Political violence in Germany (1918–1933)

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 right-wing groups such as the Freikorps (sometimes in collusion with the state), and left-wing organisations such as the Communist Party of Germany.

Political violence in Germany (1918–1933)
Part of the interwar period
Johann Lehner (*1901) photographed with government troops on May 3, 1919, moments before they murdered him because they had mistaken him for a Bavarian Soviet Republic official.
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 Nazi totalitarian state established
Belligerents
Weimar Republic Reichswehr Iron Front Reichsbanner SPD	Far-left Communist Party of Germany Free Workers' Union of Germany RFB Antifa IKB (1918) Spartacus League (1918–19) Soviet republics in Germany (1918–19)	Far-right Freikorps Der Stahlhelm Organisation Consul Nazi Party Sturmabteilung
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

Incidents of violent unrest in Weimar Republic

• German Revolution of 1918–1919 (1918-1919)
  • Kiel mutiny (1918)
  • Christmas crisis (1918)
  • Spartacist uprising (1919)
  • Berlin March Battles (1919)
• Silesian Uprisings (1919-1921)
• Reichstag Bloodbath (1920)
• Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch (1920)
• Ruhr uprising (1920)
• March Action (1921)
• Cuno strikes (1923)
• Küstrin Putsch (1923)
• German October (1923)
• Hamburg Uprising (1923)
• Beer Hall Putsch (1923)
• Blutmai (1929)
• Altona Bloody Sunday (1932)
• 1932 Prussian coup d'état (1932)
• Reichstag fire (1933)

See also

• Adolf Hitler's rise to power
• Right-wing extremist attacks in Berlin-Neukölln

Further reading

• 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.
• Brown, Timothy S. (2009). Weimar Radicals: Nazis and Communists Between Authenticity and Performance. Berghahn.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.