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 3 November 1918 – 30 January 1933 Location Germany Result Nazi Party seizes power, all opposition political parties are banned, Nazi totalitarian state established.
Belligerents
Weimar Republic Iron Front Reichsbanner Moderates Freikorps (1918-1920)	Far-left Communists Bavarian Soviet Republic Free Workers' Union of Germany Anarchists	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 Levine † Erich Mühsam	Erich Ludendorff Wolfgang Kapp Hermann Ehrhardt Alfred Hugenberg Adolf Hitler Ernst Röhm

Germany saw significant political violence from the fall of the Second Reich and the rise of the Weimar Republic through the German Revolution of 1918–19, until the rise of the Nazi Party to power in 1933 when a Nazi totalitarian state was formed and opposition figures were arrested. The violence was characterised by assassinations by and confrontations between right-wing groups such as the Freikorps (sometimes in collusion with the state), and socialist organisations such as the Communist Party of Germany.

Further reading

• Blasius, Dirk (2008). Weimars Ende. Bürgerkrieg und Politik 1930-1933 [The end of Weimar. Civil war and politics 1930-1933] (Paperback ed.). 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

• Beer Hall Putsch
• German Revolution of 1918–19
• Revolutions of 1917–1923