Reich Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils
독일 노동자·병사 평의회 대회
The national congress of the workers' and soldiers' councils created by the German November Revolution of 1918. The first congress met on 16–21 December 1918 in the Prussian House of Representatives in Berlin; of about 490 delegates, 298 belonged to the Majority Social Democrats, 101 to the Independent Social Democrats and only 10 to the Spartacus League. It set elections to a National Assembly for 19 January 1919 and rejected by 344 votes to 98 Ernst Däumig's motion to make the council system the basis of the constitution, opening the way to parliamentary democracy rather than a council republic. A second congress in April 1919 called for "chambers of labour", which were never realised.
In depth
Convening and composition
The workers' and soldiers' councils that sprang up across Germany in the November Revolution at first had no national centre. The Executive Council of the Berlin workers' and soldiers' councils, which regarded itself as only a provisional leadership, called a national congress. There was no uniform electoral procedure; selection of delegates was left to the local councils, at roughly one delegate per 200,000 inhabitants and one per 100,000 soldiers.
Of 490 delegates (406 from workers' councils, 84 from soldiers' councils), 298 supported the MSPD and 101 the USPD; the supporters of the Spartacus group within the USPD numbered only 10. Only two delegates were women. Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg failed to win mandates, and a motion to admit them as guests with an advisory voice was defeated. The opening report was given by Richard Müller, chairman of the Berlin Executive Council and leader of the Revolutionary Stewards.
The vote of 19 December: councils or National Assembly
The central question was whether power in the new state should lie with the councils or with a National Assembly elected by universal suffrage. The MSPD's Max Cohen moved that elections to the National Assembly be held on 19 January 1919, and the congress adopted this by an overwhelming majority, a date even earlier than the Council of the People's Deputies had intended. Ernst Däumig of the USPD left and the Revolutionary Stewards moved instead that the council system be made the basis of the constitution of the German socialist republic, with supreme legislative and executive power vested in the workers' and soldiers' councils; his motion was defeated by 344 votes to 98. Müller later wrote that he had never believed the congress would turn into a "political suicide club", and Luxemburg called it "a willing tool of the counter-revolution".
The Central Council, socialisation and the Hamburg Points
A Central Council elected by the congress was to supervise the government in place of a parliament. The MSPD and USPD clashed over its powers, and the USPD left, over Haase's objections, carried a boycott of the election. The 17-member Central Council therefore consisted solely of MSPD members, and on 4 February 1919 it transferred its powers to the Weimar National Assembly.
On other questions the congress decided further to the left. It resolved to begin at once the socialisation of industries ripe for it, above all mining, and on the military question adopted the "Hamburg Points": command was to be exercised under the control of the Central Council, badges of rank were abolished, soldiers were to elect their officers and soldiers' councils were to be responsible for discipline. But Wilhelm Groener of the Supreme Army Command forced through an ultimatum that the points would not apply to the field army, and the resulting conflict contributed to the USPD's withdrawal from the Council of the People's Deputies.
The second congress (April 1919)
While refusing to make the council system the basis of the constitution, the congress demanded that the councils be built into the parliamentary system as institutions, which was also a demand of the March strikes of spring 1919, the last attempt to save the council system. The second congress, convened in April 1919 partly on Richard Müller's initiative, called for "chambers of labour", but after the National Assembly elections had produced the Weimar coalition of the MSPD, the Centre and the DDP these plans had no chance of realisation.