WHAT REALLY ENDED THE FIRST WORLD WAR?
But what it was exactly that ended the war is rather vaguely understood. It is a very interesting story that we should be aware of. It is actually the story of a military plan that worked too well.
The German High Command, at war on two fronts with Imperial Russia on one side and the Allies on the other, was well aware of the discontent brewing in Russia against the ruling Romanov Dynasty. They came up with a brilliant plan that would incapacitate the ability of Russia to continue the war.
In exile in Switzerland was a Russian Bolshevik agitator named Vladimir Lenin. The Romanov Tsar Nicholas II finally abdicated in February 1917, and a Provisional Government took power, which continued the war against Germany. A Swiss Communist arranged for the Germans to transport Lenin by train back to Russia. The German High Command hoped that he would incite a revolution which, whether successful or not, would make it impossible for Russia to continue it's war effort.
The plan worked absolutely brilliantly. Lenin arrived in Russia in April. Within a few months, the October Revolution would bring the Bolsheviks to power, lead Russia to discontinue the war as it was now wracked by a civil war between the victorious Reds and their opponents, the Whites.
The trouble was that it worked too well.
The German population, suffering many of the same hardships as the Russians, found the revolution appealing as well. The revolution that the German High Command had so successfully brought about, and that had made it impossible for Russia to continue it's war effort, spread to Germany and made it impossible for it to continue it's war effort.
That is what brought the First World War to an end. It could be that, during the Cold War, the west didn't want to give the Communists credit for anything, but that is what happened.
Germany, like Russia, was ruled by an emperor. In fact, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsar Nicholas II were cousins. Before the war, they used to correspond as "Willy" and "Nicky". Everyone seemed to be inter-related. Tsar Nicholas II was a first cousin of Britain's King George V. Tsarina Alexandra of Russia was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Kaiser Wilhelm II was her oldest grandson.
It was not Germany and Russia that started the war. If it had only been the major countries like Germany, Russia, Britain, France and Italy, the war would likely never have happened. But there was the factor of the Balkans as well as a tangle of alliances between nations. the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had an alliance with Germany, had taken control of Bosnia and it's heir, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, had been assassinated while visiting there.
The assassin had been a Serb. Serbia had an alliance with Russia. Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia, which was rejected. That is where the combat started, and the alliances pulled everyone else in. France was allied to Russia, and Britain was allied to France. Germany, not wanting a war on two fronts, decided not to wait for France to attack it's western border first.
And the rest is bloody and tragic history. It was a war like none that had ever been seen before.
According to some sources, Austria-Hungary purposely issued an ultimatum that is knew Serbia would reject because it wanted a reason to expand it's territory. Others say that the war was needless, Serbia itself hadn't been involved in the assassination and Franz Ferdinand had not been popular either at home or abroad. It was just that there had been decades of peace and people were getting bored with it. In many places, the onset of war was wildly cheered by the people. The war was essentially over nothing .
As for the revolution that forced Russia out of the war, the German High Command was thinking of that as the military objective. They likely were not thinking that there was the possibility of the revolution spreading to Germany, and also forcing it out of the war.
But Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were both Germans. We saw their meeting in England, where both were in exile, in our visit to "Manchester". There was a Communist organization, the Spartacus League, in Germany during the war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartacus_League#/media/File:Red_flag.svg
In Russia, the October Revolution can be said to have begun when the crew of the Russian Navy cruiser Aurora mutinied and joined the revolutionaries. A shot from one of the ship's guns signaled the beginning of the revolution.
The following year, what is known as the German Revolution began in almost exactly the same way. Sailors at Kiel mutinied. Russia's "October Revolution" was so-named because it was using the Julian Calendar at the time. Going by the Gregorian Calendar, it was actually in November. The Germans also began their revolution in November, and it is called the November Revolution.
Soviet-style workers' councils formed across Germany. That is what a "soviet" actually is, and where the name comes from. It is actually a council of workers, what could be called a union.
It is mostly forgotten today but the Bavarian Monarchy, in southern Germany, was overthrown and replaced by the Bavarian Soviet Republic. You have never heard of this because this story was buried, first by the Nazis and then by the west during the Cold War, because neither wanted to give the Communists credit for anything.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bavarian_Soviet_Republic#/media/File:Socialist_red_flag.svg
In northern Germany was the Bremen Soviet Republic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bremen_Soviet_Republic#/media/File:Socialist_red_flag.svg
The revolution that the German High Command had induced into Russia, to incapacitate it's war effort, had spread to Germany and had exactly the same effect. Revolutions along the same lines also took place in Germany's allies, the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires. They were dismantled and replaced with the modern nations of Turkey, Austria and, Hungary.
One thing that I think has been mostly forgotten is the Lipetsk Air Base in Russia. As terms of the armistice that ended the war, Germany was not allowed to have an air force. But when the Second World War began, and before that the Spanish Civil War, Luftwaffe pilots were clearly experienced fliers.
What happened is that, although Russia and Germany had been enemies in the First World War and would be again in the Second, The Soviet Union allowed German fliers to secretly use and train at the Lipetsk Air Base. This shows again the connection between the Soviet Union and the Weimar Republic based on their shared revolutions.
But, unlike the Tsar of Russia, the Kaiser went alive into exile, in the Netherlands. The German Revolution was milder and the upper classes in Germany retained some power. The revolution in Germany led to the Weimar Republic. It was socialist but, unlike Russia, it had a parliament. That parliament was known as the Reichstag.
When someone wanted to bring the Weimar Republic to an end, it had enemies on both the left and right, one thing that they could strike at was it's parliament. In 1933, the Reichstag building was set afire. Multiple fires were started so that there was no doubt about it being deliberately set. A Dutch Communist sympathizer, who was living in Germany, was convicted and executed for setting the fire.
A new party, the Nazis, used the Reichstag fire as a reason to enact security measures with the result of their consolidating power. In fact, the Nazis gained so much from the fire that many have wondered if they were really behind it.
The German royal imperial family was never executed, like the Bourbons by guillotine or the Romanovs by firing squad. Kaiser Wilhelm II moved into a country estate in the Netherlands, where he was to live the rest of his life. He was still alive when the Nazis occupied the Netherlands in the Second World War.
Knowing that the Nazis blamed him for losing the First World War, Winston Churchill, who had once met the Kaiser, offered him exile in Britain, remember that he was the oldest grandson of Queen Victoria and was present at her death, but he declined. He sent a communication to Hitler, asking for a revival of the imperial dynasty, but Hitler showed no interest in communicating with him. The Nazis pretty much ignored him, and he died the following year.
The German Monarchy didn't last long enough, 1871-1918, to become really popular. The place most associated with it today is Huis Doorn, the Dutch estate where Kaiser Wilhelm II lived in exile after the end of the monarchy.
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THE ZEPPELIN ERA
It is mostly forgotten today but there were air raids on cities during the First World War. Germany built lighter-than-air airships that became known as Zeppelins after the main company that produced them. The Zeppelins were filled with hydrogen, which gave them their lift. America had helium but wouldn't sell it to Germany so the airships were filled with hydrogen. There is more lifting power in hydrogen because it is lighter than helium but it's disadvantage is that it explodes.
A Zeppelin on an air raid was very vulnerable to aircraft but it's advantage is that it could reach high altitudes that the aircraft had difficulty reaching because the air gets thinner with altitude and the plane's wings provide less lift. But bombing from high altitude makes accuracy in where the bombs are dropped impossible and the Zeppelins had great difficulty with the winds at high altitudes, so that the campaign was abandoned.
By the time the Nazis came along, in the 1930s, metal aircraft had been perfected. But the Nazis were greatly interested in the Zeppelin airships. It has mystified many why they would be so interested in this dangerous and now-unnecessary technology. When my mother was a girl, during the peace between the World Wars, she watched the ill-fated Hindenburg pass over southern England.
But remember, as we have seen, how the Nazis saw, and wanted Europeans to see them, as the fulfillment of the Holy Roman Empire. The reason for humans flying in the first place was the French launching of the Montgolfier Brothers' balloon as a new way to attack the British fortress at Gibraltar. Britain was not in the Holy Roman Empire.
Having this magnificent airship seen flying around Europe, as the descendant of the Montgolfier balloon would show the Nazis to be the fulfillment of the Holy Roman Empire. Europe would than join them in confronting the east, invading and conquering the Soviet Union, and Hitler would reign over all as the new Charlemagne.
During the Nineteenth Century, three ancient obelisks were taken from Egypt. The U.S., Britain and France each got one. The U.S. obelisk is in Central Park. The British one was mounted on the side of the Thames River. The French obelisk is the most visible of all, it is the one in Place Concorde.
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3879/3734/1600/dc_250926.jpg
During the First World War, a bomb landed near London's obelisk. The bomb was actually dropped by a plane, not a Zeppelin, but the scars on the pedestal of the obelisk have been left un-repaired in memory of the First World War, when most of the air raids on cities were by Zeppelins, so that the obelisk is a memorial not only of ancient Egypt but also of the Zeppelin era.
The scars on the three-tiered pedestal of the obelisk are from the shrapnel of an aerial bomb dropped in the First World War. The scars have been left as a war memorial.
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The amazing thing is that the obelisk represents a stage in the early development of civilization in exactly the same way that the Zeppelin represents a stage in the early development of aircraft.
The Zeppelin era may have been brief but it made enough of an impact that it's name lives on. Decades later, during the rock music era, a band would be formed. It would go on to become one of the greatest bands there ever was. It would have a song that was, at the time, the highest-selling single ever. As anyone who came of age in the 1970s knows, the band's name was Led Zeppelin.
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