Political violence in Germany (1918–1933)

Political violence in Germany (1918–1933)
Part of the interwar period
Johann Lehner with government troops on 3 May 1919, moments before they murdered him, mistaking him for Bavarian Council Republic official Fritz Seidel
Date 29 October 1918 — 23 March 1933 (14 years, 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days) Location Germany Result Nazi Party seizes power All opposition political parties are banned Third German Reich established
Belligerents
Weimar Republic Reichswehr Iron Front Reichsbanner Social Democratic Party	Far-left Communist Party Red Front Fighters League Anti-fascist Action Spartacus League Workers and soldiers councils Free Workers' Union Black Band	Far-right German National People's Party Der Stahlhelm Freikorps Organisation Consul Viking League Nazi Party
Commanders and leaders
Friedrich Ebert Paul von Hindenburg	Rosa Luxemburg  Karl Liebknecht   Karl Radek Ernst Thälmann Wilhelm Pieck Richard Müller Kurt Eisner † Ernst Toller Eugen Leviné  Erich Mühsam	Erich Ludendorff Walther von Lüttwitz Hermann Ehrhardt Adolf Hitler Ernst Röhm

Germany saw significant political violence from the fall of the Empire and the rise of the Republic through the German Revolution of 1918–1919, until the rise of the Nazi Party to power with 1933 elections and the proclamation of the Enabling Act of 1933 that fully broke down all opposition. The violence was characterised by assassinations and by confrontations between left-wing groups such as the Communist Party of Germany and right-wing groups such as the Freikorps.

Between 1919 and 1922, historians have attributed at least 354 politically motivated murders to right-wing extremists, primarily Freikorps members, and at least 22 to left-wing extremists. During the same period, those convicted of left-wing political murders were more frequently prosecuted and generally received harsher sentences than those convicted of right-wing political murders.

Incidents of violent unrest in Weimar Republic

• German Revolution of 1918–1919 (1918-1919)
  • Kiel mutiny (1918)
  • Christmas crisis (1918)
  • November 1918 insurgency in Alsace–Lorraine (1918)
  • Spartacist uprising (1919)
  • Berlin March Battles (1919)
• Greater Poland uprising (1918-1919)
• Silesian Uprisings (1919-1921)
• Reichstag Bloodbath (1920)
• Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch (1920)
• Ruhr uprising (1920)
• Feme murders (1920-1923)
• March Action (1921)
• Klaipėda Revolt (1923)
• Cuno strikes (1923)
• Küstrin Putsch (1923)
• German October (1923)
• Hamburg Uprising (1923)
• Beer Hall Putsch (1923)
• Blutmai (1929)
• Stennes revolt (1931-1932)
• Murder of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck (1931)
• Potempa murder of 1932 (1932)
• Kwami Affair (1932)
• 1932 Berlin transport strike (1932)
• Altona Bloody Sunday (1932)
• 1932 Prussian coup d'état (1932)
• Reichstag fire (1933)

See also

• Adolf Hitler's rise to power
• Law for the Protection of the Republic
• Occupation of the Ruhr
• Occupation of the Rhineland
• Kurt Eisner § Death and legacy
• Walther Rathenau § Assassination and aftermath
• Matthias Erzberger § Assassination
• Weimar paramilitary groups
• Fascist and anti-Fascist violence in Italy (1919–1926)
• Political violence in Finland (1918–1932)

Further reading

English language

• Brown, Timothy S. (2009). Weimar Radicals: Nazis and Communists Between Authenticity and Performance. Berghahn.
• Jones, Mark (2018). Founding Weimar: Violence and the German Revolution of 1918–1919. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107535527.
• McDonough, Frank (2023). The Weimar Years: Rise and Fall 1918–1933. New York City: Apollo Publishers. ISBN 978-1803284781.
• Schumann, Dirk (2009). Political Violence in the Weimar Republic, 1918–1933: Fight for the Streets and Fear of Civil War. Berghahn.
• Achilles, Manuela (January 22, 2026). Invisible Fatherland: Constitutional Patriotism in Weimar Germany (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009651028. ISBN 978-1-009-65102-8.

German language

• Blasius, Dirk (2008). Weimars Ende. Bürgerkrieg und Politik 1930–1933 [The end of Weimar. Civil war and politics 1930–1933]. Frankfurt: S. Fischer Verlag. ISBN 978-3-596-17503-1.
• Braune, Andreas; Dreyer, Michael; Elsbach, Sebastian, eds. (2021). Vom drohenden Bürgerkrieg zum demokratischen Gewaltmonopol (1918–1924) [From the threat of civil war to the democratic monopoly of violence (1918–1924)]. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. ISBN 978-3515131520.
• Elsbach, Sebastian (2019). Das Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold: Republikschutz und politische Gewalt in der Weimarer Republik [The Banner Black-Red-Gold: Republican defense and political violence in the Weimar Republic]. Franz Steiner Verlag. ISBN 978-3515124676.
• Sabrow, Martin (2022). Der Rathenaumord und die deutsche Gegenrevolution [The murder of Rathenau and the German counter-revolution]. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag. ISBN 978-3835351745.
• Sabrow, Martin (2023). Gewalt gegen Weimar: Zerreißproben der frühen Republik 1918-1923 [Violence against Weimar: Tests for the early Republic 1918-1923] (2nd ed.). Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag. ISBN 978-3835354937.
• Lindemann, Gerhard; Schmeitzner, Mike, eds. (2020). ...da schlagen wir zu: Politische Gewalt in Sachsen 1930–1935 [...there we strike: Political violence in Saxony 1930–1935]. Göttingen: V&R unipress. ISBN 9783847109341.
• Zerback, Ralf (2022). Triumph der Gewalt: Drei deutsche Jahre (1932 bis 1934) [Triumph of violence: Three German years (1932 to 1934)]. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta. ISBN 978-3608986488.