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Wilhelmshaven mutiny
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Wilhelmshaven mutiny broke out in the German High Seas Fleet on 29 October 1918. The mutiny ultimately led to the end of the First World War, to the collapse of the Monarchy and to the establishment of the Weimar Republic.
In the last stages of the First World War, while peace negotiations were going on, the military command of Germany on 24 October 1918, ordered the High Seas Fleet under Admiral Reinhard Scheer to sortie for a last battle against the Royal Navy in the English Channel.
The sailors at Wilhelmshaven, where the fleet had gone in expectation of the planned sea-battle, had no wish to be sacrificed senselessly in the very last instant of the war. On 29 October the crews of the ships Thuringia and Helgoland refused to follow instructions to sail. However, since the remaining crews did not follow the mutiny, it was possible to suppress it. But the naval command shelved its original plan, since it could no longer rely on the obedience of the crews.
The 3rd Squadron, which had not taken part in the mutiny, was ordered back to Kiel. Also on board were approximately 1,000 arrested mutineers, who were to be sent before a court-martial. The other sailors, knowing that the mutineers had acted in their interest as well, wanted to prevent this, sent a delegation to the Naval Command, asking for their release - which was rejected on 1 November.
The next day the sailors discussed their next step with the workers in the Kiel Trades Union Hall. On 3 November a common mass demonstration took place in the open. When a sub-lieutenant Steinhäuser fired at the demonstrators and nine people died, a sailor fired back, killing the officer. This converted the mass protest into a generalised rebellion .
On the morning of 4 November the sailors of the 3rd Squadron formed a soldiers' council with Karl Artelt as Chairman. Subsequently, they disarmed their officers, seized the ships, freed the arrested mutineers and brought Kiel under their control. Army soldiers, who were sent out from Altona to suppress the mutiny, fraternised with the sailors in the afternoon. Kiel thereby came firmly into the hands of approximately 40,000 rebellious sailors, soldiers and workers.
On the evening 4 November the Social Democratic Party (SPD) Reichstag delegate Gustav Noske arrived in Kiel in order to bring the rebellion under SPD control, in order to prevent a revolution. The Kiel workers' and soldiers' council believed itself to be supported by the new government and therefore it elected Noske as the governor. This actually succeeded in ending the revolution in Kiel. But by this time events had already gone far beyond the city.
Other seamen, soldiers and workers, in solidarity with the arrested, began electing worker and soldier councils modelled after the soviets of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and took over military and civil powers in many cities. On November 7, the revolution had reached Munich, causing Ludwig III of Bavaria to flee.
