FROM TIMES PAST
A KREUZBERG
POSTCARD COLLECTION
NOVEMBER REVOLUTION
The revolution began with sailors in Kiel and Wilhelmshaven who mutinied against the First World War, culminating in Berlin with a general strike. On November 9, 1918, the Kaiser had to abdicate. A government made up of workers’ and soldiers’ councils took power until a parliament was elected in January 1919. The revolutionaries demanded peace, social equality, and democracy. It remained unclear whether a parliamentary republic or a soviet republic would follow. This debate was mainly conducted within the socialist workers’ movement, including the SPD (Social Democratic Party) and trade unions.
The SPD had supported the war in 1914, but with increasing casualties on the front and hunger in the cities, protests emerged. In April 1917, opponents of the war founded the “Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany” (USPD). The “Spartacus Group” led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg formed the left-wing of the new party before becoming independent as the “Communist Party of Germany” (KPD) in 1919. The “Revolutionary Representatives” network also opposed the war and organized strikes, involving munitions workers and housewives.
These conflicts also occurred in Kreuzberg, where the SPD headquarters and the printing house of their newspaper “Vorwärts” were located on Lindenstr., the latter sparking discontent due to its war stance. Postcards from the Peter Plewka collection show sites of the workers’ movement and their battles with right-wing volunteer corps in January 1919. Strikes and protests from 1916 to 1918 are not depicted, likely due to censorship.
Will They Shoot? Kreuzberg on the Eve of the Revolution
Since the summer of 1918, members of the USPD, the Revolutionary Representatives, and the Spartacus Group had been meeting secretly, collecting weapons, and preparing a general strike. The sailors’ revolt seemed like the right moment to strike––but it remained uncertain whether the masses would follow. The revolutionaries were also hopelessly outgunned with their few hand weapons. It was doubtful whether a surprise attack on the military could succeed.
In Kreuzberg alone, there were five barracks, including the stables of the 1st Guards Dragoons Regiment near the Hallesches Tor subway station. Richard Müller, the leader of the Revolutionary Representatives, observed the troop movements there on the eve of the revolution:
“On the evening of November 8, I stood at Hallesches Tor. Heavily armed infantry columns, machine gun companies, and light field artillery passed by me in endless columns, heading into the inner city. The men looked quite defiant. They had been used in the east to suppress Russian workers and peasants and against Finland with ‘success.’ There was no doubt, they intended to drown the people’s revolution in Berlin in blood.”
The Kaiser’s rule Still Holds. Military parades around 1900 are public events that required little security. Many postcards from this period depict parades and crowds of spectators. They document a militarized society that the writer “K.F.” also wished to see preserved: The policeman “fortunately maintains better order than the youth militia committee”––the latter was a paramilitary organization for students.
Peaceful Revolution 1918
On the morning of November 9, when members of the USPD and the Revolutionary Representatives called for a general strike, workers occupied their workplaces, and demonstrators stormed government buildings and barracks. Their goal was the centers of power. Miraculously, a peaceful revolution began: The weary troops offered little resistance, and there were only isolated instances of gunfire. On November 10, a government of six “People’s Representatives” from the SPD and USPD took power. The next day saw the armistice––the World War was over.
November 9 itself is not depicted in the postcards of the Plewka collection. In other collections, there are picture postcards related to November 9, but they are rare. Possible reasons for this include the rapid succession of events, cumbersome camera technology, the rarity of photographers on site, and press censorship. Photographic journalists had more preparation and freedom during the multi-day battles of the January Uprising in 1919, which also took place in Kreuzberg. Insurgents demanded a “Second Revolution” – an attempt that was crushed by right-wing volunteer corps.
Counter-Revolutionary volunteer corps at Belle-Alliance-Platz (now Mehringplatz) have pointed their artillery towards the Hallesches Tor subway station. The image shows how the previously distant war is arriving in the urban everyday life. The photo was probably taken in January 1919: The troops are securing the square to the south, either before or shortly after the storming of the Vorwärts building on the north side.
Struggle for the Media: January Uprising and the “Vorwärts” Occupation
From January 5 to 12, 1919, an uprising took place with the goal of overthrowing the People’s Commissioners’ government. This government had been formed on November 10, 1918, from the SPD and the USPD. However, the latter party was unable to assert its positions. From December onward, the SPD ruled alone, and the planned socialization of industry was not implemented. When USPD Police President Emil Eichhorn was to be removed on January 4, 1919, workers sought to prevent this with a demonstration the following day. Several newspaper offices were occupied during this demonstration, including the social democratic “Vorwärts” directly at the entrance of Belle-Alliance-Platz (now Mehringplatz). Workers had financed the purchase of the buildings with donations. During the war, editor Heinrich Ströbel had opposed the SPD’s patriotic course and was removed in 1916. This “Theft of Vorwärts” was the backdrop to the January 1919 occupation.
Other editorial offices were also taken over: Chaotically and spontaneously, insurgents attempted to continue the revolution. Their attempt was crushed by right-wing paramilitaries under government command. The fighting is historically known as the “Spartacus Uprising.” However, there was initial disagreement within the Spartacus Group about the uprising, which also involved USPD politicians and the Revolutionary Representatives. Nevertheless, the conservative and social democratic press attributed the uprising solely to the “Spartacists.” It was first isolated by the media and then militarily suppressed. The postcards in the Plewka collection are part of this narrative: They show the fighting but not the nonviolent general strike. The insurgents are indiscriminately referred to as “Spartacists.” Only one postcard mentions on the reverse side their call for a “second revolution.”
The “Vorwärts” building is still considered one of the central sites of the January Uprising of 1919. Images from the Plewka collection depict it before, during, and after the storming. The occupiers are armed with rifles and are sometimes dressed in civilian clothing. In contrast, the volunteer corps are shown in uniform, with steel helmets and artillery, firing from Belle-Alliance-Platz (now Mehringplatz) towards the north. At times, it is unclear whether the images document the actual fighting or are staged.
Murder in the Barracks Courtyard
On January 11, 1919, seven men were murdered in the courtyard of the Dragoon Barracks. They were participants in the January Uprising and part of the occupiers of the “Vorwärts” building. All seven had left the building under a white flag, hoping for negotiations. Instead, they were driven into the Dragoon Barracks. The “Potsdam Regiment,” a paramilitary volunteer corps, was stationed there. Its commander was the former colonial officer Franz von Stephani. In 1908, he had conducted a “punitive expedition” in the Sankwala Mountains in present-day Nigeria, where 1,200 people were murdered. Now, Kreuzberg was his area of operation: since the morning, his troops had been shelling the Vorwärts building. Negotiations with the insurgents were refused. The unarmed negotiators were dragged to the Dragoon Barracks a few streets away, where they were abused and murdered. Their names were Werner Möller, Wolfgang Fernbach, Kurt Grubusch, Walter Heise, Erich Kluge, Arthur Schöttler, and Paul Wackermann. At noon, another 300 detainees from the “Vorwärts” building were led to the barracks courtyard and battered. They survived. Commander Stephani was never held accountable. From 1924, he led the Berlin branch of the Frontkämpferverband “Stahlhelm” and from 1933, he served as a member of the Reichstag for the NSDAP.
Politics in Hasenheide – “Kliem’s Fest Halls” (Hasenheide 13–15)
“The foreign policy is not made in Hasenheide”––this was the comment made by Chancellor von Bülow in 1905 regarding a planned appearance by the French socialist Jean Jaurès at the venue “Neue Welt” (Hasenheide 108). The German labor movement wanted to show its connection to France with this event. The German state did not favor such alliances with a former enemy, and Jaurès was denied entry.
Hasenheide, on the edge of the eponymous park, was known as a entertainment district for the “common people.” Beer gardens and ballrooms lined the street. Trade unions and the SPD also rented the “Neue Welt” on the Neukölln side and “Kliem’s Ballrooms” across the street in Kreuzberg for meetings. After the November Revolution, the KPD also held meetings at “Kliem’s,” and the same year, Erwin Piscator staged “proletarian theater” there. In 1930, the anti-colonial revue “Sunrise in the Orient” by Louis Brody was performed. The year before, “Kliem’s” was the site of the “Bloody May” of 1929, where a worker was killed by a police bullet. During the Nazi period, “Kliem’s” operated without trade unions––associations and the “German Labor Front” filled the spaces. In 1941, the Kliem family sold the fest halls to a brewery. After a renovation in 1946, a cinema took over the large hall, and in 1948, the Berlin regional branch of the Police Union was founded here. From 1968 to 1981, the legendary nightclub Cheetah was located here, where artists such as Fats Domino, Bill Haley, and Desmond Dekker performed.
Since 1871, the Kliem family operated a recreational venue at Hasenheide 13–15. In 1899, a new building was constructed. The “Garden Hall” and “Great Hall” accommodated groups of 50 to 3,000 people, and there was also the beer garden “Summer Theater.” In 1878, soldiers were banned from visiting because social democrats frequented the place. The postcards from the Plewka collection convey the size of the rooms through their images, without providing information about their use.
Author
Ralf Hoffrogge
LITERATURE
Robbie Aitken, Berlins Schwarzer Kommunist – Joseph Bilé, die Komintern und der Kampf für die Rechte der Schwarzen, RLS Publikationen, Berlin 2019.
Bundesarchiv, Biogramm Franz von Stephani, online: https://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktenreichskanzlei/1919-1933/0000/adr/adrsz/kap1_1/para2_470.html
Laurenz Demps, Klaus Hübner, Georg Schertz u.a., Berliner Polizei von 1945 bis zur Gegenwart, Berlin 2020.
Moritz van Dülmen, Björn Weigel, Es Lebe das Neue! Berlin in der Revolution 1918/1919, Berlin 2018, zur Dragonerkaserne S. 156.
Richard Müller, Eine Geschichte der Novemberrevolution, Neuauflage Berlin 2011, Zitat auf S. 150.
Uwe Schulte-Varendorff, “Kolonialheld” oder “Lügenbaron”? Die Geschichte des bayerischen Kolonialoffiziers Hermann Detzner, Hamburg 2014, zu Franz von Stephani insbes. S. 20.
Lothar Uebel, Hasenheide 13, Berlin 2020.
