Hoffrogge, Ralf: Richard Müller. Der Mann hinter der Novemberrevolution (= Geschichte des Kommunismus und Linkssozialismus, Bd. VII). Berlin: Karl Dietz Verlag Berlin 2008. ISBN 978-3-320-02148-1; 240 S.; EUR 19,90.
Rezensiert für H-Soz-u-Kult von:
Hartfrid Krause, Darmstadt
E-Mail: [mailto]hartfrid.krause@web.de[/mailto]
Von Richard (Louis) Müller, 1880-1943, Dreher, Obmann der Berliner Revolutionären Obleute, in der Novemberrevolution 1918/19 Vorsitzender des "Vollzugsrats der Arbeiter- und Soldatenräte", ist für die Zeit vor und nach der Novemberrevolution bisher wenig bekannt. Seine dreibändige Geschichte [1] mit ausführlichen Original-Quellen bildeten jahrzehntelang einen sehr guten Einstieg in diese Zeitepoche neben Arthur Rosenbergs "Entstehung und Geschichte der Weimarer Republik" und sie sind noch heute "eine der fesselndsten Darstellungen zur Novemberrevolution überhaupt" (S. 220).
Wenn der junge Berliner Historiker Ralf Hoffrogge Richard Müller als "vergessenen Revolutionär" (S. 9) bezeichnet, so ist dies zweifellos richtig: Müllers politisches Leben begann etwa 1913, und nach 1923 verloren sich seine Spuren. Die vorgelegte Arbeit versucht die Zeit vor 1913 und nach 1923, soweit sie aus Originalquellen erschließbar ist, nicht auszublenden, auch wenn der Fokus auf der Zeit des Ersten Weltkrieges und der Novemberrevolution liegt. Hoffrogge hat sehr gründlich mit Primär- und Sekundärquellen gearbeitet und manches mit detektivischem Spürsinn zu Tage gefördert.
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Ralf Hoffrogge. Richard Müller: Der Mann hinter der Novemberrevolution. Berlin, Karl Dietz Verlag Berlin, 2008. 240 pp. EUR 19.90 (paper), ISBN 978-3-320-02148-1.
Reviewed by Gary Roth (Rutgers University at Newark)
Published on H-German (June, 2009)
Commissioned by Susan R. Boettcher
Revolutionary Trade Unionism
Richard Müller (1880-1943), the trade union leader whose role in the antiwar strikes helped precipitate the German revolution of 1918, had an uncanny knack for hesitating at key moments. In some circles, this stance was known as pragmatism, although, in Müller's case, it meant that he served as a brake on the revolutionary impulses as they unfolded during and immediately after the overthrow of the German monarchy. On other occasions, his attachment to specific organizational forms and formal procedures was unshakable, as if the flash of events had left him temporarily stunned and unable to act in any fashion except how he was already functioning. Because this pattern repeated itself, it can be considered an individual character trait. But it was a behavioral pattern that typified much of the radical Left's conduct at key moments. Müller's story evokes none of the passion and pathos that surrounds figures like Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, but it is far more representative of the fate of the German revolution.
Quite a lot is known about Müller already. He authored a three-volume history that has served historians as a standard account of the period ever since. Nonetheless, Ralf Hoffrogge's biography is the first full-length examination of Müller's political trajectory.
Hoffrogge takes a fresh look by relying on primary sources--the many protocols, minutes of meetings, and official proclamations produced by the various revolutionary groups and institutions. He brings both nuance and substance to a history that until now has only been perceived in broad terms, and he has added much new material on the earlier and later phases of Müller's career. Since Müller's personal papers were not preserved, Hoffrogge must often speculate as to the reasons for sudden changes in his political evolution. A further problem arises from the author's own parallel concerns. Hoffrogge seems just as interested in the newly forming Communist Party (KPD) as in the politics and ideologies that motivated his ostensible focus, a stance that also mitigates against Hoffrogge's biographical achievements.
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