WHAT’S THE STORY?

IT was on this day 100 years ago that an event took place which hastened the end of the First World War and started the collapse of Germany’s monarchy. The Kiel Mutiny of November 3, 1918, is rarely accorded the historical significance it deserves, probably because it does not fit the narrative of the war being won solely by brave British Tommies and their American Doughboy allies.

Yet for all sorts of reasons Kiel should be marked much more than it is because it was an event that began the re-shaping of a country and arguably an entire continent and the whole world.

For without the Kiel Mutiny, Germany would perhaps not have transformed into a nation ready to become a Third Reich.

WHAT LED UP TO IT?

THE tide of the war had turned decisively against Germany during the middle months of 1918. Their Spring Offensive had made ground on the Western Front but not enough for victory. By August those gains had not just been reversed but had sent the German army into retreat mode, despite the influx of troops from the discontinued conflict with Russia.

British, French and American forces with their allies were slowly but surely bringing the war closer to the Fatherland itself. Meanwhile, the German Imperial Fleet, the Kaiserlich Marine, was stuck in its home harbours of Kiel and Wilhelmshaven where they had effectively been trapped by the Royal Navy since the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

Encouraged by the success of the Russian Revolution, sailors across the fleet began to organise Bolshevik-style committees that met in secret aboard each ship and links were made with workers ashore.

The aims of these groups were varied, but a common thread among them was a call for improved pay and conditions and an end to the war. Their slogan was Peace and Bread.

They also wanted freedom of speech and an end to mail censorship. But this was no overtly socialist revolution – this was just sailors preserving themselves from madness and death.

For what triggered the movement from discussion to action was a report that circulated widely in late October that the German High Command, which had lost the trust of many ordinary citizens as well as service personnel, was about to send the Fleet out into the North Sea to face the Royal Navy and break the blockade that had throttled German industry.

The British propaganda machine had been pumping out news of how the Royal Navy was being equipped with many new and more powerful vessels, many of them built on the Clyde.

The generals and admirals themselves had concluded in September that the war was lost so the breakout was seen as a last, desperate throw of the dice. The sailors themselves had been showing their discontent in the weeks leading up to the mutiny with the ringleaders of various protests being arrested.

The German admirals reacted by dispersing sailors they saw as troublemakers to other naval bases and ports around the country – all that did was spread the seeds of dissent.

WHAT HAPPENED ON NOVEMBER 3?

WHEN it was confirmed that Operation Plan 19, as the breakout was named, would be going ahead, sailors on ships in Wilhelmshaven refused to obey orders and on October 30 two of the ringleaders were executed, which only served to harden the attitudes of the Fleet sailors.

By November 3, anger in Kiel was growing fast and joined by workers from the docks and stokers from the ships, the sailors called a meeting in the town and marched to the prison to free colleagues who had been jailed for their protests. They were fired on by troops and seven men were killed and 29 injured. The enraged crowd kept going and took over the town and the ships in the harbour. The Kiel Mutiny had begun.

The mutiny itself was swift and devastating and in the course of 48 hours, the German Fleet was effectively taken over. When the news spread right across the country ordinary workers joined in, forming themselves into committees. The German Revolution was under way.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

THE sheer speed of events in the first week of November caught the German leaders by surprise.

The army sent 40,000 troops to confront the mutineers at Kiel but with their officers unable to impose martial law, many of the soldiers joined the mutiny and the rest marched back to their bases.

The High Command knew that the game was up and peace talks were sought with the Allies. Utterly shocked by the mutiny in his beloved Fleet, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated his imperial throne and the crown of Prussia on November 9. The armistice was signed and hostilities ceased on November 11 at 11am.

The Weimar Republic began and the allies imposed harsh terms on Germany in the Treaty of Versailles, a move which led to the rise of Hitler and the Nazis.