The Berlin March Battles of 1919 (), also known as Bloody Week (), were the final decisive phase of the German Revolution of 1918–1919. The events were the result of a general strike by the Berlin working class to enforce the widely anticipated socialization of key industries, as well as the legal safeguarding of the workers' and soldiers' councils and thus the democratization of the military. The strike action was met with violence from the paramilitary Freikorps, resulting in street fighting and house-to-house fighting around the Alexanderplatz and the city of Lichtenberg.
On 3 March, workers from AEG Hennigsdorf drafted a resolution for a general strike in order to enforce the so-called "Hamburg Points" for democratizing the military that had been approved by the Reichsrat Congress in Berlin in December 1918. The strike was supported by the Communist Party of Germany and the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany. The German government, under the leadership of the Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany, responded with the imposition of a siege on Berlin and Spandau by the military on the orders of Defence Minister Gustav Noske. The Volksmarinedivision, which had previously taken a neutral role during the Spartacist Uprising, distributed weapons to the strikers and fought government troops after a member was fatally wounded. The general strike was ended on 8 March by the orders of the strike leadership led by Richard Müller. There were some concessions made by the Weimar government following negotiations with the workers' councils. However, the clashes only ended on 16 March with the lifting of the shooting order by Noske.
The fighting ended, according to Noske, with more than 1,200 dead, 75 of them on the government side. Estimates from Richard Müller suggest as much as 2,000 deaths, with other estimates being as high as 3,000. There was no official count conducted by government authorities. Much of this bloodshed can be attributed to orders from Freikorps commander Waldemar Pabst that permitted the summary execution of all individuals caught with a firearm, which resulted in the killing of many civilians and war veterans who were uninvolved in the strike. Among those killed was Communist Party leader Leo Jogiches, the former personal partner of murdered revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg. The March Battles represent one of the bloodiest but largely forgotten conflicts within the revolutionary struggles in Germany after the First World War.
Background
The cause of the March Battles was rooted in the demands of the increasingly radicalized German working class. Among the popular demands was the socialization of key industries, introduction of the council system and the democratization of the military. These demands had first emerged in the November Revolution, which itself had been carried out by the working class. On 18 December 1918, the Reichsrat Congress confirmed the demands concerning the military in the Hamburg Points. Its key demands were that the Council of the People's Deputies was to hold the power of command over all army and navy units, all rank insignia were to be abolished, and soldiers' councils were to elect their own leaders and be responsible for discipline. The January 1919 elections saw the left-wing political camp fall short of a majority, and the Majority Social Democratic Party formed a moderate coalition government known as the Weimar Coalition that encompassed itself, the liberal German Democratic Party and the conservative German Centre Party. This government proved unwilling to enforce the Hamburg Points, and the military high command actively worked against democratization and reform.
The months following the election saw great labour unrest across the country, with the Spartacist Uprising and a general strike in Upper Silesia in January, a general strike in the Ruhr in February and yet another general strike in Central Germany around Halle, Merseburg, Leipzig and Erfurt from February to early March. Simultaneous were attempts to enforce council rule on a local level in Bremen, Brunswick and Munich. Also notable was the presence of the "Republican Soldiers' Army" in Berlin, composed of the remnants of the Volksmarinedivision as well as other revolutionary-minded soldiers. The publicist Sebastian Haffner described this period as a "civil war" in Germany: "In reality, there was only one thing at stake: the existence of the workers' and soldiers' councils and thus the legitimacy of the revolution."