With only a couple of exceptions since the Battle of Jutland in the summer of 1916, the German High Seas Fleet had sat mostly at anchor at the Schillig roadstead off of the main German naval base in Wilhelmshaven.  Days of inactivity had turned to weeks, which turned into months, which transformed the expensive, mighty battleships of the Kaiserliche Marine into rusting hulks crewed by aggravated, bored sailors.  The attitude around Wilhelmshaven had only become worse in recent days as the U-boat fleet had been ordered to return to port as the new government of Max von Baden ended Germany’s unrestricted U-boat campaign as an American-requested prerequisite to armistice negotiations. 

But there was an air of excitement at Wilhelmshaven on October 24th, 1918.  Orders had come down from the Chief of the German Admiralty, Reinhard Scheer – the High Sea Fleet would prepare to launch it’s entire armada out into the North Sea.  18 Dreadnoughts, 5 battlecruisers, 14 light cruisers, 60 destroyers and torpedo boats and nearly 30 submarines would sail for the Thames Estuary to engage a numerically superior British Navy in the thick of their home waters.  The likely endgame was clear to German officers.  The Chief of Staff to the High Sea Fleet’s admiral wrote in his diary that the coming offensive was “a battle for the honour of the fleet in this war, even if it were a death battle,” yet was necessary as “it would be the foundation for a new German fleet.”  

Acting clearly against the wishes of the civilian German government, and even the Kaiser, the Kaiserliche Marine had put into the motion the first pieces of what on paper would be the largest naval battle in human history – twice the size of the forces at Jutland if all ships became engaged.  It would end with their nation in defeat and engulfed in revolution.

German sailors – and a variety of civilian supporters – march in the major naval base in Kiel.  The “Kiel Mutiny” would become the first acts in the German Revolution that ended World War I

The condition of the German Navy had seemingly been both a source of concern and a blind eye for the Oberste Heeresleitung or German High Command.  

The sailors of the High Seas Fleet returning from Jutland on June 1st, 1916 were exuberant, having won a tactical victory and believing the congratulations sent to them by their Kaiser that they had “started a new chapter in world history” by defeating the vaunted British Royal Navy.  But the cost of Jutland – 11 ships – had precluded another significant campaign in the minds of the German command, and the High Seas Fleet had only left Wilhelmshaven three times since June of 1916, and only once since the fall of that same year.  Scheer, the commander of the High Seas Fleet until August of 1918, had in part led that charge, arguing that unrestricted submarine attacks were the only hope Germany had for winning the war on the seas.  As a result, outside of the U-boats, the Kaiserliche Marine had nothing to do but wait. 

They would not wait patiently.  On August 2nd, 1917, 350 sailors of the dreadnought Prinzregent Luitpold staged a protest in Wilhelmshaven against the continuation of the war – an act that later would be defined as a “mutiny” despite no violence and the majority of the sailors willing returning to the ship without issue.  Still, the attitudes of the protesting men were apparent.  “I die with a curse on the German-militarist state,” wrote one of the sailors who had been arrested and sentence to death.  Or as one sailor put it later, “nobody wanted a revolution, we just wanted to be treated more like human beings.”  The incident and it’s implications disappeared within the ranks of the German Navy as quickly as it had appeared.

“The world belongs to the brave” – rough translation of postcard celebrating the Kiel Mutiny

By the summer of 1918, as the German army was beginning to be pushed out of their gains from the Spring Offensive, Reinhard Scheer had been appointed the new Chief of the German Admiralty.  Meeting with Hindenburg and Ludendorff, all three men agreed that the U-boat campaign, now suffering losses of 5-10 boats per month, was the only branch of the Navy that could impact the overall war effort and pledged to redouble their commitment to the campaign.  Scheer proposed an aggressive building effort of at least 30 new U-boats a month, with an end goal of 450 U-boats by the end of 1919.  It was beyond unrealistic.  German industry couldn’t keep up with the production needs of the war effort as it was, let alone accommodate new ships.  And since the Allies had embraced the convoy system of ship protection, they had gone from losing 16 ships a day to only 257 total for the last couple of years of the war (losses were much higher for ships still not participating in convoys).  

Chancellor Max von Baden’s move to end unrestricted submarine warfare was the nail in the coffin for Scheer’s vision of the German Navy.  The Americans had replied to Baden’s request for negotiations based on Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points with a list of preconditions, including Kaiser Wilhelm II’s abdication and the end of the German submarine campaign.  The Kaiser wasn’t going anywhere, yet, but Baden hoped he could convince the Allies that he didn’t represent the Prussian militarism that Wilson and others blamed for the war.  If the U-boats returned to port, perhaps the Allies would be willing to start armistice talks.  Certainly Wilson and the U.S. position had been heavily influenced by U-boat attacks, ranging from the Lusitania to the July 21st, 1918 shelling of the small New England town of Orleans by U-156 – the only attack on U.S. soil during World War I.  On October 21st, 1918, Baden convinced the Kaiser to end the U-boat campaign, having successfully defeated the objections of Ludendorff and others in the process.   

To Scheer and others in the Kaiserliche Marine command, it was clear that anti-war political forces were increasingly in control of Berlin.  Either the Navy had to act now or it would be on the sidelines for the war’s final days.  Scheer envisioned a grand final naval battle – one that would almost certainly destroy the High Seas Fleet, but that could equally devastate the Royal Navy.  If the war continued, perhaps the battle would leave the Allies under-equipped to meet a future U-boat threat and force them to an armistice; if the war was truly lost, then at least the Navy would have gone down swinging.  The High Seas Fleet would divide into two sections – one attacking the Flanders coast in the channel, the other in the Thames.  The British would be forced to repeal the Thames incursion and as the German ships retreated, they would meet up with the Dreadnoughts at Flanders.  Together, the combined total fleet would make a suicidal last stand.   

Kiel marchers in the street

Scheer’s orders, given one day after the announcement of the end of the U-boat campaign, flew in the face of the wishes of the Kaiser or Baden.  Not for the first time, a German official was essentially engaging in treason to ensure a war.  Scheer’s sailors would not oblige his design for their grandiose sacrifice.

As the High Seas Fleet began to organize for their mission at Wilhelmshaven, a number of vessels secretly formed their own versions of the Russian workers councils (soviets) and an increasing number of the participants voted to stop following orders.  By October 29th, 300 sailors were refusing orders to continue their preparations, most of them from the Third Navy Squadron, and two battleships from the First Navy Squadron outright mutinied, taking control of their ships.  Only once torpedo boats had aimed their guns at the rebelling ships did the sailors surrender.  Like in 1917, no violence had occurred and the authorities had completed retaken control of the situation.  But the Kaiserliche Marine no longer had the confidence that it’s sailors would obey orders.  Scheer postponed the operation and ordered the mutiny’s arrested ringleaders and vessels to Kiel.  At Kiel, the imprisoned sailors would be transferred to Arrestanstalt, the military prison in the port city, and then the Navy would try again to set sail for their final battle with the British.

Instead, the events of Wilhelmshaven would repeat themselves.  250 sailors would meet in the Kiel Union House, agreeing to refuse orders until their arrested comrades were released.  The rebelling sailors’ list of demands was not even accepted by their officers and the Kiel police shut down the Union House to attempt to prevent the group from meeting again.  48 hours later, 3,000 sailors, joined by union representatives within Kiel, began marching under banners demanding “Frieden und Brot” (peace and bread).  Soldiers from the local barracks attempted to stop the marchers from reaching Arrestanstalt, firing into the crowd, killing 7 and wounding 29 others.  The shooting galvanized the protests.  Those sailors, union members or Kiel dock workers who had remained ambivalent about the protests now openly joined the ranks of the rebellious.  Local soldiers, called in to suppress the protests, sided with the sailors while workers and soldiers’ councils formed.  By November 4th, 1918, Kiel and Wilhelmshaven were in the hands of 40,000 would-be revolutionaries.

Revolutionaries in Berlin – the Kiel Mutiny spread across northern Germany before morphing into a nationwide revolution

Between the events in Kiel and the deteriorating condition of the German military, Berlin had to act fast to try and prevent the country from falling into a Russian-style revolution.  But at the moment the government needed fast, decisive action, Chancellor Baden was stricken with the “Spanish Flu.”  Baden sent members of the legislative majority Social Democratic Party to Kiel to negotiate the city’s release, but the rebels instead presented the representatives with a list of fourteen demands – their own version of Wilson’s Fourteen Points.  Most were highly specific to the situation in Kiel, with demands for the release of more prisoners and soldiers, the prevention of the fleet going out to sea, and no retaliation against those sailors who chose to report back to duty.  But others were broader attacks on the government.  The Kiel rebels wanted “complete freedom of speech” and “freedom of the press”, in addition to the end of mail censorship, and more alarming for Berlin, for rights and legislation to only be approved once passed by soldier councils.  If there was any doubt remaining as to the intentions of the Kiel rebel’s leadership, the next morning saw red flags raised from all the ships in port.

The “Kiel Fourteen Points” spread like wildfire across northern Germany, despite few of the points applying outside of the military nor having any direct commentary on whether or not Germany should continue to fight.  But by November 7th, most of Germany’s port cities were now in revolutionary control.  In Munich, a workers/soldiers council forced the Bavarian King, Ludwig III, to turn over authority to them, resulting in the proclaimed “People’s State of Bavaria.”  While Baden had already managed to reform the Imperial Constitution to minimize the power of the Kaiser into a more British-styled constitutional monarchy, the message of the growing rebel movement was clear – no monarchs were welcome at any level of government.  Even the leader of the Social Democratic Party told Baden, “If the Kaiser does not abdicate, the social revolution is inevitable.”

German rebelling soldiers lay down their weapons

Germany would confront more than just the end of a losing war; they would now confront a full blown revolution.