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Political violence in Germany (1918–1933)

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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.
Date29 October 191823 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

Far-left

Far-right

Commanders and leaders
Weimar Republic Friedrich Ebert
Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg
Rosa Luxemburg Executed
Karl Liebknecht  Executed
Karl Radek
Ernst Thälmann
Wilhelm Pieck
Richard Müller
Kurt Eisner 
Ernst Toller
Eugen Leviné Executed
Erich Mühsam
German Empire Erich Ludendorff
German Empire Walther von Lüttwitz
German Empire 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 right-wing groups such as the Freikorps (sometimes in collusion with the state), and left-wing organisations such as the Communist Party of Germany.[1]

Incidents of violent unrest in Weimar Republic

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Manthe, Barbara (21 November 2018). "Terror from the far right in the Weimar Republic". openDemocracy.

Further reading

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  • 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.