I find nonintersecting reports in Abel and Gerwarth both in agreement that the revolution distributed red banners and armbands to loyalists in the army.
I reckon the later German election a decent gauge for the Germans' sentiment a scant few months prior. Gerwarth finds that the German voters - which now included women, in fact were mostly women - agreed that they should live under a democratic socialism. Three-quarters of them voted for the MSPD or allies in 1919, not for the nationalists or commies. Verily, they'd been socialists for generations: Bismarck had set up this Reich with Sparta in mind, and the monarchy/-ies was/were redundant 1916 on. Up to the next Christmas, the Berlin socialists - Ebert, Scheidemann, and Liebkneckt - agreed on secular nonroyal socialism and disputed only its form.
So at first the red armbands symbolised democracy and socialism. Peace and Bread, and Progress. NB 10/11- Robert Graves and other veterans in Blighty were wearing them too.
The armbands came off piecemeal. The Christmas bloodletting disgraced the armbands in Berlin. The Munich Soviet did it for Bavaria. The armbands came back on for a bit under the Kapp Putsch; but when their paro-general carried on too long, especially along the Rhine, this was put down too. Socialism no longer symbolised democracy, nor peace; and the socialists weren't delivering the bread.
FOCUS 9/5: split off the early progress of the revolution.
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