Location
German Historical Institute, London
GHIL in co-operation with the Modern German History Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, University of London
German History Society Annual Lecture
What did the German workers’ movement know about the course, outcome, and effects of the Russian October Revolution; how were the events perceived and judged? The lecture examines the significance of the revolutionary events in Russia and the subsequent civil war for the course of the majority SPD after the November Revolution and for the splitting of the workers’ movement. Of particular interest is how the reports on Russia influenced Ebert’s decision to co-operate with the Reichswehr leadership in suppressing the revolutionary workers, and what role the Bolshevik leadership played in initiating the numerous left-wing uprising attempts until 1923.
Ulrich Herbert is Professor of Modern History at the University Freiburg. His publications include A History of Germany in the Twentieth Century (2018); Hitler’s Foreign Workers: Enforced Foreign Labor in Germany under the Third Reich (1997); National Socialist Extermination Policy: Contemporary German Perspectives and Controversies (1999); and A History of Foreign Labor in Germany, 1880–1980 (1990).