The Final Battle: Soldiers of the Western Front and the German Revolution of 1918

German Veterans Participating in Berlin Demonstration,
Late 1918

The Final Battle: Soldiers of the Western Front and the German Revolution of 1918

By Scott Stephenson

Cambridge 2010

In many ways the German soldiers who marched back from the Western Front at the end of World War I held the key to the future of the newly created republic that replaced the Kaiser's collapsed monarchy. To the radical Left, the orderly columns of front line troops appeared to be the forces of the counterrevolution while to the conservative elements of society they seemed to be the Fatherland's salvation. However in their efforts to get home as soon as possible, most soldiers were indifferent to the political struggles within the Reich, while the remnant that remained under arms proved powerless to defend the republic from its enemies. 

Author Scott Stephenson is associate professor of military history at the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College. This work won the 2010 Western Front Association Tomlinson Book for the best work of history in English on World War One. This well-crafted and thoroughly researched monograph is the first in many years to explore the return home of the defeated Imperial Army. It concerns chiefly the  choices made by frontline veterans impacting the German revolution from October to December 1918. While the upheavals of October and November 1918 had little effect—thanks to superior leadership from experienced  junior officers—on the discipline of approximately 1.5 million German frontline  troops in the West, support troops behind the lines, garrisons at home, and  battleship sailors were in full revolt providing the revolution with most of its energy. 

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As they marched home under command and fully armed, arriving frontline soldiers  played an important but now forgotten role in determining the course of the revolution and in the survival of the badly splintered Ebert government. In the  early stages of revolution beginning in November 1918, frontline veterans ensured the fall of the Kaiser, preserved the political influence of the officer caste, and created the basis for the "stab in the back" myth. By demobilizing themselves soon after arrival across the Rhine, they deprived the Ebert government of any support from the old army and paved the way for creation of the Freikorps made up of both veterans and underage youth, which fought in the ensuing civil upheaval and ultimately helped undermine the fledgling Weimar Republic.

Source: Adapted from a review by Leonard Shurtleff in Relevance, Fall 2011