Threat of the Left in Wartime Germany 1914-1918

Question 1

What was the ideological commitment of the Socialists towards the War?

Answer 1

• the idea of siegfriede was repugnant to them; the war to them was purely defensive
• The leaders had hoped to avoid war
• 1914 the social democrats unanimously voted for the war credits because tsarist russia the enemey of democracy and socialism was about to attack the fatherland
• the fact their supporters shared a patriotic desire to defend the fatherland could not be ignoried by the party leaders
• opposed to the influence of the supreme command
• oppposed to the unrestricted submarine warfare
• to resist the government on that account would be undermining the war effort which would likely bring discredit upon the dials of parliamentary democracy
• their path of duty obliged them to continue cooperation with non-socialist parties for the duration of the hostilities

Question 2

What was the position of the Social Democratic Party in 1916?

Answer 2

• the once monlithic party which begun supporting the war mainly as a defensive operation against the threat from the east had been beset by increasing doubt as the scale of the annexations demanded by the government became clear
• 1916 the party split into pro-war and anti-war factions
• the majority continued, with reservations, to support the war and to proagate moderate reforms rather than wholesale revolution

Question 3

What groupings were formed within the Socialists from 1916?

Answer 3

• The minority founded the Independant Socialist Party (USPD) in April 1917
• The USPD shared with the Spartacus League a hostility to the war, but shared with the SPD a commitment to constitutional methods
• November 1918 the USPD joined a coalitioin with the SPD but in december the left this coalition
• December 1920 many joined the KPD
• 1922 the remainder re-joined the SPD
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