The History Place - World War I

      

Above Left: Friedrich Ebert, struggled as Germany's first president in a nation that had never known democracy. Above Right: Karl Liebknecht, leader of the communist Spartacus League, who attempted to overthrow the fledgling republic in 1919 and establish a Soviet-style regime. Below Left: Ongoing political instability is evident in January 1920 as a huge pro-communist crowd demonstrates in front of the national legislature (Reichstag) building in Berlin. Below Right: Germans armed with a machine-gun stand prepared to defend the Reichstag building from the communists if needed.

      

Below: German conservatives respond to the communist threat. On the left, an anti-communist political poster entitled "Sparticist at work" showing a man strangling another while a woman and child lay in a pool of blood beneath the victim. Poster was produced by the "Association for the fight against Bolshevism." On the right, a Freikorps recruiting poster showing a 19th century cavalry man holding swords. The text asks "Who will protect the Fatherland?" and instructs men proficient with any weapon to join Freikorps Lützow.

    

Below: A mass demonstration in July 1922 which includes Germans holding signs saying "No More War."

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