On November 5, 1918, workers at Germany's largest navel base at Wilhelmshaven formed a sailors' council and marched on the Rathaus in Hamburg. In Bavaria, Socialist journalist Kurt Eisner (previously the editor of Vorwarts--1898-1905) overthrows the monarchy and occupies the seat of "power."
Eisner sets up a cabinet of Independent and Majority Socialists, retaining the posts of Prime Minister and Foreign Minister for himself, promised that in due course a National Assembly would draft a constitution, and assigned the task of maintaining public order to councils that would be elected in the barracks, workshops, and villages. (Germany 1866-1945)
But "radical" Eisner is not the "law and order" Noske! [3]
By November 9, with continual outbreaks of workers in the streets, Prince Max resigns and acknowledges that the Emperor, too, and the Crown Prince intends to relinquish their right to the throne (Germany). The head of the Social Democratic Party, Friedrich Ebert, is to be named Reich Chancellor, "charged with the task of calling a Constituent Assembly to determine the form the new state should take."
Ebert, according to Craig, initially opposes the formation of a republic but event are moving along too quickly, by that afternoon, Philipp Scheidemann, ranking member of the Majority Socialist executive, shouts: "Long live the great German Republic!" Germany). Ebert, Scheidemann agree on one thing: Luxemburg, Liebknecht, and the Spartacus League are enemies of the new order just as they were enemies of the old order! As Gordon writes, the newly formed government recognized that of all the emerging workers' organizations, the Spartacus League posed "a more serious threat for it possessed two outstanding leaders" in Luxemburg and Liebknecht (Germany). And Rosa Luxemburg knows why! In a letter to Clara Zetkin [4] dated January 11, 1919, Luxemburg explains that "the "Spartacists' are for the most part a fresh new generation, free of the stupefying traditions of the "grand old party, tried and true'" (Letters).
For the workers and, particularly Luxemburg, Ebert, appointed SPD head after Bebel died in 1913., as Luxemburg writes, was "the quintessential party man"as the enemy" (Germany). A former student of Luxemburg, he becomes one of the leaders of the SPD and strong advocate against the rule of the workers--and of Rosa Luxemburg's conviction to revolutionary change. [5]
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How much I would prefer to travel to visit you! But that is out of the question, because I am chained to the editorial office, and every day I am there until midnight, at the printing presses to oversee the making up of the issue, and besides in these disturbed times the most urgent information and instructions that must be given still come in at 10 or 11 at night, and they must be responded to immediately. On top of that almost every day, from early in the morning, there are conferences and discussions, and public meetings in between, and as a change of pace every few days there come urgent warnings from "official sources' that Karl and I are threatened by gangs of killers [Mordbuben], so that we are not supposed to sleep at home but must seek shelter somewhere else" (Letter to Clara Zetkin, [Berlin,] December 25, [1918], The Letters)
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