connect the dot

Organization

Imperial German government

Government of the German Empire (1871–1918).

9 links, 8 backed by primary records

Play the story Explore connections On the map ›

Dates
18 Jan 1871 – 9 Nov 1918
Place
Berlin
Also known as
German Empire, Imperial Germany, German government (1871–1918), German Foreign Ministry
How each side tells it

According to Russian Provisional Government

According to Erich Ludendorff

According to Paul von Hindenburg

Records from opposing sides confirm

In the First World War the German government tried to knock Russia out of the war. Its Foreign Ministry paid Alexander Parvus to promote revolution, let Vladimir Lenin cross Germany in April 1917 on the sealed train, and, by its own State Secretary’s account, kept “a steady flow of funds” going to the Bolsheviks. In March 1918 it imposed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on Soviet Russia.

Its records were published by Z. A. B. Zeman in 1958. Claims marked “according to Erich Ludendorff” follow the memoirs of the army’s First Quartermaster General.

Connections 9

funded

  • Alexander Parvus 26 Dec 1915 for revolutionary propaganda in Russia, 1M roubles Primary record 1
  • Bolsheviks 1917 money for propaganda and the party press Primary record 1

    Recorded in the German Foreign Ministry's own files. How much money reached the Bolsheviks, and how much it mattered, is debated by historians.

  • Bolsheviks Jul 1917 According to Russian Provisional Government Scholarship & press 2

    The Provisional Government's charge of July 1917. Semion Lyandres (1995) re-examines the evidence it relied on.

involved in

benefited from

influenced by

Timeline 4 dates
  1. 18 Jan 1871 – 9 Nov 1918 Imperial German government
  2. 26 Dec 1915 Imperial German government funded Alexander Parvus
  3. 1917 Imperial German government funded Bolsheviks
  4. Jul 1917 Imperial German government funded Bolsheviks According to Russian Provisional Government
Proof 8 sources
  1. Germany and the Revolution in Russia, 1915-1918: Documents from the Archives of the German Foreign Ministry, Oxford University Press, 1958. Primary record
    Your Excellency is authorized to pay one million roubles to Helphand.
    It was not until the Bolsheviks had received from us a steady flow of funds through various channels and under different labels that they were in a position to be able to build up their main organ, Pravda
    No passport formalities of any kind at frontier-crossing. Luggage will be sealed. Safe transit guaranteed.
    Dr. Helphand continued by saying that about 20 million roubles would be required to get the Russian revolution completely organized.
  2. The Bolsheviks' 'German Gold' Revisited: An Inquiry into the 1917 Accusations, The Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies, University of Pittsburgh, 1995. Scholarship & press
    The report published the next day alleged that Lenin had been sent to Russia by the German government to rally support for a separate peace with Germany
  3. How We Arrived (report to the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet), Marxists Internet Archive (Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 24, Progress Publishers), 17 Apr 1917. Primary record
    The whole business was handled by Fritz Platten, a Swiss internationalist socialist. He concluded a Carefully worded agreement with the German Ambassador in Switzerland.
  4. Lenin on the Train, by Catherine Merridale (review), Kirkus Reviews, 2017. Scholarship & press
    It has long been known that Germany brokered the wartime trip, the aim being to enable Lenin to foment revolution and take Russia off the front.
  5. Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (translation telegraphed by the US Consul General in Moscow), Avalon Project, Yale Law School, 3 Mar 1918. Primary record
    On the basis of Article 12 of the peace treaty, concluded between Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey on the one hand and Russia on the other
  6. Recognition of the Soviet Union, 1933 (Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations), U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Primary record
    The Bolsheviks had also concluded a separate peace with Germany at Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, ending Russian involvement in World War I.
  7. My War Memories, 1914-1918, volume II, Hutchinson (scan on the Internet Archive), 1919. Primary record
    The events in Russia gave me no cause for complete satisfaction. They considerably eased the military situation, but elements of the greatest danger still remained.
    By sending Lenin to Russia our Government had, moreover, assumed a great responsibility. From a military point of view his journey was justified, for Russia had to be laid low.
    The situation on the Eastern Front was eased to an extraordinary degree by the Peace of Brest-Litovsk of the 3rd of March, and the preliminary peace of Buftea of the 5th of March.
  8. Out of My Life (translated by F. A. Holt), Cassell (scan on the Internet Archive), 1920. Primary record
    The separation of the border states from the old Empire as a result of the peace conditions was in my view mainly a military advantage.
Page history 1 change
  1. connect-the-dot: sourced knowledge graph engine, site and contentAlibeka7fa236

Edit this page: content/entities/org/ge/german-imperial-government.md