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The line “first they came for the communists” from Martin Niemöller’s famous poem, goes back longer than just the Nazis.
After the fall of the Kaiser the SPD started working together with ultra rightwing shock troops (Freikorps) to subdue communists, the broader left and the labor movement. Gustav Noske (SDP) literally called himself the bloodhound (bluthond).
Lookup the death of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht for more fun facts about the SDP in that era.
"To subdue communists"
Cute way of saying the SPD resisting an armed attempt to overthrow a democratic government the KPD refused to participate in followed by the SPD cooperating with the KPD until Stalinization in the KPD changed the KPD's priorities from 'improving the position of the workers' to 'serving Soviet interests'
Calling it a democratic government is quite a short cut. They were in the middle of a revolution, in the process of deciding what the future of Germany would look like, no elections had taken place. In the population there was huge support for dismantling the Prussian military institutions, but the SPD decided to not only keep the military as is but also to use it against their political opposition. I’m not saying the Spartakusbund were the good guys, I’m saying that the excessive violence of the SPD was foreboding of what was to come.
Calling it a democratic government is quite a short cut. They were in the middle of a revolution, in the process of deciding what the future of Germany would look like, no elections had taken place.
Elections had been declared for the 19th of the same month the uprising happened. Of course, the Spartacists couldn't let that happen. Democracy by the wrong people - the bourgeois elements - is dangerous, after all.
In the population there was huge support for dismantling the Prussian military institutions, but the SPD decided to not only keep the military as is but also to use it against their political opposition.
You're kidding, right?
Much of the action against the Spartacists was done by Freikorps precisely because the traditional Prussian military institutions were no longer available to the government.
I’m not saying the Spartakusbund were the good guys, I’m saying that the excessive violence of the SPD was foreboding of what was to come.
If by that you mean the instability of the government due to pre-existing cultural norms that strengthened far-right elements, political violence, and extralegal action, you are correct.
If by that you mean the SPD were the big mean social fascists crushing socialists movements because they could, as you implied in your original comment, you're dead fucking wrong.
The Freikorps consisted mostly of veterans of the Prussian army, and the specific division that executed Luxemburg and Liebknecht was led by Waldemar Pabst a high ranking official in the Prussian army.
What I am “implying” is that there was good reason why in the interwar period being anti fascist and anti SPD was not an uncommon opinion.
The Freikorps consisted mostly of veterans of the Prussian army, and the specific division that executed Luxemburg and Liebknecht was led by Waldemar Pabst a high ranking official in the Prussian army.
Veterans of the Imperial German army who had been ousted from the state military as part of the demilitarization of the German government, yes.
What I am implying is that there was good reason why in the interwar period being anti fascist and anti SPD was not an uncommon opinion.
Except it was very much an uncommon opinion until the Stalinist lurch of the KPD.