Richard Müller: Der Mann hinter der Novemberrevolution

Historical Materialism #77

by Ralf Hoffrogge

Richard Müller, a leading figure of the German Revolution in 1918, is completely unknown today. As the operator and unionist who represented Berlin’s metalworkers, he was main organiser of the ‘Revolutionary Stewards,’ a clandestine network that organised a series of mass strikes between 1916 and 1918. With strong support in the factories, the Revolutionary Stewards were the driving force of the Revolution. By telling Müller's story, this study gives a very different account of the revolutionary birth of the Weimar Republic. Using new archival sources and abandoning the traditional focus on the history of political parties, Ralf Hoffrogge zooms in on working class politics on the shop floor and its contribution to social change.

First published in German by Karl Dietz Verlag as Richard Müller - Der Mann hinter der Novemberrevolution, Berlin, 2008, this English edition was completely revised for the English speaking audience and contains new sources and recent literature

Genres: History, Germany, Nonfiction, Politics

233 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Doris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eichard Müller is one of the most important participants in the German revolutionary events of 1918-19. Unfortunately, he had fallen into oblivion until recently. Hoffrogge tries to draw a detailed portrait of a man with a modest family background who makes it to the top of the council movement of the 1910s. The author's careful research and enthusiams make this book perfect for all those interested in the history of international socialism and for all those intending to become experts on the topic.

[Sam Whitehill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Müller was an under appreciated working class leader in the German revolution. Red Rosa and Liebknecht get all the history groupies because they were martyred, but Müller did the real organizational dirty work.

[loitering outside 711 · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s really good

[Eliza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very compelling read from Hoffrogge. Rescues the story of trade unionist and communist revolutionary Richard Muller from obscurity. Details how he emerged from the trade union struggles of the DMV German Metalworkers union in the struggle against scientific management, through the struggles of the World War I era to emerge as the leader of the revolutionary German working class. Almost totally forgotten Richard Muller was head of state of the German Socialist Republic for 2 months before being displaced by Social-Democratic forces to his right-wing that were set on reigning in the November Revolution. Hoffrogge chronicles Muller's principled, somewhat dogmatic adherence to trade union unity, workers councils, and mass revolutionary tactics. This course led him to take up a position on the far-left of Social Democracy and then on the right-wing of the communist movement, never quite finding a home.

Gave me a lot to think about in terms of the advanced role of metal-workers in this era and way that revolutionary politics were forged in the course of the struggle against the war in Germany. The Social-Democrats take up a complicated position, as being indisputably the representative of the working class majority while at the same time standing opposed to the socialist revolution. The Sparticists and later the KPD appear as disconnected intellectuals in this book, unable to see the importance of basing their strength among the workers in the labor movement, something more intimately understood by the Revolutionary Shop Stewards.

[Tony Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The German Revolution's failure defined the world future. Instead of a flourishing workers' democracy, we got Hitler and Stalinist Russia, and then the rest. Berlin's shop stewards' movement was at the heart of the revolution and Müller was its leader. This book provides valuable blow-by-blow details that are hard to find elsewhere.