Volksmarinedivision

The Volksmarinedivision (People's Navy Division) was an armed unit formed on 11 November 1918 during the November Revolution that broke out in Germany following its defeat in World War I. At its peak late that month, the People's Navy Division had about 3,200 members. In the struggles between the various elements involved in the revolution to determine Germany's future form of government, it initially supported the moderate socialist interim government of Friedrich Ebert and the Council of the People's Deputies. By December of 1918 it had turned more to the left and was involved in skirmishes against government troops. In March 1919, after the success of the Ebert government in the elections to the National Assembly that drew up the Weimar Constitution, the People's Navy Division was disbanded and 30 of its members were summarily shot by members of a Freikorps unit. The People's Navy Division initially comprised about 600 men, rising to 1,500 by 13 November and 3,200 by the end of the month, but then dropping to 1,800 by December. Although most of its members were nonpartisan sailors, it included members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), its more leftist offshoot the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD), along with Communists and Spartacists, members of a Marxist revolutionary movement organized during World War I. During its most active period, the People's Navy Division was divided into three sections. The First Section, with 1,550 men, was based in the Imperial Stables in Berlin and had as its main responsibility guarding the Reich Chancellery, the Reichsbank, Museum Island and the Ullstein publishing house. Section II with 800 men was initially based in the Berlin Palace, later in a public establishment on Kistenmacher Street and then in the Prussian House of Representatives. This detachment was responsible for guarding the House of Representatives and Prussian House of Lords. Section III consisted for the most part of sailors from Cuxhaven and reached a strength of 900 men.