Nothing to Lose but Your Chains! / a German Revolution TL

[Teutonic_Thrash]

The Battle for Bavaria

The 2nd Royal Bavarian Army Corps established its base at Bamberg on 19th March. With 22,000 soldiers in all, Generalleutnant Otto von Rauchenberger reasonably assumed that his force would by outnumbered by the socialists. To alleviate this perceived shortage he decided to appropriate control of the local Freikorps units and other right-wing militias; these groups were only too happy to finally expel the ‘foreign’ revolutionaries from their state. The largest of these militias was the Republican Protection Force commanded by Alfred (von) Seyffertitz, a failed soldier who had founded the militia with funding from the Anti-Bolshevik League.[1] Von Rauchenberger’s efforts increased the size of his corps to 35,000 men. During this short period, Kurt Eisner’s socialist government had not been passive because their position was weaker than the reactionary forces believed them to be. The revolutionaries’ firm control only extended from Munich to Nuremberg, Ingolstadt, and Augsburg. As such, the Rote Garde units totalled only 15,000 men as of the 17th March. Eisner reached out to Karl Gandorfer, left-wing leader of the Bavarian Farmers’ League (BBB) and friend of Karl Liebknecht, for aid in recruiting the farmers’ militias. Even though the BBB was influential among the farmers’ councils which had appeared across Bavaria, of those who sympathised with the revolution not too many were willing to risk their lives at this stage and so only 5,000 farmers joined the Rote Garde. Max Levien, the elected Korpsführer in Bavaria, telegraphed his poor appraisal of the situation to the Council of People’s Deputies in Berlin.

Red Guard soldiers on patrol in Munich​

The Council of People’s Deputies were aware of the disheartening news as of the 20th March; the three Chairmen (Hermann Paul Reisshaus, Liebknecht, and Emil Barth) and People’s Deputy of Defence Heinrich Dorrenbach decided to raise an army in Saxony to reinforce the beleaguered Bavarians. Fritz Heckert dutifully complied with his orders, but was dismayed to see that the adventurist, ultra-leftist, and potentially irresponsible Max Hoelz was being elected up the command chain. Heckert’s headache was partially relieved when Arnold Vieth von Golssenau, a former officer during the war and recently a commander in the paramilitary Dresden Security Police, volunteered for the Rote Garde.[2] However von Golssenau’s status as a noble limited his popularity outside of those who personally knew him, and so he remained as a subordinate to newly elected Korpsführer Hoelz. The recruitment for the new army, bolstered by Hoelz’ Robin Hood-like notoriety, was perhaps too effective. In the Czechoslovak Sudetenland unemployed German workers and former soldiers flocked across the border to join the German Revolution. The Reichenberg/Liberec branch of the SDAPÖ, dominated by revolutionaries and led by Karl Kreibich, took it upon themselves to help organise the volunteers. Czechoslovak Prime Minister Karel Kramář, the staunch opponent of communism that he was, immediately attempted to order police units from Czech towns to restore order in the Sudetenland and close the border. He was however overruled by President Tomáš Masaryk and Foreign Minister Edvard Beneš who knew that such an action would destroy the government’s authority in the north; Interior Minister Antonín Švehla, leader of the Republican Party of the Czechoslovak Countryside (Republikánská Strana Československého Venkova/RSČV), also opposed the move. With Heckert’s recruitment efforts uninterrupted, he had mobilised an army of 70,000 volunteers by the 26th March; 20,000 were to be left to garrison Saxony while the rest departed the state the next day.

The bolstered forces of reaction began their assault on Nuremberg on 22nd March. The 6,000 men of the Rote Garde, led by Divisionskommandeur Rudolf Egelhofer, had prepared trenches just to the north of the city. Opposing them were 25,000 soldiers, including two artillery brigades; the socialist defenders lacked their own artillery. The Rote Garde fought on into the following day before retreating into Nuremberg proper. The city was not spared the bombardment of the Deutsches Heer artillery prior to the Whites’ (as they came to be known) advance. The subsequent fighting in the city descended into disorganised but brutal street-by-street warfare which gave an advantage to neither side. By the evening of the 24th, Egelhofer gave the order to those men he was still in contact with to retreat and regroup at Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz to the southeast. Altogether approximately 3,000 Rote Garde combatants reached the rendezvous, the rest were presumed dead, wounded, or deserted. The Whites had fared much better, losing only 2,000 men. Von Rauchenberger ordered his soldiers to thoroughly secure the city before moving on. A strict curfew was enacted and civilians who were suspected of Red sympathies, or of providing aid to them, suffered the fate of being shot “while trying to escape from arrest”.[3] Egelhofer made the decision to retreat further to Ingolstadt; along the way they ran into Divisionskommandeur Erich Wollenberg’s belated reinforcements. Reaching Ingolstadt on the 26th, the 9,000 Rote Garde soldiers fortified the city to the best of their ability.

While the Red and White forces had been manoeuvring and fighting each other in Nuremberg, the SDAPÖ in Austria had been preparing themselves for the possibility of the war reaching the Austrian-Bavarian border. In the aftermath of the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s collapse, the SDAPÖ had created a People’s Army (Volkswehr) from the ethnically German remains of the previous military. Through the work of Julius Deutsch, successively Undersecretary and then Secretary of State for Army Affairs, the Volkswehr was constructed as a left-leaning republican organisation which could seamlessly merge into the German army if needed. Furthermore the phenomenon of soldiers’ councils had affected the Austro-Hungarians just as it had the Germans. In total the Volkswehr numbered 55,000 soldiers spread throughout the provinces of German-Austria, though the conservative local government of Tyrol had officially disbanded their branch of the Volkswehr while the soldiers in Carinthia were observing a tenuous ceasefire with the newly-formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. Deutsch and Chancellor Karl Renner discretely redeployed loyal battalions of the Volkswehr to Vienna and the Bavarian border while they waited for further developments in the German Civil War. The army’s conservative commander-in-chief Feldmarshallleutnant Adolf von Boog was also forced to resign, officially because of his plan to invade Hungarian Burgenland, but in reality so that he could be replaced by the SDAPÖ-sympathising Theodor Körner.[4] During this period the conservative and monarchist militias remained disparate and organised on a regional basis, with the strongest groups based in Tyrol and Vorarlberg.

The defence of Ingolstadt presented the Rote Garde with a dilemma; to focus their forces on the city’s more defensible southern bank of the Danube, forsaking the city’s northern population, or to defend the city’s north, which risked a greater chance of defeat. Egelhofer and Wollenberg reluctantly agreed on the southern bank as their line of defence, as they knew that holding out for reinforcements for as long as possible was their best hope for victory. The radical and unpopular suggestion of collapsing the bridges was dismissed out of hand by the two officers. While the Reds had been preparing their defence of Ingolstadt, the Whites had took Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz with little trouble and subjected the town to the same repression with which they had meted out to Nuremberg. Moving on from the market town, the Deutsches Heer artillery began its bombardment of Ingolstadt on the 29th March; the north of the city was devastated, but the 9,000 Red defenders on the Danube’s southern bank remained relatively unscathed. As a result, the Rote Garde were able repel the White assault that day and the next. On the 31st, Brigadekommandant Ernst Niekisch reached the city with reinforcements of 3,000 men. Despite the fortuitous increase in the number of defenders, Egelhofer and Wollenberg stuck with their plan of holding the bridges over the Danube.

While the Bavarian proletariat were desperately defending Ingolstadt, the 50,000 men of the Saxon Rote Garde reached the outskirts of Bamberg, the temporary headquarters of the 2nd Royal Bavarian Army Corps, on 30th March; there were only 10,000 White soldiers garrisoning the city. Accompanied by their own artillery, Korpsführer Hoelz ordered the bombardment of the city for the remainder of the 30th and throughout the 31st. Some of Hoelz’ subordinates, including Divisionskommandeur Golssenau (who had dropped his noble title), warned of the unnecessary collateral damage, but the Korpsführer pressed on regardless. On 1st April the Rote Garde entered the city, facing little resistance; only the most radical of the Freikorps volunteers refused to surrender while Generalleutnant von Rauchenberger had escaped to the south sometime in the early stages of the artillery barrage. Hoelz ordered 5,000 men to stay and garrison the city, with the rest marching on the next day. Nuremberg had only been left under the control of local reactionary militias during von Rauchenberger’s flight south, and so the Rote Garde experienced little trouble in recapturing the city on 4th April. After Nuremberg’s liberation, the proletariat emerged and engaged in violent reprisals in retaliation against those who had aided in the previous White Terror. Hoelz ordered his subordinates to not intervene in the violence and instead elected to march on toward Ingolstadt.

Meanwhile in Ingolstadt, the initial numerical advantage for the Whites was slowly deteriorating, but the Rote Garde were also facing worrying losses. By the 3rd April, Divisionskommandeurs Egelhofer and Wollenberg contemplated an orderly retreat from the city; the next day they gave the order to that effect, not knowing that reinforcements from the north were en route. The Rote Garde had lost approximately 4,000 men, compared to 6,000 casualties for the Whites. The revolutionaries retreated south to Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, as part of their strategy of delaying the Whites in their march towards Munich. The reactionary army did not reach Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm however, for they had become aware of the much larger Red reinforcements bearing down upon them. Instead von Rauchenberger ordered what remained of his army to retreat west to friendlier territory in Württemberg. Hoelz was eager to give chase to the Whites but his subordinates, Golssenau and Otto Karl Bachmann, convinced him that consolidating control of conservative Bavaria was the more sensible strategy. The Korpsführer reluctantly acquiesced to the advice and went to Munich to coordinate with his colleague Levien. The two commanders agreed to spread their forces out through the state to root out and repress any remaining Freikorps and other militia units, as well as to aid in socialising further industry.

[1] The noble title “von” is bracketed because, despite Seyffertitz’ noble descent, due to some legal trouble he wasn’t officially allowed to use his noble title.
[2] Better known as Ludwig Renn IOTL after a character in one of his novels.
[3] A common euphemism for being summarily executed.
[4] OTL, von Boog was forced to resign on 27th May.

Dramatis Personae (OTL biographies)

Max Levien: A Russian who participated in the Revolution of 1905 and became a Socialist Revolutionary, Levien eventually settled in Germany and became a supporter of the Bolsheviks. He volunteered for the Bavarian army before the war and afterwards was a founding member of the KPD. Levien was one of the leaders of the Bavarian council republic and fled to Vienna after its suppression, where he was arrested but successfully avoided extradition to Germany. In 1921 Levien returned to Russia and worked for the Comintern, from where he supported the KPD left. Levien was arrested in 1936 and executed in 1937.
Max Hoelz: A soldier during the war, Hoelz only became politicised afterwards when he was elected to a soldiers' council. He joined the USPD and then KPD upon its founding. Hoelz became a popular figure among the unemployed and engaged in a guerilla campaign against the bourgeoisie, distributing their wealth to the poor. His lack of discipline resulted in his expulsion from the party in 1920 after which he joined the KAPD. Hoelz was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1921 but an international campaign led to his release in 1928. The next year he moved to the USSR where he died in 1933, possibly victim to a Stalinist purge.
Arnold Vieth von Golssenau/Ludwig Renn: A noble who personally knew the Saxon royal family, Golssenau served as an officer during the war. Afterwards he was leader of an SPD-aligned paramilitary in Dresden, then entered academia in 1920. In 1928 Golssenau joined the KPD as well as its Red Front Fighter League. Meanwhile he published military novels and adopted the name Ludwig Renn. Imprisoned regularly by the Nazis, Renn fled to Spain in 1936 and became commander of an International Brigade during the civil war. He was later president of the Free Germany Movement from 1941-1946 before returning to Germany, joining the SED, and remaining a prominent academic and writer until his death in 1979.

 

[Teutonic_Thrash]

Aftermath of the Bavarian Campaign

While the Bavarian campaign was ongoing People’s Deputy of Defence Heinrich Dorrenbach was occupied with evaluating and formalising the chain of command that was being established in the new socialist military. In Thuringia, 90,000 men were commanded by Heerführer Bernhard Koenen; subordinate to him were Korpsführers Karl Korsch and Otto Kilian. In the Ruhr, 90,000 more were commanded by Heerführer Artur König; his subordinates were Korpsführers Ernst Seidel and Ernst Graul. The port cities of the north (known as the Wasserkante) combined had 50,000 men, led by Korpsführer Karl Jannack; his prominent Divisionskommandeurs were Wilhelm Eildermann, Werner Hirsch, and Ernst Thälmann. In the occupied Rhineland, 45,000 men were led by Korpsführer Walter Stoecker; his subordinates were Divisionskommandeurs Franz Dahlem, Edgar André, and Peter Maslowski. Throughout the rest of Germany there were tens of thousands more joining the Rote Garde or allied militia units. The High Seas Fleet had been surrendered to the Entente as part of the armistice and so was interned, along with skeleton crews, at Scapa Flow in Scotland. What was left of the navy was easily secured by the revolutionaries, many of their crews joining the Rote Garde, and recalcitrant officers were imprisoned. Dorrenbach assigned former naval officer Hans Paasche the responsibility of preparing for a tentative naval re-armament.

The military junta in Paderborn was also busy considering its strength. General Paul von Hindenburg officially had forty-five army corps at his command; on paper, regular corps numbered 44,000 soldiers each, while reserve corps were at either 38,000 or 32,000. In reality though, the Deutsches Heer had been decimated by demobilisation, desertion, and defection. A minority of the soldiers who had been forcibly demobilised joined Freikorps units, which had proven to be more reliable forces due to their rejection of councils or any other democratising measures. Most of the Freikorps had been battling the Polish rebels, but had since scaled back their operations after the beginning of the coup on 15th March. Now that the military had control of the government, the subterfuge in controlling the Freikorps was no longer considered necessary and so the paramilitaries were reintegrated into the Deutsches Heer without further restraint. In all, the junta could call upon approximately 300,000 soldiers though their loyalty varied drastically. The rest of the Deutsches Heer remained on the Eastern Front fighting the Bolsheviks, alongside other Freikorps divisions. The junta’s other problem was the Entente occupation of the Rhineland. The military high command had seized power partly to prevent Friedrich Ebert’s civilian government from conceding anything further to the Entente. Relations between the new government and their former adversaries were therefore unlikely to be positive, though on the other hand Entente aid to the socialists was deemed to be nigh-impossible. The Entente forces themselves were considerable: the 3rd US Army under Major General Joseph Dickman consisted of 250,000 men; General Armand Huyghé’s Belgian forces numbered 20,000; the British Army of the Rhine was approximately 300,000 soldiers; and there were over 220,000 French soldiers (accompanied by the symbolic Siamese Expeditionary Force). With that in mind, the junta decided for the moment to hold off on military operations in the vicinity of the occupation forces.

On the 6th April the Rote Garde declared victory in the Bavarian campaign. Reactions to the shocking event were quick to manifest. The Council of People’s Deputies called for the immediate convention of the Third All-German Congress of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils. In Austria, the Chancellor Karl Renner, much to the surprise of the SDAPÖ’s coalition partners, declared that Austria was about to achieve its historical destiny and unify with Germany. On secret orders from Renner, Volkswehr battalions in Vienna arrested politicians from the Christian Social Party and enacted temporary martial law in the city. Immediately afterwards conservative militias in Tyrol and Vorarlberg retaliated by imprisoning socialists and attacking the small Volkswehr detachments that were present. The Austrian Communists were distrustful of the SDAPÖ because of the repression that they had been subjected to and because of the ultra-leftist nature of the party. As a result, the KPDÖ remained separate and established their own militias; furthermore, the Federation of Revolutionary Socialists agreed to merge with the Communists.[1] Meanwhile at the Paris Peace Conference, the Entente powers finally realised that the deteriorating situation in Germany had spiralled out of control. They were already intervening against the Communists in the Russian Civil War, yet a further intervention in Germany would not only be more costly but would also be seen as a continuation of the war. The fear of socialism was strong, but the potential consequences of intervening so early in the conflict outweighed those fears. Instead it was decided to establish an Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission to more efficiently coordinate the policies of the occupying powers.[2] The French official Paul Tirard was appointed as both France’s high commissioner and chairman of the Commission. Over in Hungary on 21st March, the Entente had presented the government with an ultimatum for an extension of the Romanian occupation zone. In response President Mihály Károlyi dissolved the government and tasked the Social Democratic Party with forming a new cabinet to face the insurmountable challenge. Unknown to the president was the agreement between the Social Democrats and the Communists, led by Béla Kun, to merge and form the Socialist Party of Hungary (Magyarországi Szocialista Párt/MSP); a socialist council republic was declared, a revolutionary government was established, and a repeat of the ultimatum was rejected on 4th April. The Red victory in Bavaria and Austria’s intent to unify with Germany were greeted with celebration by the Revolutionary Governing Council, for more international support was needed to stave off the inevitable Romanian invasion.

The Third All-German Congress of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils was opened in Berlin on the 9th April. Due to the state of civil war and the resultant danger in travelling, there were considerably fewer councils represented from the parts of the country which were under militarist control. However, some councils from Austria had taken the initiative to send their own delegates. As a consequence there were only 504 delegates, 63 of whom were soldiers. The Communists rose to first place with 217 delegates while the SPD plummeted to only 101. The split between the Social Democratic leadership and those in the party who opposed the military coup had severely damaged the credibility of the SPD in the eyes of the working class; thus the KPD and USPD, the latter represented by 96 delegates, benefitted from this leftward shift. The first item on the agenda was of course the revolution itself and the formation of a revolutionary government. A motion in support of the Council of People’s Deputies was passed unanimously, with even the liberal delegates voting in favour. Friedrich Adler, the leader of the Austrian delegation who was (in)famous for assassinating the Austro-Hungarian chancellor in 1916, submitted a motion for official Austrian representation on the Council of People’s Deputies. There was no opposition to the proposal, for many delegates were eager for Austrian military support, but there was some debate on exactly what form the representation would take. In an instance of a lack of imagination, the new position of People’s Deputy for Austrian Integration was created and offered to Adler, who graciously accepted. The next motion sought to confirm the current state of the socialist military, that is to say, to affirm the Hamburg Articles, the current ranking system, and the practice of electing officers. The Austrians proposed an amendment asking that the Volkswehr be treated separately from the Rote Garde for the time being and that the matter be handled by the new People’s Deputy for Austrian Integration. Many on the left were angered that special treatment was being considered, but the rest of the delegates from Germany proper agreed to the request.

Party​	Delegates​	% of Delegates​
Communist Party (KPD)​	217​	43​
Social Democratic Party (SPD)​	101​	20​
Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD)​	96​	19​
International Communists (IKD)​	35​	7​
Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAPÖ)​	24​	5​
Anarchists​	14​	3​
Independents​	12​	2​
Liberals​	5​	1​
	504​

The agenda of the next day’s session focused on foreign policy. The Entente occupation of the Rhineland and the continuing blockade posed the greatest threats to Germany. Karl Liebknecht, in his capacity as People’s Deputy for Foreign Affairs, proposed that military operations in the Rhineland be restricted to defence until the reactionary junta had been defeated and that the Free Socialist Republic would abide by the armistice. For the first time in the congress, there was serious disagreement. The ultra-leftists and some of the soldier delegates accused Liebknecht of capitulation and betrayal of the international revolution. Supporters of Liebknecht’s position fired back with arguments such as pragmatism being the only path to a successful revolution or the, perhaps nationalistic, claim that the international revolution could only succeed from the German Revolution. After a long debate, a vote was held; even though the IKD delegates and some Communists opposed the motion, votes from the SPD, USPD, SDAPÖ, and the rest of the Communists gave the motion a clear majority. With that heated issue put to rest for the moment, the congress moved on to the considerably less divisive topic of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania. Most of the delegates were in agreement that the fellow socialist government of Hungary should be supported against further Romanian encroachment, but the debate focused on the feasibility of an intervention. Civil war had struck Austria after the SDAPÖ’s seizure of power and, while Adler assured the congress of the Volkswehr’s inevitable victory, the smaller Austrian army could not reasonably be split between engagements in Germany and Hungary. Other SDAPÖ delegates instead suggested applying pressure on Czechoslovakia; Adler boasted that the party had the loyalty of the country’s German population and also pointed out that the potentially amenable Czechoslovak Social Democrats participated in the coalition government. Swayed by the SDAPÖ arguments, the congress voted by a majority to apply pressure on the Czechoslovak government, though the exact details would be left to the Council of People’s Deputies to decide.

The final day of the congress concerned the state of the economy. It went without saying that the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat would lead to the socialisation of the means of production, even if the liberal and independent delegates hadn’t yet realised that. Socialisation of course had already been sporadically ongoing since the November Revolution, especially in the workplaces of the more militant workers such as the coal mines of the Ruhr; the military coup in March had only accelerated the process. The problem was that socialisation had occurred in an uneven and haphazard manner, with little coordination from Berlin. People’s Deputy for Industry Emil Barth and his counterpart for Labour Robert Dissmann had been scrambling to keep up with events and to organise a rationalised wartime production. At the congress Barth and Dissmann jointly presented a plan agreed upon by the Council of People’s Deputies: all industry deemed necessary for wartime production was to be nationalised, but managed by workers’ councils; military control over railways; and compulsory coordination between the unions and the government. Even though the plan was proposed by the leader of the USPD, there was substantial opposition from within the party; many SPD and SDAPÖ delegates were also critical of its extent. On the other extreme were the ultra-leftists, the IKD, the anarchists, and some Communists, who argued that the plan didn’t go far enough in its scope. The impasse was brought to an end when veteran socialist Clara Zetkin proposed an elected Oversight Committee of Economic Affairs to scrutinise the work of the Council; the idea appeased both sides and the Council’s amended plan was passed.

The issue of agriculture and food supply was closely linked to industrial strategy. Due to a combination of factors including, but not limited to, the ongoing Entente blockade, wartime prioritisation of the military, and hoarding by farmers and the military, urban and some rural populations were suffering under famine conditions. Just before the military coup the Weimar government had successfully negotiated the import of a shipment of bread and pork, but it was unclear if the Entente would honour their deal after the outbreak of civil war. At the congress, August Thalheimer proposed the KPD’s introductory land reform: large but fragmented estates were to be expropriated without compensation and then reassigned to the tenants; large (coherent) estates were also to be expropriated and transformed into cooperatives; and small- and mid-scale farms were to be left alone, but until the war was over they were compelled to sell their surplus to the government. The liberals present were adamantly opposed to the proposal, while the handful of delegates from farmers’ councils were wary of the requirement to sell their surplus. On the other hand, most workers exhibited varying amounts of hostility towards farmers due to the commonly held belief of rural prosperity compared to the cities. As such, the KPD land reform was easily passed with cross-party support. To bring the congress to an end, Barth motioned for the election of an Executive Committee to represent the congress when it was in recess; it would be composed of one member per twenty-five delegates (and so would have twenty members). The result of the election was approximately proportional to the congress’ composition, to the chagrin of the SPD, and Rosa Luxemburg was elected as Chairwoman without opposition. Thus on the 11th April the Third All-German Congress of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils adjourned and its delegates embarked on their dangerous journeys home.

[1] OTL this merger occurred a month later.
[2] OTL the Commission was established after the Treaty of Versailles and came into being the following year.

Dramatis Personae (OTL biographies)

Hans Paasche: Born to a wealthy middle-class family, Paasche served as a naval officer before the war where his first-hand experience swiftly led to him becoming a strong opponent of colonialism and militarism. Paasche's wartime service and acquaintance with French prisoners-of-war spurred his production of anti-war propaganda, which led to his arrest in 1917 for high treason; the likely intervention of his family saw Paasche imprisoned in a mental hospital instead of being executed. Upon the November Revolution Paasche was liberated by revolutionary sailors and taken to Berlin where he was soon elected to the executive committee of Berlin councils. After attending the funeral of Liebknecht, Paasche returned to his estate where he carried out propaganda work for the KPD. He was murdered in May 1920 by Organisation Consul.
Friedrich Adler: Son of Victor Adler, founder and first chairman of the SDAPÖ, Friedrich was also a prominent member of the party. He became even more (in)famous for assassinating Chancellor Karl von Stürgkh in 1916. Adler used his trial as an opportunity to castigate the party leadership for supporting the war; he was sentenced to death but was pardoned in 1918 by Emperor Karl before his abdication. Adler became a leader of the workers' councils and from that position foiled numerous uprising attempts from the Austrian Communists. In 1921 he helped established the 2 1/2 International and then tried to reconcile the Comintern and the remains of the 2nd International the next year. After failing, Adler established the Labour and Socialist International and led it until 1940. After the Anschluss, Adler's prominence gradually diminished and he died in 1960.

 

[Teutonic_Thrash]

The Merging of Central European Conflicts

The outbreak of civil war in Austria following the Anschluss declaration was complicated by the Italian occupation of Trent, Tyrol, and Istria, and the Slavic occupation of Carinthia and Lower Styria. Many members of the SDAPÖ had hoped that a smaller, more ethnically homogenous Austria would actually increase the likelihood of the Entente allowing German unification in the upcoming peace treaty; the German Revolution had arguably made such calculations theoretical however. Carinthia was protected by 2,500 soldiers of the Volkswehr, compared to 6,500 in Styria. However, the latter detachment were overwhelmingly loyal to the SDAPÖ, while the Carinthian Volkswehr were more heterogeneous in their political loyalties due to the threat posed by the approximately 4,500-strong army of Slovenes. With the beginning of hostilities between the SDAPÖ and the Christian Socials in early April, the Volkswehr in Carinthia descended into civil war; Hans Steinacher commanded the government loyalists against his erstwhile superior Ludwig Hülgerth.[1] On 10th April 2,000 Styrian soldiers were ordered to Carinthia to defeat the CS uprising. Two days later the Slovene soldiers under the command of Rudolf Maister took advantage of the turmoil and broke the ceasefire by advancing into Carinthia, easily taking Klagenfurt and Villach.[2] A simultaneous push towards Graz was defeated by the remaining Volkswehr however, who pursued the Slovenes to the outskirts of Maribor. The order from Army Secretary Julius Deutsch to go no further managed to get through to the Volkswehr in time; the SDAPÖ were still wary of antagonising the Entente too much, especially with French, Italian, and American forces in the region. The situation in Tyrol was substantially different. The 22,000 occupying Italian soldiers remained neutral, allowing the conservative militias to rout the paltry Volkswehr detachments and establish complete control of the region by 9th April. Commanded by the Christian Social jurist Richard Steidle, the conservative Standschützen were reinforced by right-wing refugees from Bavaria.

The Polish rebellion in Posen had settled into a stalemate since the German military coup. The Freikorps had scaled back their operations in anticipation of campaigning against the socialists, while Poland had been reluctant to send forces to assist the 70,000 soldiers of the Greater Poland Army because, during early April, a major offensive was planned against White Ukraine and the Bolsheviks. Lieutenant General Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki, commander of the Polish rebels, ordered a southern offensive on 5th April to link up with Ostrów; the Poles were victorious against the Freikorps divisions who were eager to fight the socialists instead. Encouraged by his success, Dowbor-Muśnicki planned more offensives for the south with the hope of reaching Breslau. From the 8th to the 12th April, Polish forces gradually spread south to Breslau which was defended by two Rote Garde divisions (approximately 24,000 men) commanded by Robert Siewert and Erich Hausen. The Reds and the Polish rebels had yet to come into conflict and neither side was entirely sure how to proceed. The enduring slogan of anti-war socialists throughout the Great War had been “no annexations, no concessions”, but the expansion of the civil war to include Poland was a scenario which neither Siewert nor Hausen were willing to take responsibility for. Dowbor-Muśnicki broke the impasse however; the prize of Breslau and its potential in spreading the Polish insurrection throughout Silesia was too valuable to ignore. The slightly larger Polish forces began their assault on Breslau on the 14th. The defending Reds held on until the 19th when two more Rote Garde divisions arrived from Saxony and Brandenburg, leading to Dowbor-Muśnicki ordering a retreat. The reinforcements were accompanied by Julian Marchlewski, member of both the KPD and the RKPb, who had been sent by Karl Liebknecht to negotiate a ceasefire with Poland.

After the Third All-German Congress of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils, the SDAPÖ leadership ordered its branches in Czechoslovakia to organise a general strike demanding national self-determination for Germans, as well as Slovaks, Ukrainians, and Hungarians. The German workers did not need much persuasion; a similar demonstration had previously occurred on 4th March where 54 protestors were killed. The strike took place on 13th April and this time Prime Minister Karel Kramář was successful in dispatching Czech police units without President Tomáš Masaryk’s permission. Once again dozens of demonstrators were killed and damage inflicted on government and private property. It was to be Kramář’s last provocation; Masaryk, ever the pragmatist, had not been blind to Czechoslovakia’s growing encirclement by revolutionary socialist states and was resolved to protect Czechoslovak independence at all costs. To this end, Masaryk and Foreign Minister Edvard Beneš forced Kramář to resign and appointed Social Democrat Vlastimil Tusar in his place to form a more left-leaning government.[3] This new government featured no ministers from Kramář’s conservative Czechoslovak National Democracy (Československá Národní Demokracie/ČsND). After the violence surrounding the strike had dissipated Masaryk released public statements reiterating his promises that all national minorities would be treated equally in Czechoslovakia. In a more discreet manner Masaryk had Beneš begin the process of reaching out to Josef Seliger, the unofficial leader of the SDAPÖ in Czechoslovakia, with the hope of coming to an understanding with the German population. Furthermore, Seliger was an opponent of the communist-sympathising revolutionaries of the party led by Karl Kreibich. Masaryk and Beneš hoped that an alliance with Seliger would lessen the threat from the German revolutionaries, just as the alliance with the moderate ČSDSD members was supposed to neutralise their revolutionary colleagues.

In Hungary, the Romanian offensive was planned to continue on 16th April. Before then, the Revolutionary Governing Council had engaged in a build-up of its military since assuming power on 21st March, reaching 80,000 men; most of the new recruits being conscripted farmers or urban proletarian volunteers. The army was lacking in effectiveness however. The day before the Romanian offensive, the Hungarians carried out their own pre-emptive attack but they were repulsed and the Romanian offensive went ahead as planned. On the 20th April the Romanian army had reached the line of demarcation detailed in the Entente’s ultimatum to Hungary, yet the Romanian offensive continued on. By the beginning of May the Romanian offensive had taken them to the east bank of the Tisza, where they halted due to a combination of diplomatic pressure from both the Entente and the Bolsheviks.[4] Due to the catastrophic military setbacks the socialist republic’s National Assembly of Federal Councils, for which there were elections on the 7th and 8th April, was unable to convene for the foreseeable future. The situation was dire for Hungary but Béla Kun, People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs and unofficial leader of the government, knew that the Hungarian Revolution could only succeed with outside aid and so redoubled his efforts in stalling the Entente while simultaneously appealing to the Ukrainian Red Army and the Austrian Volkswehr for an intervention.

Béla Kun addressing the masses​

[1] Hülgerth in OTL would later become head of fascist Austria’s sole paramilitary and soon afterwards Kurt Schuschnigg’s vice-chancellor. Steinacher would become a Nazi supporter; ITTL his pan-German nationalism takes precedence over his anti-socialism, for now.
[2] OTL the Slovene offensive began on 29th April and they failed to conquer those two cities.
[3] OTL Kramář resigned in July after the left-wing parties did very well in the municipal elections.
[4] Unlike OTL, there is no further Czech encroachment south into Slovakia due to Czechoslovakia’s more precarious geopolitical situation.

Dramatis Personae (OTL biographies)

Karl Kreibich: A Sudeten German, Kreibich joined the SDAPÖ in 1902 and quickly became a prominent leader of its left-wing in Bohemia. He opposed the war but was conscripted for military service. Afterwards Kreibich was vocal in his support for the creation of a Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, for which he and his colleagues were expelled from the Social Democratic Party in early 1921. The expelled members immediately formed a German Section of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and called upon the Czechoslovak leftists to join them; the latter did by the end of the year with pressure from the Comintern. During the mediation between the two groups, the Comintern officially reprimanded Kreibich for "leftist deviations". He remained at the forefront of the party and the Comintern until after WW2 when his criticism of the purging of party leader Rudolf Slansky resulted in Kreibich's demotion. He died in 1966.

 

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Here is a wikibox for an idea/plan I have for the RSFSR:

The general idea is that the NEP is introduced like OTL and is more successful because of the considerably larger socialist world. Sokolnikov, the man most responsible for overseeing the NEP, uses that popularity to get elected as the Chairman of Sovnarkom (the head of government).

 

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The War for Northern Germany

After the Red victory in Bavaria the focus of the German Civil War shifted to northern Germany. In socio-economic terms this part of Germany was heterogeneous. The central region of the massive state of Prussia was a microcosm of Germany: populous industrialised cities surrounded by large tracts of farmland. The states of Oldenburg, Lippe, Schaumburg-Lippe, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and Mecklenburg-Strelitz were relatively similar, while Brunswick and Anhalt were considerably more urban. At the extreme end of the spectrum were the city-states of Bremen, Hamburg, Lübeck, and the port cities of the other states. It was in northern Germany at the town of Paderborn where the military junta established their government. Joining the DNVP in Chancellor Gustav Noske’s Emergency Advisory Council was the DVP. Zentrum was also invited to participate but the party leadership were conflicted; wary of the junta’s overt Protestant Prussian monarchism was a faction led by Adolf Gröber, Constantin Fehrenbach, and Matthias Erzberger. By contrast, figures like Wilhelm Mayer and Heinrich Brauns forcefully argued for the party’s entry into the new government and the support from Archbishop Michael von Faulhaber of Munich, who had seen first-hand the danger of socialism in Bavaria, was vital for this faction’s growing influence. Meanwhile in the occupied Rhineland, the Zentrum membership rallied under the leadership of Konrad Adenauer and Karl Trimborn in their efforts to ingratiate themselves with the Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission. On 10th April, Mayer, Brauns, and their allies joined the Emergency Advisory Council, completing the rupture of Zentrum.

Paderborn itself was militarily vulnerable, caught as it was between the socialist strongholds of Brunswick to the east and the Ruhr to the west. Fortunately for the junta though, soldiers and reintegrated Freikorps had been streaming into the town’s purpose-built military camp to prepare for the next offensive. Generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff agreed on a campaign to swiftly retake Bremen and the rest of the northwest coast so as to provide a point for which reinforcing Freikorps from the Baltic could return to; they assumed that the Entente blockade would grant passage to soldiers who were planning to fight Bolshevism. The Reds to the west on the other hand considered the conquest of Paderborn and the religious conservative pocket to be their primary concern. On 18th April, elements of the 3rd, 8th, and 11th Imperial Army Corps, altogether comprising 68,000 soldiers commanded by General Walther von Lüttwitz, began their northward offensive against the city of Bielefeld. Heerführer Artur König of the Rote Garde had been preparing his own offensive for a few days later, but brought the date forward due to the White campaign; his own objectives were Paderborn itself and Münster. The next day Rote Garde divisions from Dortmund and Essen, comprising 62,000 men, began their push to the north and the east; an additional 26,000 revolutionaries from the Rhineland who were to take part in the original planned offensive were on their way.

In Paris the expanding socialist revolution had quickly become the dominant topic of debate for the leaders of the Entente. The declared unification between socialist Germany and Austria worked to the advantage of the prime ministers of France and Italy, Georges Clemenceau and Vittorio Orlando. The latter’s demand for more Austrian Adriatic territory, especially the port city of Fiume, was looked upon more sympathetically, though with the exception of American President Woodrow Wilson. Clemenceau’s desire to dismember Germany was, if not favoured, by Wilson and British Prime Minister David Lloyd-George at least considered to be a likely outcome of the current conflict in the country. The four leaders and their foreign ministers at least agreed that the occupation of the Rhineland had to be consolidated further and insulated from the war in the rest of Germany. High Commissioner Paul Tirard was given permission to enact all necessary measures to protect Entente interests in the Rhineland. The day of the militarist offensive (18th April) the High Commission put into practice the already official demilitarisation of the occupation zone: all Germans were required to hand over their weaponry and cease organising into any form of military unit. On the 20th an attempt by British forces in Cologne to confiscate the weapons of the local Rote Garde resulted in an exchange of gunfire and continued into a battle which lasted the rest of the day. Across the occupation zone similar incidents between the Entente, Rote Garde, and Freikorps escalated into battles which engulfed the major cities of the Rhineland. The Entente occupiers emerged victorious by the 24th, those Germans who escaped death or arrest retreating either northwest into the Ruhr (the Reds) or southeast into Baden (the Whites).

Meanwhile, the Whites had taken Bielefeld on the 22nd April, but had to redirect most of their forces southeast to repel the Red offensive and so could not continue on towards Bremen. The Rote Garde were reinforced by the 26,000 men from the Rhineland on the 24th, and subsequently by further irregular arrivals following the Entente’s crackdown. Hamm and Lippstadt were taken by the revolutionaries on the 27th, while the siege of Münster commenced. With the Reds dangerously close to the temporary capital of Paderborn, the military junta seriously considered relocating yet again. To facilitate this move limited conscription was introduced, targeting the rural population around Paderborn, while soldiers were redirected from the frontline to the south to secure a path to Frankfurt am Main. Upon arrival, soldiers from the Deutsches Heer joined with right-wing militias in the city and succeeded in suppressing the local socialist resistance. On the 29th April, the military junta and Noske’s cabinet arrived in Frankfurt just as Münster and Paderborn were conquered by the Reds. Throughout the preceding campaign Rote Garde units in the eastern part of the Prussian province of Hanover were busy fighting with militias supportive of the German-Hanoverian Party. Even though the latter party were anti-Prussian and so opposed to the military junta, they were also fiercely hostile to the socialists.

Meanwhile in the Wasserkante, Rote Garde forces under Korpsführer Karl Jannack had succeeded in occupying the territories between the coastal cities, from Wilhelmshaven in the west to Lübeck in the east. From there Jannack planned to head north and take Kiel, thus controlling the canal. The city was already controlled by local socialists, and had been since the revolution’s foundational mutiny, but the rest of Holstein had so far remained relatively docile. On 17th April, Jannack dispatched 16,000 soldiers to Brunsbüttel at the canal’s western end, and another 8,000 to Kiel itself. The two Red detachments faced negligible resistance as they marched north; rural conservative militias were their only foes. Red control of Holstein was established by the 21st prompting Jannack to press his luck and plan a further campaign for Schleswig. The offensive began on the 24th and once again faced little resistance. As Rote Garde forces moved into Northern Schleswig though, they began to face more armed resistance from demobilised soldiers from the Danish minority.

At the end of the Great War the North Schleswig Voters’ Association and the Danish government had adopted a joint resolution calling for a referendum on the political status of Northern Schleswig and parts of Southern Schleswig; the Aabenraa resolution was forwarded to the Paris Peace Conference and was successfully included in the planned treaty. Thus, the encroachment of Red German forces in the region greatly alarmed both the local Danes and the Danish government. The Social Liberal government of Carl Theodor Zahle, supported by the Social Democrats, had maintained a precarious balance of neutrality between its major trading partners Britain and Germany and so was averse to reacting rashly to the socialist advance. Denmark’s right were less circumspect however; alongside their demands for further territorial concessions from Germany, there was a great deal of concern for the sacrifice of the Schleswiger Danes who had fought and died during the war. The news that they were under attack by Germans, and socialists no less, enflamed their emotions. The stance of the right-wing parties was bolstered by King Christian X’s desire for intervention, which also had the support from prominent members of the business community. On 30th April, the king summoned Zahle and demanded that he immediately prepare for a military intervention into Schleswig. The prime minister refused, arguing that Denmark had already reached an agreement with the Entente and that to violate it could jeopardise the country’s national security and diplomatic reputation. Zahle was dismissed, despite his government holding a majority in the Folketing, and the king appointed civil servant Michael Peterson Friis to establish a nonpartisan government.[1] The Danish army, which had been through various phases of mobilisation since 1914, was mobilised again and 34,000 soldiers were sent to the southern border.

In the meantime, the Social Liberals and Social Democrats organised their opposition to the king. The Social Democrats and the trade union centre, De Samvirkende Fagforbund, agreed on a general strike to force the king to back down. The Social Liberals however were opposed to the strike due to reasonable fears of a socialist revolution erupting. On the other hand the revolutionary Socialist Workers’ Party, which had split from the Social Democrats the previous year over their support for the government, was sceptical of the strike’s limited aims; instead they argued that at minimum the abdication of the monarchy should be among the strike’s demands. Even though this proposal won some support among the Social Democrat membership, Thorvald Stauning and the party’s other reformist leaders were opposed and so the Socialist Workers’ Party boycotted the strike. For similar reasons the syndicalist trade union, Fagoppositionens Sammenslutning, prepared their own strike with explicitly revolutionary aims. Stauning, as mayor of Copenhagen, presented the strike’s demands to the king on 2nd May: restoration of the Zahle government; and retention of the agreement with the Entente to hold referendums in the affected areas of Schleswig. The king and Friis’ cabinet ignored the ultimatum and continued with their mobilisation. The general strike began the next day and was focused on Copenhagen and the rest of Sjaelland. It was among the largest strikes in Danish history but the new government ignored them and ordered the military to march south on the 4th May.

The Rote Garde units in Schleswig were taken completely by surprise by the Danish invasion. While soldiers marched south toward Haderslev, others launched a naval assault on the city of Sønderborg. Spread thin and with little popular support in the region, the Rote Garde were steadily pushed back to the city of Flensburg where clashes between German and Danish militias had broken out. The Red soldiers expended their effort suppressing the infighting in the city, all to the advantage of the Danish army when they arrived on 8th May. The Rote Garde retreated further south to form a defensive line stretching west from the town of Schleswig itself; they were reinforced by more revolutionaries from Kiel. The Danish army halted their advance before they reached the Red lines however. German resistance in Southern Schleswig was beginning to interfere with Danish operations while the general strikes in Sjaelland were growing more contentious, with even the Social Liberals considering endorsing them. With the situation in danger of spiralling out of control, King Christian asked Prime Minister Friis to prepare for an imminent election. The Social Liberals and Social Democrats assumed they had achieved victory and were able to call off most of the strikes. The two opposing armies remained in their respective positions while awaiting news of the election of 19th May. Disappointment would be an understatement for the reactions of the Social Liberals and Social Democrats; the successful liberation of Schleswig had unleashed a wave of nationalism among the electorate. The Social Liberals plummeted from 32 seats (of the Folketing’s 140) to 15 while the Social Democrats lost 2 of their 39 seats to the newly-founded Free Social Democrats led by Emil Marott. The Liberals and Conservatives, both of whom had whole-heartedly supported the intervention, surged to a combined 81 seats.[2]

[1] This is basically the Easter Crisis of OTL but brought forward a year.
[2] The OTL election of April 1920 saw the Social Liberals drop to 17 seats, while the Social Democrats actually gained 3. Of course IOTL the election occurred after the referendums and without a military intervention.

Dramatis Personae (OTL biographies)

Karl Jannack: A native of Saxony who joined the army before the war, Jannack was also a member of Bremen's ultra-left and would eventually act as a representative from the IKD during their merger with Spartacists to establish the KPD at the end of 1918. As a prominent member of the ultra-left Jannack was expelled during the party's factional strife, but was expelled prior to major expulsion in 1920. Perhaps because of this, he rejoined the KPD rather than the new KAPD. Jannack was a member of the party leadership from 1920 to 1923, where he shifted to the right and became a supporter of Heinrich Brandler. Until 1933 Jannack worked for numerous KPD and Comintern organs, before leaving for France where he was arrested in 1940 and deported to Germany. He spent the rest of the war in a concentration camp, despite offering to work for the Nazis, and afterwards joined the DDR government. He died in 1968.

 

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​

I didn't bother with the popular vote and percentage because Denmark would still have been using this awkward electoral law for this election:

The Folketing was elected by a mixture of proportional representation in Copenhagen and first-past-the-post voting in single-member constituencies in the rest of the country. Outside of Copenhagen there were 20 regional levelling seats in addition to three national levelling seats, which were intended make the results more proportional.​

 

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Retreat and Recriminations in the German Civil War

The military junta’s defeat in northern Germany was, on the surface, disastrous for the White war effort. After the fall of Paderborn on 29th April, effective control of many Deutsches Heer divisions along with the Freikorps and other reactionary militias had been lost, even though they continued to fight the revolutionaries in disparate battles. However, attitudes toward the war among the various non-socialist groups were hardened. Those members of Zentrum who had remained aloof of the factional strife in their party were aghast at the conquest of the prominent cathedral cities of Münster and Osnabrück by the godless socialists, and so threw their full support behind the military junta. Across the southwest of the country, small regional parties which represented middle class interests raised funds and militia units to aid their newly-arrived saviours. All was not well within the ‘official’ government of Germany in Frankfurt however. Friedrich Ebert had always known that the position of president of the military government was a poisoned chalice but the opportunity to retain some civilian influence was too important to ignore. The chance had passed however, leading Ebert to plot with fellow SPD politicians Philipp Scheidemann and Gustav Bauer to appeal for aid from the Entente. Through covert diplomacy Ebert made it known that an SPD-led civilian government would accept whatever treaty was imposed on Germany. Chancellor Gustav Noske was deliberately left out of this plot as the rest of the SPD leadership considered him to be far too close to the military junta.

In northern Germany the Rote Garde were engaged in a furious campaign to root out the remaining White forces. Paradoxically the lack of central command over the Whites resulted in the dissipation of easily recognisable frontlines and so each town or garrison had to be taken individually. Thus the war in the north devolved into brutal urban warfare, which sapped the mercy of soldiers of all sides. In the conservative religious pocket of the northwest, Red occupation of cathedral cities unleashed increasing waves of anticlerical violence. On the other hand, when towns held by the Whites were on the verge of falling to the Reds, reactionary militias targeted known trade unionists, socialists, or any proletarians who had been too vocal in their criticism of the ‘official’ government. Paderborn, as the junta’s former headquarters, was affected the most by the ideologically-driven violence. In many cases Rote Garde soldiers ignored or even aided their fellow workers in exacting revenge against the bourgeoisie, but when Heerführer Artur König was made aware of the situation he ordered an immediate end to the violence in liberated areas. With no formal disciplinary procedures instituted in the Rote Garde though, the fulfilment of König’s order was dependant on individual commanders and their popularity. Nevertheless König’s own popularity was sufficient enough to see a marked reduction in the incidence of unsanctioned violence throughout the region. By the 14th May the Reds had established control over most of the urban areas of northern Germany; Freikorps units had retreated into the countryside however to wage guerrilla campaigns, while non-cooperation and sabotage was common in some smaller towns.

Meanwhile in Posen, Julian Marchlewski had begun negotiations with Lieutenant General Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki, commander of the Polish forces, on 19th April. Both sides were aware that the longevity of a ceasefire was reliant on the success of the Bolsheviks in their war against Poland. Thus the task for Marchlewski was to ensure the ceasefire lasted for as long as possible; Dowbor-Muśnicki endeavoured to achieve the opposite. To draw out the negotiations, Marchlewski demanded that the Polish forces lift the ban on the KPD and the Communist Workers’ Party of Poland (Komunistyczna Partia Robotnicza Polski/KPRP). The latter had been formed in late 1918 as a merger of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania and the left-wing of the Polish Socialist Party (Polska Partia Socjalistyczna/PPS), but since then numerous agrarians, and Jewish, Belarusian, and Ukrainian socialists had joined the party. The KPRP was strongly influenced by Rosa Luxemburg’s opposition to the bourgeois right to national self-determination and so argued for Poland’s inclusion into a socialist Russia. As such they were considered to be an enemy by the Polish government; Dowbor-Muśnicki stuck to this stance. On the other hand, the Polish general stated noncommittally that the KPD would not be considered enemies if a ceasefire was agreed, the implication being that they already were considered to be enemies. Marchlewski decided not to push, confident that the revolution would arrive soon in Poland anyway. As to the ceasefire itself Marchlewski and the other socialists proposed an expiration date of three months after signing, with automatic renewals provided that no hostilities occurred. The Poles refused: at minimum, any renewal would need to be re-negotiated while two months was their preferred length. Personally Dowbor-Muśnicki wanted to involve the Entente in overseeing negotiations for the ceasefire’s renewals, but he was warned by his advisors that demanding such would drive the socialists from the negotiations. On 24th April the armistice was signed with the following terms: the ceasefire would expire on 24th July; both sides would have to opt to negotiate for a renewal; and military action by either side against the Freikorps was unrestricted. With the signing of the armistice, the Reds and the Polish rebels were able to pursue military action against the Freikorps. The forces of the Rote Garde at the time were focused much further west however, granting the Poles an advantage. A notable gain for the Reds was the capture of Chodzież/Kolmar in Posen, which had temporarily been held by the rebels earlier in the year. The Freikorps units retreated in uncoordinated fashion northward to conservative strongholds in West Prussia.

The civil war in Austria was progressing slowly but favourably for the SDAPÖ. Vienna, Lower Austria, and Salzburg were firmly under the control of the Volkswehr, while Upper Austria remained contested with the conservative militias until 24th April. Theodor Körner, commander-in-chief of the Volkswehr, aimed to consolidate governmental control of Carinthia and Styria before turning the Volkswehr’s attention to Tyrol, which he reasonably assumed to be a harder target. From across northern Austria 4,000 Red soldiers were gathered and ordered to Carinthia to suppress the significant opposition from the militias allied with the Christian Socials and the agrarian parties. The local Volkswehr commander Hans Steinacher, with the aid of northern and Styrian reinforcements, was able to restore order to the state by the 28th April; Arthur Lemisch was retained as the governor of Carinthia, despite his agrarian affiliations, because of his pan-German sentiment. Subsequently, the Volkswehr’s further orders were to hold the line against Slavic forces until a new ceasefire could be negotiated. The previous ceasefire had been negotiated under the auspices of the Entente mission in Vienna led by American diplomat Archibald Cary Coolidge. It was to them that Chancellor Karl Renner and Foreign Minister Otto Bauer turned to secure a new ceasefire with the Slavs.[1] The Austrians argued that they were defending German-Austria’s right to national self-determination in the region against Slavic aggression, and that a plebiscite would be a preferred solution. The mission’s man on the ground in Carinthia, American Lieutenant Colonel Sherman Miles, concurred with the choice of a plebiscite and the Americans were able to convince their British and French colleagues. The government of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes were convinced to abide by the new ceasefire, which entered into effect on 3rd May.

Austria’s transitional unification with Germany had resulted in the beginnings of a crisis within the Czechoslovak branches of the SDAPÖ. Like the rest of his party, Josef Seliger advocated the union of the German-majority regions of Czechoslovakia with Austria and thus with Germany. However, Seliger and other moderates such as Ludwig Czech were more suspicious of the Berlin government when compared to the party’s leadership in Vienna. Seliger and his allies had seen first-hand the rapidly increasing popularity of the communist faction in the Sudetenland, in contrast with the Communists in Austria proper where they posed little threat to the SDAPÖ’s dominance. The result was that the moderate leadership grew more receptive to the overtures of the Czechoslovak government and their old colleagues among the Czechoslovak Social Democrats. Such a shift could not be publicly acknowledged however, for fear of giving the impression that pan-Germanism had been abandoned by the party. Edvard Beneš, through the agency of the ČSDSD, invited Seliger to join the government. The German Social Democrat agreed and was appointed Minister for the Unification of Laws on 25th April; the SDAPÖ released a press statement claiming that the appointment was only a temporary measure up until the time Germans’ right to national self-determination was exercised. Coinciding with Seliger’s appointment was a police raid of the publishing house for Vorwärts, the paper of the Czechoslovak SDAPÖ’s communist faction. Even though those arrested were soon released, the disruption at such a pivotal moment for the party’s factional struggle served its purpose and the reformist leadership’s narrative was left unchallenged.

The successful Romanian offensive through Transylvania threatened the existence of socialist Hungary; Romanian forces had reached the bank of the Tisza river and had only halted with great reluctance. The Revolutionary Governing Council was divided on the question of whether to continue resistance against the Romanians, and so took the issue to the workers’ representatives themselves. On 2nd May, Béla Kun spoke to the standing committee of the Budapest Central Revolutionary Workers’ and Military Council, while People’s Commissar for Home Affairs Jenő Landler went to the steelworkers’ union. Both organisations responded with a resounding affirmation of the dictatorship of the proletariat and charged the government with continuing its stand against the Entente and reactionaries alike. Less than a week later the Ukrainian Bolshevik army began operations against Romanian-occupied Bessarabia, greatly raising the spirits of the Hungarian revolutionaries. Almost immediately however, Soviet commander Nikifor Grigoriev and his division mutinied and turned on the Bolsheviks just as White forces were experiencing a resurgence in the Ukraine; Soviet deliverance of Hungary was thus derailed for the foreseeable future. With the Romanians entrenched and secure, the Revolutionary Governing Council decided that Slovakia was a more suitable target for the much-needed military victory. Slovakia was only loosely under the control of the Prague government and perhaps wasn’t entirely supportive of what some considered to be an overly-Czech government, not to mention the region’s traditional ties to Hungary.[2] The Hungarian Red Army’s offensive began on 11th May, and rapidly took Nové Zámky, Levice, Košice/Kassa, Prešov, and Uzhhorod.[3] The multi-ethnic city of Pressburg/Pozsony [Bratislava] was a tempting objective for the military, but it was occupied by French troops and the Revolutionary Governing Council aimed to avoid antagonising the Entente further than necessary. The Entente’s response came in the form of a letter from Georges Clemenceau himself and demanded Hungary’s evacuation of the occupied territory, though in less a forthright tone than previous communications. Kun responded with a deliberately confused reply and prepared for the declaration of a Slovak socialist republic, which was to be included in a future federal Hungary.[4]

Béla Kun speaking to the crowds of Kassa​

[1] Renner and Bauer provisionally remain in place despite the unification with Germany.
[2] As stated in a previous chapter, the Czechoslovak army did not extend its occupation zone further south and east ITTL at the end of April.
[3] The OTL offensive began 20th May.
[4] A second ultimatum from Clemenceau on 15th June OTL was reluctantly accepted and the subsequent withdrawal from Slovakia was (from my reading at least) the reason for the collapse of morale in the army, rather than the declaration of socialist Slovakia.