Misplaced Pages

#826173

107-623: The Kiel mutiny ( German : Kieler Matrosenaufstand ) was a revolt by sailors of the German High Seas Fleet against the maritime military command in Kiel . The mutiny broke out on 3 November 1918 when some of the ships' crews refused to sail out from Wilhelmshaven for the final battle against the British Grand Fleet that the Admiralty had ordered without the knowledge or approval of

214-460: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it

321-402: A second language , and 75–100   million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220   million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90   million people, or 16% of

428-587: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become

535-402: A "death voyage" that they saw as militarily pointless. During the night of 30 to 31 October 1918, sailors on board a number of ships from III Battle Squadron declined to weigh anchor. Incidents of insubordination occurred aboard the dreadnoughts Thüringen , SMS  Kaiserin and SMS  Helgoland , with outright mutiny on Thüringen and Helgoland . After a brief standoff during which

642-501: A catalogue of immediate measures. The sailors elected Noske chairman of the soldiers' council , since as a Social Democrat he was seen to be on their side. He was elected chairman of the council and reinstated peace and order in Kiel. Some days later he took over the governor's post, while Lothar Popp from the USPD ensured that the initially spontaneously formed, unstructured soldiers' councils had

749-768: A council state according to the Bolshevist example. Instead it stood ... for the demand for the fastest possible ending of the war. Secondly it pointed – starting with the 'Kiel 14 points' – ... in the direction of a liberal, social and democratic political system, in which especially militarism ... should no longer have place." Detachments of revolutionary sailors moved out from Kiel to all major German cities beginning on 4 November. They encountered almost no resistance in their takeover of civil and military power; only in Lübeck and Hanover did two local commanders attempt to maintain military discipline by force of arms. On 6 November, Wilhelmshaven

856-612: A decisive victory against the Russians was impossible. The second concern was the Battle of Verdun , the centrepiece of Falkenhayn's western strategy. Falkenhayn wrote after the war that his intention was to draw the French Army into a battle of attrition and wear them down. As the French position became desperate, Falkenhayn expected a British relief effort near Arras which would be destroyed, leaving

963-556: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from

1070-489: A large drill ground. Led by Karl Artelt , who worked in the repair shipyard for torpedo boats in Kiel-Wik, and by the mobilized shipyard worker Lothar Popp , both members of the USPD, the sailors called for a large meeting the following day at the same place. The call was heeded by several thousand people on the afternoon of 3 November, with workers' representatives also present. The slogan Frieden und Brot (peace and bread)

1177-600: A maneuver with his battleships in the Heligoland Bight . When it "functioned perfectly", he believed he was in command of his crews again. While moving through the Kiel Canal he had 47 sailors from the Markgraf , who were seen as the ringleaders, arrested. On its way to Kiel, the squadron stopped at Holtenau , where nearly 150 mutineers were put under arrest to be transported to the military prison in Kiel and to Fort Herwarth in

SECTION 10

#1732845277827

1284-453: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained

1391-679: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In

1498-534: A result of these longstanding working relationships, Moltke delegated substantial authority to his subordinates, especially to the chiefs of the Operations Division, Colonel Gerhard Tappen , and the Information Division, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hentsch  [ de ] . These officers were often dispatched to subordinate headquarters to investigate and make decision on behalf of OHL. Although

1605-475: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it

1712-639: A retreat to the Aisne . On hearing the news from the front, Moltke suffered a nervous breakdown on 9 September. Moltke was replaced by the Prussian Minister of War, Lieutenant General Erich von Falkenhayn , first informally in September and then officially on 25 October 1914. Although Tappen was retained as head of the Operations Division, Falkenhayn brought in two of his own associates, General Adolf Wild von Hohenborn and General Hugo von Freytag-Loringhoven , into

1819-763: A separate war ministry and general staff to administer their forces. On the outbreak of war, the Constitution of the German Empire made the German Emperor commander-in-chief of the combined armies ( Oberster Kriegsherr , "supreme warlord"). The Emperor's role as commander-in-chief was largely ceremonial and authority lay with the Chief of the German General Staff , who issued orders in the Emperor's name. The pre-war Chief of

1926-459: A solid base through elections in all units and through the establishment of the Supreme Soldiers' Council, of which he was the elected chairman. During the following weeks Noske was able to reduce the influence of the councils, but he could not prevent the sailors from spreading the revolution across Germany. On the morning of 5 November, the red flag of the revolution was hoisted on the ships of

2033-524: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as

2140-596: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German

2247-546: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic

SECTION 20

#1732845277827

2354-472: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German

2461-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25   million speak it as

2568-520: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in

2675-595: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as

2782-559: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are

2889-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and

2996-587: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as

3103-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German

3210-510: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c.  1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period

3317-566: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish

Kiel mutiny - Misplaced Pages Continue

3424-481: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers

3531-673: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to

3638-638: The Dritte OHL (Third OHL) but Hindenburg was "neither the intellectual centre of the strategic planning [...] nor of the new war economy", as proposed in the Hindenburg Programme of 31 August 1916. He was mostly a figurehead and a representative of the military command to the public. Control was mainly exercised by his deputy, General of Infantry Erich Ludendorff , who held the title Erster Generalquartiermeister (First Quartermaster General). The duumvirate increasingly dominated decision making on

3745-627: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as

3852-423: The Battle of Jutland in mid-1916, the leadership of the German Empire did not want to risk losing additional ships that it would be unable to replace. The fleet had consequently lain for the most part idly at anchor since the battle. Many officers transferred to submarines and light vessels, which still had a role to play in the fighting. They were generally replaced by young officers who did not know how to handle

3959-458: The Battle of Tannenberg and First Battle of the Masurian Lakes had made Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg a popular hero and contrasted starkly with the stalemate in the west. Hindenburg and his supporters sought to shift Germany's main effort to the eastern front to knock Russia out of the war. Falkenhayn resisted this, believing that France and Great Britain were the true opponents and that

4066-522: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share

4173-587: The Entente powers . In hopes of more favorable peace terms, he also recommended accepting American president Woodrow Wilson 's demand that the imperial government be democratized. His aim was to protect the reputation of the Imperial Army by placing the responsibility for the capitulation and its consequences at the feet of the democratic parties and the Reichstag . Emperor Wilhelm II appointed Prince Maximilian of Baden

4280-473: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language

4387-514: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout

Kiel mutiny - Misplaced Pages Continue

4494-724: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in

4601-644: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c.  765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in

4708-601: The Race to the Sea as the German and Franco-British armies attempted to outflank each other to the north. The campaign culminated at First Battle of Ypres where both combatants attacked but failed to make a breakthrough. Two strategic issues dominated the remainder Falkenhayn's tenure as Chief of the General Staff. First was the priority accorded to the eastern and western fronts. Victories at

4815-662: The Schlieffen Plan , an initial attack on France through Belgium . Upon mobilizing in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I , the Großer Generalstab (Great General Staff) formed the core of the Supreme Army Command, becoming the General Staff of the Field Army. Colonel General Helmuth von Moltke, who had been Chief of the General Staff since 1906, continued in office, as did most of the division heads. Partially as

4922-640: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung

5029-536: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit.   ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this

5136-454: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and   Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German

5243-861: The Zimmermann Telegram , provoked the United States to enter the war. The OHL also ensured safe passage for Lenin and his associates from Switzerland to Russia . After the October Revolution , the OHL negotiated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk to free troops for the 1918 German spring offensive on the Western Front . As the tide of the war turned against Germany with the Allied Hundred Days Offensive , in late September 1918, Ludendorff called for

5350-408: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from

5457-433: The "parliamentarisation" of the German government and immediate armistice negotiations. When he reversed course and demanded the fight to be resumed in October, the government refused his demand and Ludendorff threatened to quit. His bluff was called and he was replaced by Lieutenant-General Wilhelm Groener . Though Ludendorff had expected Hindenburg to follow him, the Field Marshal remained in office until his resignation from

SECTION 50

#1732845277827

5564-448: The Army in the summer of 1919. As the German Revolution began, Hindenburg and Groener advised the Emperor to abdicate . Groener subsequently came to an agreement with the Social Democrat leader Friedrich Ebert known as the Ebert–Groener pact under which the Army leadership agreed to back the new republican government. With the war over in November 1918, the OHL was moved from Spa to Schloss Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel , to supervise

5671-614: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In

5778-414: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of

5885-584: The General Staff was Colonel General Helmuth von Moltke and the Oberste Heeresleitung was the command staff led by Moltke as Chief of the General Staff of the Army. The General Staff was initially formed into five divisions and two more were created during the war: In addition to the General Staff of the Field Army, the Supreme Army Command consisted of the Emperor's Military Cabinet, the Intendant General (responsible for supply), senior advisers in various specialist fields (Artillery, Engineers, Medicine, Telegraphy, Munitions and Railways) and representatives from

5992-461: The German armies were victorious in the Battle of the Frontiers their advance was brought to a halt at First Battle of the Marne . Communications between OHL and the front line broke down and Hentsch was dispatched by Moltke to the headquarters of the 1st Army and the 2nd Army to assess the situation. After discovering that the armies were separated from each other by a gap of 25 mi (40 km) and in danger of being encircled, Hentsch ordered

6099-420: The German government. The mutineers, who saw the planned battle as a futile "death voyage", took over Kiel with workers' and soldiers' councils and then helped spread them across Germany. The German Revolution that was triggered by the councils swept aside the Hohenzollern monarchy within a few days, brought about the end of the German Empire and led to the establishment of the Weimar Republic . Following

6206-417: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of

6313-399: The German states; the invention of the printing press c.  1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of

6420-442: The German war effort, to an extent that they are sometimes described as de facto military dictators , supplanting the Emperor and Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg , whom they managed to have replaced with Georg Michaelis in the summer of 1917. Through the Hindenburg Programme, a total war strategy, the OHL sought decisive victory. Ludendorff ordered the resumption of the unrestricted U-boat Campaign , which, along with

6527-623: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by

SECTION 60

#1732845277827

6634-400: The Imperial Navy in Kiel's harbor. During the ensuing events, councils all over Germany oriented themselves on Kiel's 14 points. Dähnhardt saw the political shortsightedness as a major reason for the dissolution of soldiers' councils after six months. Wolfram Wette from the German Armed Forces Military History Research Office noted: "... the Kiel signal ... did not point in the direction of

6741-547: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are

6848-757: The Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and the Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ), the Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German

6955-408: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c.  thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c.  1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy

7062-434: The OHL. Hohenborn served as Generalquartiermeister until January 1915 when he succeeded Falkenhayn as Prussian Minister of War. Freytag-Loringhoven replaced Hohenborn as Generalquartiermeister . Falkenhayn centralised decision making and emphasised secrecy, rarely explaining himself to his subordinates, which has caused historians difficulty in assessing his intentions. After taking command Falkenhayn became engaged in

7169-411: The action as a mutiny by the admirals: When we think of the end of the war in 1918, we have to imagine admirals who had hoped throughout the war to be able to fight a major naval battle, perhaps even to defeat the British. The naval leadership was basically itself mutinous; it was an admirals' rebellion, because contrary to the orders of the political Reich leadership to hold back, especially in regard to

7276-441: The anti-war Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD). On 1 August, 49 men from the dreadnought SMS Prinzregent Luitpold disembarked without permission at Wilhelmshaven after a free watch and a movie showing were cancelled. Eleven were arrested and imprisoned. The next day, almost the entire crew of 600 men walked off in support of their comrades. Two of the ringleaders were later executed and others sentenced to prison. During

7383-456: The armistice, it made plans that were not politically legitimized. For the admirals, the battle was a matter of saving their honor and their futures. The commander of the battleship Thüringen spoke later of going down with "the flag flying". The Chief of Staff of the High Seas Fleet Command, Rear Admiral Adolf von Trotha , wrote to the Chief of Staff of the Naval War Command, Captain Magnus von Levetzow : "We are seized with horror and shame at

7490-404: The crowd. Seven men were killed and 29 seriously wounded. Some demonstrators also opened fire. Steinhäuser was shot and beaten with rifle butts but survived. After the incident, the demonstrators dispersed and the patrol withdrew. Historian Sebastian Haffner called the shooting of Steinhäuser the first shot of the Revolution, following which the sailors could no longer go back. Wilhelm Souchon ,

7597-430: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with

7704-452: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in

7811-507: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of

7918-762: The establishment of the Weimar Republic in August 1919. Naval mutinies: German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and

8025-506: The first soldiers' council, and soon many more were set up. Soldiers and workers brought public and military institutions in Keil under their control. When, against Souchon's promise, additional troops came to put down the rebellion, they were intercepted by the mutineers and either sent back or joined the sailors and workers. By the evening of 4 November, Kiel was firmly in the hands of approximately 40,000 rebellious sailors, soldiers and workers, as

8132-596: The four German War Ministries and representatives of the other Central Powers . The Emperor was also Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial German Navy , which was led by the German Imperial Admiralty Staff and from August 1918 by the Seekriegsleitung (SKL, Naval Warfare Command). Co-ordination between OHL and SKL was poor at the beginning of the war. For example, the navy did not even know about

8239-405: The governor of the naval station, initially asked for outside troops to help suppress the uprising but revoked his request when his staff claimed the situation was under control. Souchon had been sent to Kiel only a few days earlier, on 30 October 1918, and therefore had to rely heavily on his staff. On 4 November, however, the request was renewed, and six infantry companies were brought to Kiel. On

8346-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,

8453-474: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of

8560-575: The insistence of the Supreme Army Command , asked President Woodrow Wilson on 5 October 1918 to mediate an armistice . One of his preconditions was the cessation of Germany's submarine war . Despite the objections of Admiral Scheer , the Chief of the German Admiralty Staff, the government made the concession on 20 October, and the submarines at sea were recalled on 21 October. The following day, Scheer, on his own authority and without

8667-548: The knowledge of the new German government, ordered Admiral Hipper , commander of the High Seas Fleet , to prepare to attack the British with the main battle fleet, reinforced by the newly available submarines. Hipper's order was promulgated on 24 October, and Scheer approved it on 27 October. The fleet then began to concentrate at Schillig Roads off Wilhelmshaven to prepare for the battle. Historian Michael Epkenhans describes

8774-511: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Supreme Army Command After the formation of the German Empire in 1871, the Prussian Army , Royal Saxon Army , Army of Württemberg and the Bavarian Army were autonomous in peacetime, each kingdom maintaining

8881-506: The month, the dynastic rulers of all the other German states had abdicated without bloodshed. Early in January 1919, supporters of a council republic and those who wanted Germany to become a parliamentary republic began to engage in bloody street battles. The latter group had the support of what remained of the German Army and of the paramilitary Freikorps . Their victory cleared the way for

8988-430: The more experienced crews. The discipline and spirit of those who remained with the battleships consequently suffered. Significant unrest in the fleet began in the summer of 1917. On the battleship Friedrich der Grosse , a system of shop stewards began to be established as early as March. During the following months, a number of sailors expressed dissatisfaction with their poor rations and treatment to representatives of

9095-433: The morning of 4 November, groups of mutineers marched through central Kiel accompanied by striking workers. They were joined in the afternoon by sailors from the barracks north of the city. After the soldiers sent in to reinforce the local troops sided with the demonstrators, Admiral Souchon freed the imprisoned sailors and asked the insurgents to send a delegation to discuss the situation. On the same day, Karl Artelt organized

9202-450: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted

9309-522: The new imperial chancellor on 3 October. The Prince was considered a liberal and was a representative of the royal family. His cabinet included, for the first time, members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The following day, the new government offered the Allies the truce on which Ludendorff had insisted, and, on the fifth, the German public was informed of the dismal situation that its military

9416-630: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from

9523-550: The north of the city. The sailors and stokers sought to prevent the fleet from setting sail again and to gain the release of their comrades. Some 250 met on the evening of 1 November in the Union House at Kiel. The delegations they sent to their officers requesting the mutineers' release were rebuffed. With the sailors looking for closer ties to the socialist labor unions, the police closed the Union House, leading to an even larger open-air meeting of sailors and workers on 2 November at

9630-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation

9737-404: The remaining months of the war, secret sailors' councils were formed on a number of the fleet's capital ships . On 29 September 1918, the Supreme Army Command informed Emperor Wilhelm II that the military situation was hopeless in the face of the enemy's overwhelming advantage in manpower and equipment. General Erich Ludendorff said that a request for an immediate ceasefire should be sent to

9844-568: The remnants of both armies to be mopped up. As the battle developed casualties between the two armies were roughly equal. After the failure of Falkenhayn's strategy at Verdun, the opening of the Battle of the Somme and the entry into the war of the Kingdom of Romania on the Allied side in August 1916, he was replaced on 29 August by Hindenburg. The tenure of Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg became known as

9951-400: The ships that had mutinied and those that had not stood with their cannons pointed at each other, the mutineers yielded. The naval command nevertheless had to drop its plans to attack the British fleet, since they felt that the crews' loyalty could no longer be relied upon. III Squadron was ordered back to Kiel . During the squadron's return, its commander, Vice Admiral Hugo Kraft , exercised

10058-424: The soldiers' council that were to be binding for every military person: Resolutions and demands of the soldiers' council: Dirk Dähnhardt, in his 1978 doctoral thesis, came to the conclusion that "the 14 Points of Kiel were ... mainly an attack on the military system; political objectives were lacking." Dähnhardt attributes this to the heterogeneous composition of the bodies and to the intention to first of all issue

10165-541: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,

10272-496: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in

10379-485: The thought that the fleet could be consigned to internal ruin without having come to blows." Levetzow replied: "As long as we are still able to fight, we will never, ever agree to a peace treaty that is based on the degradation or atrophy of our fleet." When word of the planned battle reached the sailors, some of the men on the ships at anchor in the Schillig Roads off Wilhelmshaven refused to put their lives at risk for

10486-485: The withdrawal of the German armies from the occupied territories. The final location of the OHL was at Kolberg after February 1919 as the military focus had shifted to preventing territorial encroachment by the Second Polish Republic . In July 1919, the Supreme Army Command and Great General Staff were disbanded by order of the Treaty of Versailles . For a few days, Groener had replaced Hindenburg as Chief of

10593-543: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during

10700-579: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching

10807-476: Was Wilhelmshaven two days later. Late in the evening of 4 November, sailors' and workers' representatives met in the Union House with Souchon and two representatives of the Social Democratic Party , Gustav Noske and Conrad Haussmann , who had been sent by the government in Berlin to negotiate an end to the uprising. At the meeting, the soldiers presented the Kiel 'Fourteen Points', which were promulgated as orders of

10914-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of

11021-530: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially

11128-485: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which

11235-531: Was facing. Even up to that late point, government propaganda and the press had led the people to believe that the war would still be won. The shock of the impending defeat caused a "paralytic bitterness and deep resignation" that eased the way for those who wanted an immediate ceasefire. Following the Allied successes during the Hundred Days Offensive , the new German government under Prince Max of Baden , at

11342-403: Was in the hands of a workers' and soldiers' council; by 7 November all the larger coastal cities plus Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart and Munich were as well. King Ludwig III of Bavaria was overthrown on the same day, making him the first German federal prince to fall. The revolution reached Berlin on 9 November, and on the same day the abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II was proclaimed. By the end of

11449-454: Was raised, showing that the sailors and workers demanded not only the release of the imprisoned seamen but also the end of the war and the improvement of food provisions. The protestors cheered Artelt's call to free the prisoners, and they set off in the direction of the military prison. A Lieutenant Steinhäuser, commanding the troops who had orders to stop the demonstrators, ordered his patrol to fire warning shots and then to shoot directly into

#826173