Back home, Field Marshal Hindenburg accepted the Berlin provisional government’s invitation and marched back with 100,000 elite German troops to crush the rebellion.
Those hastily thrown-together worker militias didn’t stand a chance against real frontline veterans.
In just one week, the Germans recaptured one major city after another — Aachen, Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Dortmund — the whole works.
Left-wing leaders like Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were arrested one after another, shipped to Berlin, and executed by the right-wing government.
But Hindenburg didn’t stop there. After putting down the worker uprisings, he kept pushing north and rolled up to the gates of Kiel — the navy’s crown jewel.
The whole reason the Kaiser had abdicated in the first place? That was the Kiel mutiny.
Sailors weren’t as tough as soldiers, sure. But they were still regular military — way more dangerous than those ragtag worker militias.
So Hindenburg took this seriously. He personally rode up to the front, surrounded Kiel, then sent envoys in to negotiate a surrender.
"These sailors made some mistakes, but they don’t deserve to die for it. If they see reason, hand over their weapons, and stand down — I’m willing to let bygones be bygones and give them another shot!"
The German Communists: Meow? What about us?
To show he meant business, Hindenburg sent his right-hand man, Wilhelm Groener, to handle the negotiations with the sailors.
When the rebels inside Kiel heard there were 100,000 German troops outside — and that the legendary Hindenburg himself was in charge — they got nervous:
"Maybe we should just surrender. That many soldiers? We can’t fight that."
The sailors’ representatives clearly didn’t want this fight. They knew damn well how outmatched sailors were against soldiers on land. Zero chance of winning.
But the workers’ Soviet representatives refused to give in:
"Scared? Bring it on. We’ve got home-field advantage — it’s not like we can’t beat them back."
"That’s right. Fight and we might live. Surrender, and our lives are in someone else’s hands. You saw what happened to our comrades in the Ruhr!"
Yeah. They’d all seen what happened to the left-wing leaders in the Ruhr.
Hindenburg might be a man of his word — maybe he wouldn’t kill them. But the right-wing government in Berlin? Those guys didn’t play nice. Once they got their hands on you, your life was a coin flip.
"So the sailors inside the city want to surrender, but the workers won’t go along?"
"That’s the situation, Marshal. If we can disarm the workers with overwhelming speed, the Kiel uprising will collapse."
When the sailors first mutinied, the workers in the city jumped on board. They armed themselves, formed worker-soldier units, and joined forces with the sailors to set up the Kiel Soviet government.
Now the workers were calling the shots. They refused to surrender. Even if the sailors gave up, the rebellion wouldn’t fully die out.
"Then we fight. We fight until they surrender!"
General Hans von Seeckt was fired up. These were just a bunch of clueless workers — he’d seen plenty of their kind in the Ruhr. Who the hell did they think they were, bargaining with him?
Don’t like it? We’ll beat you until you do.
"Hold on. Kiel is a major naval stronghold. Back when we were worried about an Entente surprise attack, we built fortifications and defensive works all over the place. The navy holds the defense blueprints — we don’t have detailed maps."
"If we charge in blind without knowing their troop positions and firepower layout, we’re asking for unnecessary casualties — maybe even a failed assault."
Compared to Seeckt’s hot head, Groener was thinking way more carefully.
"Then what do you suggest? We just sit here and do nothing?"
Seeckt glared at Groener, and everyone else turned to look at him too.
"We need an elite unit that’s good at night fighting. Slip in under cover of darkness, take out their leadership. Knock out the head, and Kiel falls on its own."
An elite night-fighting unit?
All eyes swung to General Oskar von Hutier, standing behind Hindenburg.
As the pioneer of infiltration tactics, Hutier and his men were masters of night raids and surprise attacks — the perfect fit for this job.
But when he noticed everyone staring at him, Hutier shook his head:
"Gentlemen, my men are good at infiltration and raids. But the best at night fighting? That’s not us. That’s the Crown Prince’s Stormtroopers."
"Stormtroopers? You mean that unit that broke 100,000+ enemies with 8,000 men and punched through two American defensive lines in one night?"
That reminder got everyone thinking. When they’d first heard about the Stormtroopers’ record, they figured it was just propaganda — someone hyping up the Crown Prince. Sounded fake.
I mean, these were battle-hardened commanders. What kind of unit could pull off something that insane — outnumbered and still crushing the enemy like that?
But looking at Hutier’s face, it didn’t seem like he was exaggerating. Maybe this unit was real.
"That’s them. If you can convince the Crown Prince to send them here, Marshal, Kiel won’t be a problem."
Ask the Crown Prince for help? That would make him look weak.
This was just a bunch of mutineers. He could handle it himself. Why would he need outside help?
Hindenburg was about to turn it down when he caught Groener frantically signaling him with his eyes.
Curious, he made up an excuse to dismiss everyone else and kept Groener behind.
"Marshal, Hutier’s suggestion is solid. You shouldn’t have rejected it."
Hindenburg shot him a look, waiting for an explanation.
"I think this is the perfect chance to gauge the Crown Prince’s real strength and his attitude toward us. If he refuses to lend the troops, that means he’s just using us as tools — not treating us as his own people."
"If this so-called Stormtrooper unit isn’t as strong as the rumors say, then we’ve overestimated what the Crown Prince actually has. In that case, we might want to reconsider the Berlin government’s offer."
Hindenburg mulled it over, thought hard for a while, and finally took Groener’s advice.
The telegram reached Crown Prince Wilhelm fast. After reading it, he let out a cold laugh:
"That old fox Hindenburg is testing me."
He’d been planning to let the old man keep some dignity after the war. Guess that wasn’t gonna happen now.
The guy had too much ambition, too many schemes. Not loyal enough. Too hard to control.
And honestly? A relic from the old era like him was never gonna keep up with the new world.
Instead of letting him hold a high position in the military, better to promote some younger blood.
Bock, Rundstedt, Manstein, Guderian, Rommel, Model...
Germany’s bag of commanders never runs dry. What they lack isn’t talent — it’s opportunity.