ndeed, in January, 1919, the Social Democratic leadership overreacted to spontaneous protests in Berlin, rushing in troops to crush the demonstrations by force. ôThis they did with a vengeance. In the process of being arrested and imprisoned à [radical] leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were brutally murderedö (Fulbrook 1991 28). In May of that year, an attempt to set up an independent Bavarian Republic was likewise crushed in an armed action that claimed some one thousand lives. Elements of the radical left, which had considerable support at the time, never forgave the Social Democrats for either of these incidents.
A key Weimar difficulty from the beginning û and for that matter throughout its brief run û was the failure of German societyÆs elite groups to give it their support. Professionals, bu
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