Around Jean-Numy Ducange's book La République ensanglantée. Berlin, Vienne: aux sources du Nazism

Review article

Abstract

Reviewing Jean-Numa Ducange’s book, the author describes the situation of Central Europe, particularly
the German-speaking countries, at the turn of the 20th century. Ducange writes about the development
of social democracy and the subsequent emergence of the communist wing as a result of the revolutions
of 1918–1919, concluding with the suppression of this episode during Hitler’s rise to power. In this context, the author recalls two themes raised by Ducange, but downplayed in the Silesian history: the role
of the workers’ councils and the development of the communist movement in Silesia. The workers’ council movement (Rätebewegung) in industrial Silesia led to political activation of thousands of workers.
In turn, it was on the basis of the radical members of these councils that the Communist Party of Upper
Silesia – the Spartacus Union – was founded in Bytom on 20 December 1918.