Free The Downfall of Money: Germany’s Hyperinflation and the Destruction of the Middle Class by Frederick Taylor Page A

might have been stifled, but on shore it was a different story. In Kiel, rumours about the arrested mutineers spread like a virus among the discontented naval personnel. On 1 November, several hundred gathered at the trades union building. They sent a petition to the local naval command, demanding that the prisoners be freed. It was ignored.
    The next day, the sailors found the entrance to the trades union building barred by police. In response, an even larger group of protesters met a few streets to the south at the Großer Exerzierplatz , once a parade ground but now a broad public square in the centre of the city. Flyers were printed and circulated. On 3 November, another meeting on the square attracted several thousand protesters, now including both sailors and war workers of both sexes. This time they demanded not just the liberation of the imprisoned mutineers, but also an end to the war and an improvement in the food situation. As the demonstrators attempted to move out of the square towards the military prison to demand their comrades’ release, in the process ‘liberating’ some weapons from nearby military billets, they encountered an army unit. Fire was exchanged. Seven protesters were killed and twenty-nine wounded. The lieutenant commanding the army unit was seriously injured and taken to hospital.
    By the next morning, 4 November, armed groups of sailors were roaming the streets. In a final attempt to restore discipline, the commander of the big naval base at Kiel-Wik, two miles or so to the north of the city centre, ordered all sailors and soldiers to form up for a roll call on the main parade ground. The commander’s appeal to the men’s loyalty failed to prevent spontaneous demonstrations against his authority. Soon the men from the base had joined up with those already active in the city. The soldiers of the city garrison likewise refused orders to resist the rebels. The city’s military governor received a delegation of workers and sailors and was forced to grant their demands, including an assurance not to call in military assistance from outside – at one point urged on by a threat by the mutineers to turn their ships’ guns on the quarter containing many officers’ private villas. 5
    According to a personal account by one of the leaders of the uprising, the military governor had, actually, broken his word:
     
    That evening, we then got the news that despite the governor’s declaration four outside infantry units were marching in our direction. We immediately jumped into our automobile and drove straight towards them. We reached them just by the post office, and spoke with them . . . Then I requested that they either give up their weapons or join the revolutionaries. The infantrymen joined our revolutionary movement. The officers were disarmed. 6
     
    With that, there was no military unit prepared to support the status quo. At the end of the day, the city of Kiel was in the hands of the mutineers and their supporters. Within hours, ‘soldiers’ councils’ had been formed. ‘Workers’ councils’ would follow. The next morning, disturbances had also broken out in the ports of Wilhelmshaven, Lübeck and Cuxhaven. Workers’ groups were also readying themselves for protests in Hamburg, Germany’s second largest city. 7
    On 5 November the new masters of Kiel issued a list of demands:
     
     1.
Release of all detainees and political prisoners.
     2.
Absolute freedom of speech and the press.
     3.
Lifting of censorship of mail.
     4.
Correct treatment of men by their superiors.
     5.
Return of all comrades to ships and barracks without punishment.
     6.
The fleet under no circumstances to leave port.
     7.
All protective measures involving the shedding of blood to cease.
     8.
Withdrawal of all forces not belonging to the garrison.
     9.
All measures for the protection of private property to be established by the soldiers’ council with immediate effect.
    10.
Off duty, no more superior