Jan Appel - The German Revolution

The German Revolution

Jan Appel was involved in German Revolution of November 1918:

“When, in November 1918 the sailors revolted and the workers of the shipyards in Kiel downed tools, we learned at the Vulkan military shipyard from the workers what had happened. There followed a secret meeting at the shipyards; the factory was under military occupation, work ceased, but the workers remained in assembly in the enterprise. A delegation of 17 volunteers was sent to the union headquarters, to insist on the declaration of a general strike. We insisted on holding an assembly, but it turned out that the known leaders of the ADGB and the SPD and of the unions adopted a negative an attitude towards the strike. There were hours of harsh discussions. During this time, at the Blohm & Voss shipyard, where 17,000 workers were employed, a spontaneous revolt broke out. And so, all the workers poured out of the factories, at the Vulkan shipyard too (where Appel worked) and set off towards the union house. It was at this moment that the leaders disappeared. The revolution had begun.”

By this stage Appel was involved with Hamburg Far-left politics participating in the Spartacus League and then the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) alongside Fritz Wolffheim and Heinrich Laufenberg. He was elected chairperson of the newly formed Revolutionary Shop Stewards (Revolutionäre Obleute). In January 1919, following the murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht the Revolutionary Shop Stewards gathered outside the Trade union Central Headquarters in Hamburg. Here he met Ernst Thalmann, of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD), whereupon they participated in a night march on the Bahrenfeld Barracks. Taking the soldiers by surprise they seized the armoury and soon had 4,000 workers under arms.

“At that moment, we reached the conclusion that the unions were unusable for the revolutionary struggle, and that led, at an assembly of the revolutionary delegates to propaganda for the constitution of revolutionary factory organisations, as the basis for the councils. Departing from Hamburg, this propaganda for the formation of enterprise organisations spread, leading to the General Workers' Union of Germany Allgemeine Arbeiter Unionen Deutschland (AAUD)”