Revolution in Hamburg 1918/1919

Democratic rights such as the right to vote for women, freedom of opinion and freedom of the press - which are quite normal in Germany today - were fought for 100 years ago. Also in Hamburg. A large exhibition in the Museum for Hamburg History entitled "Revolution! Revolution? Hamburg 1918-1919" is now devoted to the revolution of 1918/19 and shows how soldiers and workers forced the beginning of the first democratic republic.

Posters, newspapers, protest banners and many original photos document the mood and events in Hamburg at that time. On the Heiligengeistfeld, with tens of thousands of participants, there are mass demonstrations again and again - a close-up picture lets you look directly into the faces of the people - history up close and personal.

Many of the photos will be shown in public for the very first time in the exhibition. After four years of war, it is above all the simple soldiers from the naval ships and the workers who set the revolution in motion. Workers and soldiers had suffered the most under the circumstances and under the war. They had too little to eat and were poorly cared for. They want the end of the empire and democratic rights for all - for the lower classes and also for women. However, the exhibition does not only focus on the political events, but also gives an insight into the everyday life of individual people. In a reconstructed café house, diaries are displayed; a soldier who has returned home, for example, tells what he does in his spare time and how he falls in love. On the one hand there is revolution - demonstrations, insecurity, violence - and on the other there is the question: Which café are we going to tonight? The exhibition shows this contrast.

Picture source and more information: Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte