Burgfrieden - literally "peace of the castle" - is a German term used for the civil truce the Social Democratic Party of Germany and other socialist organizations such as the Free Trade Unions associated with the SPD agreed to during World War I. The trade unions refrained from striking, the SPD voted for war credits in parliament and no critique of the government's policies were published. There were several reasons for the Burgfrieden politics: the socialists, themselves, believed it was their patriotic duty to support the government in war, they were afraid of government repression should they protest against the war, and they hoped to attain more influence in German society by cooperating with the government. SPD redirects here. ... Combatants Allied Powers: British Empire France Italy Russia United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Commanders Ferdinand Foch Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Paul... An American War Bonds poster from 1942 War bonds were a form of savings bond used by many combatant nations to help fund World War I and World War II. They were also a measure to manage inflation by removing money from the economy heated up by the war efforts. ...

The only SPD member of parliament to vote against war credits in the second session was Karl Liebknecht. In the third session on March 20, 1915, Otto Rühle joined him. During the course of the war the number of SPD politicians opposed to the war steadily increased. Their resistance against the Burgfrieden politics led to the expulsion of Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin, and others from the SPD. These went on to found the Spartacist League, the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD), and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). â–¶ (help· info) (August 13, 1871 - January 15, 1919) was a German socialist and a co-founder of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany. ... March 20 is the 79th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (80th in Leap years). ... 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Otto Rühle (1874 - 1943) was a German Left Communist active in opposition to both the First and Second World Wars, and a founder with along with Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Franz Mehring and others of the group and magazine Internationale, which posed a revolutionary internationalism against a world of... Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (March 5, 1870 or 1871 – January 15, 1919, in Polish Róża Luksemburg) was a Polish-born German Jewish Marxist political theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary. ... Clara Zetkin, maiden name Eissner (born 5 July 1857 in Wiederau, Saxony; died 20 June 1933 in Archangelskoye near Moscow) was an influential socialist German politician and a fighter for womens rights. ... The Spartacist League (Spartakusbund in German) was a left-wing Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during and just after the politically volatile years of World War I. It was founded by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg (nicknamed Red Rosa) along with others such as Clara Zetkin. ... For the Independent Social Democratic Party of Romania, see Romanian Social Democratic Party (defunct). ... 1932 KPD poster, End This System The Communist Party of Germany (German Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands – KPD) was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period. ...

The only trade union to refuse to accept the Burgfrieden was the Free Association of German Trade Unions (FVdG), which would later become the Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAUD).^[1]

Notes and references

1. ^ Thorpe, Wayne: Keeping Faith: The German Syndicalists in the First World War in Central European History 33 Volume 2, pg. 195

• This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding German Wikipedia article as of December 8, 2006.