Axel Weipert is a historian of the German council movement and an editor of the journal Arbeit—Bewegung—Geschichte. Recent publications include Das Rote Berlin (BWV, 2019) and Die Zweite Revolution (Be.Bra, 2015).
In 1926, 14.5 million Germans voted in a referendum to expropriate the toppled royal dynasties’ estates. The campaign brought rare unity on the German left — but also met with a reactionary backlash highlighting the dangers to Weimar democracy.
On March 13, 1920, twelve million workers struck across Germany to block an attempted military coup. The successful resistance was organized by the workers’ councils — a form of grassroots democracy that allowed the masses to assert their own power.