lead until nineteen thirty-three. The fix is to name the real leader with his date: Ebert, head of the new government from the ninth of November, nineteen eighteen.

Now turn the story into an explanation. A question might ask why Kaiser Wilhelm the Second abdicated in November nineteen eighteen, offering two hints, the mutiny at Kiel and hunger at home. Here are two sentences about Kiel. The first says sailors at Kiel mutinied on the third of November, and councils spread across Germany. The second says the mutiny mattered because once sailors refused orders, the Kaiser could no longer rely on his own forces, which meant he had to go. Which one explains, and why does that one score? The second. The first only describes what happened. The second links the mutiny to the abdication with because and which meant, and that link is what the question asks for. A full answer needs three reasons built like that, and one of them should come from your own knowledge, beyond the two hints. Build your own answer before you hear one. Pause it there and work it out for yourself. Reason one, hunger. The British blockade cut off food, and after the turnip winter many Germans were close to starving. That meant strikes and protests grew and many blamed the Kaiser's government, so support for the monarchy drained away. Reason two, defeat, which is the reason from beyond the hints. After the spring offensive failed, Ludendorff told the Kaiser at the end of September that the war was lost. That mattered because the Kaiser's authority rested on the army and on victory, so he had nothing left to offer. Reason three, the mutiny at Kiel. When sailors were ordered to sea at the end of October they refused, and within days councils spread across Germany. That meant the Kaiser could no longer rely on his own forces, so on the ninth of November his abdication was announced. Each reason made the next one more dangerous. Hunger weakened loyalty, defeat took away the army's support, and the mutiny gave the revolution its spark. If a question about the Republic between nineteen nineteen and nineteen twenty-three comes up, all of this shrinks to one sentence. The Republic was born out of defeat and hunger, and it was blamed for both.

Back through the story, a question at a time.

Can you describe two problems Germans faced at home in the war's last two years?

Food shortages, because the blockade stopped imports and families lived on turnips in the winter of nineteen sixteen to seventeen. And war weariness, with soldiers dying in their hundreds of thousands and workers on strike in January nineteen eighteen.

Now four events to put in order. The first is the armistice. The second is the Kiel mutiny. The third is Ludendorff's message that the war was lost. The fourth is the announcement of the abdication.

Which order did they really come in?

Ludendorff's message came first, at the end of September. Then the Kiel mutiny on the third of November, the abdication on the ninth, and the armistice on the eleventh.

One more, with a fact this video never used. In the summer and autumn of nineteen eighteen, a deadly flu epidemic swept through Germany's hungry cities.

Which strand of the collapse would that fact strengthen?

War weariness. Sickness on top of hunger made people more desperate for the war to end, and angrier with the rulers who kept it going.

So back to that army, closer to Paris in the spring of nineteen eighteen than ever before, and still in France when the fighting stopped. The empire was not invaded. It collapsed from inside, as hunger wore down loyalty, the generals admitted defeat, and a mutiny became a revolution.

If you can tell the autumn of nineteen eighteen in order and say why each step led to the next, tap the thumbs-up, this one's done. If it's still a blur, save it, give it a day and look again.

Next in the chapter is The Weimar Constitution: how it worked, its strengths and its weaknesses. Hopefully that's next in your feed, but if not, search for ScholaFly H, I, oh one, oh three.

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