Volksmarinedivision

Did You Know?

• The naval forces of East Germany were named the People's Navy (Volksmarine) after the Volksmarinedivision.
• 30 members of the division were summarily shot by a Freikorps unit in March 1919.

Structure

The People's Navy Division started with around 600 sailors, grew to 1,500 by November 13, peaked at 3,200 by month's end, and then shrank to 1,800 by December. While most members were nonpartisan, the ranks included Social Democrats, Independent Social Democrats, Communists, and Spartacists. At its height, the division had three sections. The first, 1,550 strong, was stationed at Berlin's Imperial Stables and watched over the Reich Chancellery, Reichsbank, Museum Island, and Ullstein publishing house. The second section, numbering 800 men, began at the Berlin Palace but later moved; it guarded the House of Representatives and the Prussian House of Lords. The third section, 900 men mostly from Cuxhaven, operated from the Lehrter train station, handling standby and patrol duties. A 100-person administrative unit, headquartered first in the Imperial Stables and later at the Marinehaus, managed supplies and provisioning.

History

On 10 November 1918, workers and regiments in Berlin elected councils. The next day, the People's Marine Council of Greater Berlin created the People's Navy Division, following a suggestion from Chief Petty Officer Paul Wieczorek, a leader of the Kiel Mutiny that started the November Revolution. The division's revolutionary sailors were assigned to Berlin's new police president, Emil Eichhorn. Wieczorek became its first commander. On 14 November, Captain Friedrich Brettschneider shot and killed Wieczorek while trying to take over the division, but Brettschneider was also killed soon after. Seaman Otto Tost from Cuxhaven was then elected commander. At first, the division backed moderate social democracy. On 6 December, sailors under First Lieutenant Hermann von Wolff-Metternich, joined by other units, marched to the Reich Chancellery to show support for Chancellor Friedrich Ebert. They called for early elections to the National Assembly and criticized the Executive Council of the Workers' and Soldiers' Councils. The sailors offered Ebert the presidency, but he refused. The troops then left and raided the Rote Fahne office, the Spartacus League's newspaper. Other troops, not from the division, arrested the Executive Council, sparking violence. Colonel Hans von Haeften, aiming to eliminate the councils and restore officers' command, had planned to have the troops declare Ebert a dictator. He discussed this with Ferdinand von Stumm, who suggested using the division under his relative Wolff-Metternich, but the plan never happened. Over the following weeks, the division moved leftward. On 30 December 1918, a detachment guarded the Prussian House of Representatives during the founding conference of the German Communist Party.