Gustav Noske
Gustav Noske was a German

 politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany
Social Democratic Party of Germany

 (SPD). He served as the first Minister of Defence of Germany
Federal Ministry of Defence (Germany)
The Federal Ministry of Defence is a top-level federal agency, headed by the Federal Minister of Defence as a member of the Cabinet of Germany...

 between 1919 and 1920.


Noske was born in Brandenburg an der Havel. He was a Master Butcher by trade, who had climbed the political ladder within the trade union movement. He was a member of the Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party of Germany

 and became a member of the German Parliament
Reichstag (German Empire)
The Reichstag was the parliament of the North German Confederation , and of the German Reich ....

 in 1906, where he remained during World War I
World War I

. He had long shown an interest in military and colonial affairs.

Noske is regarded as a moderate and pragmatic Social Democrat; however, many in the party in his lifetime were angered by such acts as Noske's voting for the construction of new dreadnought
The dreadnought was the predominant type of 20th-century battleship. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", and earlier battleships became known as pre-dreadnoughts...

s for the German Navy, at the time when the pre-1914 Social Democratic Party took a strongly anti-militarist and anti-war position. Noske justified his act by the argument that naval construction created jobs for shipyard workers. In the 1914-1918 period, the Party's outspoken support for Germany's participation in the First World War in effect affirmed the deviant position taken by Noske in the pre-war years.

Best known for putting down the Communist and left wing risings throughout Germany in early 1919, Noske was and remains a controversial figure. To crush the incipient revolution, he permitted and even encouraged the organization and employment of right-wing, nationalist Freikorps

. Between January 10 and January 17, 1919 they, together with Reichswehr
The Reichswehr formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when it was renamed the Wehrmacht ....

 troops under the command of General von Lüttwitz
Walther von Lüttwitz
Walther von Lüttwitz was a German general known for his involvement in the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch.Lüttwitz was born in Bodland near Kreuzburg in Upper Silesia. During World War I, Lüttwitz held several high military ranks...

, crushed the Spartacist revolt
Spartacist uprising
The Spartacist Uprising , also known as the January uprising , was a general strike in Germany from January 5 to January 15, 1919. Its suppression marked the end of the German Revolution...

 by military force, the leaders - Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...

 and Karl Liebknecht
Karl Liebknecht

 - were shot by members of the 1st Horse Guards Division as they were being arrested after the fighting had ended on January 17. On the other hand, he defused the Kiel Mutiny of 1918 without a shot being fired.

One of the few Social Democrats willing to work with the traditional officer class which continued to dominate the Army, Noske was instrumental in restoring order and preventing a German version of the Bolshevik October Revolution
October Revolution

 in Russia.

Noske was Governor of the Province of Hanover
Province of Hanover
The Province of Hanover was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1868 to 1946.During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position, along with some other member states of the German Confederation...

 from 1920 on, but was dismissed by the Nazi government in 1933. In 1944 he was arrested by the Gestapo

 under suspicion of involvement in the July 20 plot
July 20 Plot

 against Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler

. Noske was freed by advancing Allied troops and lived in Frankfurt am Main afterwards. He died while preparing for a lecture tour of the United States
United States


SPD politician Johannes Kahrs
Johannes Kahrs (politician)
Johannes Kahrs is a German politician. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.Kahrs' parents are Wolfgang and Bringfriede Kahrs, who were both senators in Bremen for Social Democratic Party of Germany. After his schooling in Bremen, Kahrs went in to the military and became an...

, a leading contemporary representative of the moderate wing of the SPD, has described Gustav Noske as one of his political role models.