German workers' and soldiers' councils 1918–1919

The German workers' and soldiers' councils of 1918–1919 (German: Deutsche Arbeiter- und Soldatenräte) were short-lived revolutionary bodies that carried the German revolution to cities across the German Empire during the final days of World War I. Meeting little to no resistance, they formed quickly, took over city governments and key buildings and caused most of the locally stationed military to flee or stand down. In the face of the revolution being spread by the councils, all of Germany's ruling monarchs, including Emperor Wilhelm II, abdicated by the end of November 1918.

Many of the councils, including the major ones in Berlin, were divided between those on the radical Left who wanted to set up a system of soviet democracy and moderates whose goal was to establish a socialist-dominated parliamentary republic. Germany's interim national revolutionary government, the Council of the People's Deputies, was initially split equally between the radical Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) and the moderate Social Democratic Party (SPD). During the two large gatherings of workers' and soldiers' councils in Berlin, the voting generally followed the wishes of the SPD leadership. Crucially, and against the will of the far left, they were able to schedule an election for a national assembly that would allow all Germans, not just workers and soldiers, to determine the country's future form of government.

In the early months of 1919, there were a number of violent revolts by workers who wanted to carry the revolution forward to create a soviet democracy. The government in Berlin, at that point no longer with any USPD members, called on the army and the paramilitary Freikorps to suppress the uprisings, and there was considerable loss of life. The workers' and soldiers' councils in Berlin began turning their powers over to the newly elected Weimar National Assembly in early February. The remaining local councils gradually disbanded in the months following the formal establishment of the Weimar Republic on 14 August 1919.