Working-Class Politics in the German Revolution

Ralf Hoffrogge, Dr. phil. (2013), University of Potsdam, has published monographs and articles on German labour history, including Sozialismus und Arbeiterbewegung in Deutschland - Von den Anfängen bis 1914 (Schmetterling Verlag, 2011). He has just finished a biographical study on the German-Jewish Communist Werner Scholem: Werner Scholem – eine politische Biographie (1895-1940) (Universitätsverlag Konstanz, 2014).

"[Ralf Hoffrogge's] biography of Richard Müller is [...] far removed from the old fashioned “great-men-make-history” interpretation of high-political notoriety; instead, the political life of the protagonist is firmly located within the dynamics of a mass-based social movement “from below.” As the author points out, the failures of the man derives from the failures of the movement. But we also learn a great deal about Richard Müller as a “forgotten revolutionary” and the Revolutionary Shop Stewards (RSS) as a “forgotten movement,” as well as why he was forgotten".- Norman LaPorte, “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue”: Recent Literature in Communist Studies, in Moving the Social: Journal of Social History and the History of Social Movements, Vol 55 (2016): pp. 120-123. "Hoffrogge’s biography differs from those written about revolutionary icons like Liebknecht or Luxemburg for very practical reasons. The latter were from middle-class backgrounds and used to writing letters and articles offering biographers insights into their political but also private lives. An ordinary worker like Müller did not leave comparable records. […] For a book that is not about Müller the great individual but about one worker as first among equals, this absence of detailed private records is actually quite apt. It reflects workers’ subordinate position in capitalist societies. What made these equals, the Revolutionary Shop Stewards, so interesting is that they had a capacity to mobilize rank-and-file workers in large numbers because, unlike many of the Spartacists, they worked alongside them and knew when they were ready for action, but also when they were hesitant, anxious, or subdued. Hoffrogge’s book is a first-rate invitation to think about a link between Richard Müller and the Revolutionary Shop Stewards and today’s still unfocused struggles against imperialist wars and capitalist exploitation."Ingo Schmidt, Coordinator of the Labour Studies Program at Athabasca University, in: WorkingUSA: The Journal of Labor and Society, September 2015, Volume 18.3: 525-528.霍夫拉格这本书的重要价值，在于揭示了社会主义运动中常被忽视的一个事实，即工人阶级政党的理论如何才能被群众所接受。长久以来，在共产主义运动史的撰写中，一方面强调革命领袖的重要作用，另一方面强调工人阶级的重要作用，但二者之间的纽带是谁？理查德·穆勒的经历似乎给出了这一问题的答案。马嘉鸿，当代世界社会主义问题·２０１６年第 ３期，119-122. (Ma Jiahong, Issues of Contemporary World Socialism, Sept 2016, issue 3, pp.119-122)"Ralf Hoffrogge is especially successfully in describing how a group of ordinary working men, who in no way began as revolutionaries but rather as trade unionists fighting to defend workers’ living standards, nonetheless built up the only network which was able to bring workers on and off the streets [...] during the revolutionary upheavals. He explores the complicated relationship between the Stewards and the various socialist political parties with great skill and discusses the emergence of a new kind of socialism amongst Müller and his colleagues, which did not focus on state power and centralisation but rather on grassroots democracy and workers’ control, sometimes known as council communism."Dick Geary, Emeritus Professor of Modern History, University of Nottingham, UK"The merit of Hoffrogge’s contribution is a capacity to translate his extensive research into a wide-ranging historical analysis and narrative of the role of the Revolutionary Shop Stewards and Richard Müller. [...] In addition to the great historical importance of Hoffrogge’s work, the study of the subject will also play an important role for contemporary debates about the road to socialism."Dario Azzellini, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Linz, Austria"Ralf Hoffrogge has authored an invaluable addition to the literature of German radicalism by detailing the life of one of the key leaders of the Revolutionary Shop Stewards. Müller and his comrades provide an interesting contrast to more well known supporters of Social Democracy and Communism within the German workers’ movement."William A. Pelz, Director of the Institute of Working Class History, Chicago, USA

• List of IllustrationsList of Abbreviations Sisyphus of the Revolution: A Preface, Wolfgang WippermannAuthor’s Preface1 Introduction: A Forgotten RevolutionaryThe Politics of Historical InterpretationThe Makers of the German Revolution2 Background, Youth, and Early Union Activities: 1880-1913From Farm to FactoryMüller’s (Very) Private LifeFighting Taylorism with its Own WeaponsBureaucracy in the Service of Agitation3 Opposition to the Burgfrieden: 1914-1918 ‘The Great Betrayal’From Discipline to OppositionEarly Ambiguities and their Price4 The Revolutionary Shop Stewards and Political Mass Strikes: 1916-1918The Stewards’ First Political Strike: Protesting Liebknecht’s ArrestRepression and the New OppositionMüller’s Arrest and the April StrikeMarking Time under RepressionPreparing for the January Strike: Rising Discontent and the Bolshevik ExampleThe January 1918 Strike: Council Power EmergesThe Politics of the Action Committee and the End of the January StrikeBarth and Däumig lead in Müller’s Absence Müller’s Return 5 The German Revolution in Berlin, 1918The Stewards and the Spartacists: A Tale of Two StylesArming the RevolutionOutbreakCouncil PowerThe State of the Revolution 6 Chairman of the Berlin Executive Council: 1918–1919Conflict, Caution and Counter-revolutionLoss of National Power7 Richard Müller and the Council Movement: 1918–1919The Council Movement in War and RevolutionThe First Council Congress and the Triumph of Parliamentarianism The Blocked Path to SocialismBerlin’s January UprisingPolitical Murder, Demoralisation, and the End of the Revolutionary Shop StewardsTheorising Council SocialismThe March Strikes of 1919After the Tumult8 From Council Movement to Works Councils: 1919-1920Council Ideal and Works Council Reality Leading the Left Opposition in the DMVDefeat at Nuremberg, Compromise in StuttgartThe Works Councils Act, Armed Conflict and Party Split DMV Political Divisions and the Works Council CentreThe first Works Council Congress 1920The State of the Revolution in 19209 From Council Socialism to Party Communism and Beyond: 1920-1924The Leninist Model and the USPD SplitThe Communist Union Centre The Red International of Labour UnionsCrisis in the Communist Party and the March Action of 1921Post-March Crises and `Made in Moscow´ ResolutionThe Revelation AffairMüller, the unwanted Communist10 Richard Müller as Historian of the German Revolution: 1923-1925Müller’s Historiographical ApproachMüller as Publisher 11 Footnotes and Suppression - Richard Müller’s Impact on HistoriographyThe Millstones of Social Democracy and Marxism-LeninismMüller in East GermanyMüller in West Germany12 Break with Politics, Withdrawal into Private Life: 1925-1943The DIV, the ‘Construction Issue’ and Union FragmentationMüller as LandlordDrifting back to Social Democracy?Returning to Obscurity13 Conclusion: The Darkness of HistoryBibliography1. Printed Sources2. LiteratureAbout the AuthorIndex