The eerie similarities between the Spartacist uprising of 1919, and the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, in Germany

Historians frequently try to draw parallels between Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, and Benito Mussolini's incredibly successful march on Rome, a couple of years before. While, it's true, both Mussolini and Hitler were fascists, the actual development and implementation and immediate consequences of the Beer Hall Putsch look much, much closer to the Spartacist uprising of 1919 than they do to Mussolini's bloodless coup against the existing Italian regime a couple of years before, that brought him to power for almost 25 years. German Communist leader Rosa Luxemburg led the Spartacist uprising rather against her will, of course, in response to general dissatisfaction just before and just after the end of WWI in Germany. From the standpoint of the victorious allies, particularly Britain and France, the Spartacists were OK as long as they were still at war with the Kaiser's Germany. However, once Germany surrendered, and the Kaiser abdicated, the allies perceived that their greatest enemy, and their greatest threat, was no longer German nationalism, but Russian communism, and it's potential to spread worldwide, including to their own countries. So, the German Spartacists themselves became the main enemy, as far as France and Britain were concerned. A lack of understanding of this fact may explain why Rosa Luxemburg allowed herself to be talked into getting involved, since she knew it would fail. Was she suicidal? This seems highly unlikely. However, when you engage in armed uprisings against the established government, and you fail, you are very likely to be executed for treason, for your trouble, as was inevitably the case with Rosa Luxemburg. She must have thought that, as a woman, and a sincere, and popular idealist, she would perhaps be deported, or given a short prison sentence, rather than a summary execution, as turned out to be the case. She clearly underestimated the extent of the hostility of the German, French and British authorities -- all of whom were involved in controlling Germany at this point in time -- to her Communist movement. I'm speculating here, of course, I don't think we really know what she was thinking, but, this presumed ignorance of the real motivations of the allied authorities, who were clearly involved actively in militarily suppressing the Spartacists in Germany in 1919, may explain her willingness to effectively seal her own doom in this fashion. On the other hand, we know precisely what Adolf Hitler's motivations were in attempting to execute the Beer Hall Putsch, several years later. Hitler had absolute power within the Nazi party, he made sure of that. Most Nazis recognized that there was little possibility of a successful government coup at this time, anywhere in Germany. Although the economy was in tatters, no one really saw an alternative. The Nazis were a fringe movement still, the communists were distrusted because of the repression and ongoing civil war in Soviet Russia. So, why did Hitler act? I tend to think that Hitler had had a death wish at least since early in WWI, when he was the sole non-casualty, and one of few survivors when his entire battalion was wiped out, save himself, in his first week of active combat, in 1914. Imagine poor Adolf Hitler, the son of a civil servant, a Bohemian artist, suddenly turned into the God of Death! Why, he was Mr. PTSD! And, if we look at his behavior from that point in time -- his volunteering for suicide missions, his insane courage leading to the Iron Cross first class, his subsequent fearless political career leading to one catastrophic confrontation after another, and then WWII, and his eventual and inevitable suicide with his new wife Eva Braun -- we can see this as Hitler struggling almost to find his own death, which he had missed so many years earlier! So, rather than actually trying to emulate Mussolini, as he claimed, I suspect Hitler may actually have been trying to emulate Rosa Luxemburg, and her death leading a cause! And, indeed, Hitler barely escaped death several times during the Beer Hall Putsch, and was shot rather seriously. He even threatened to kill himself if the leader of Bohemia didn't cede power to him. Hitler put a revolver to his own head! Now that is a little unusual, and psychologically significant, don't you think? It is profoundly ironic that Adolf Hitler not only survived the Beer Hall Putsch, but that it became the entire basis of his ultimate rise to absolute power in Germany. Is this what Rosa Luxemburg was hoping for herself when she led the Spartacist revolt? That she would perhaps get a short prison sentence, like Hitler did, and emerge a great leader of a communist Germany? #history #comparativehistory #philosophyofhistory #sociology #nazis #fascists #communists #psychology #psychoanalysis #germany #ussr #spartacists #hitler #wwi #wwii