Kiel mutiny
revolt by sailors of the German High Seas Fleet on 1918
The Kiel mutiny (German: Kieler Matrosenaufstand) was a revolt by sailors of the German High Seas Fleet against the maritime military command in Kiel. The mutiny broke out on 3 November 1918 after sailors at Wilhelmshaven refused orders on 30 October to sail out for what was to be the final battle against the British Grand Fleet. The mutineers saw the planned battle, which had been ordered by the Admiralty without the knowledge or approval of the German government, as a futile "death voyage". They took over Kiel by means of workers' and soldiers' councils and then helped spread them across Germany. The German Revolution that was triggered by the councils swept aside the Hohenzollern monarchy within a few days, brought about the end of the German Empire and led to the establishment of the Weimar Republic.
Background
Morale in the High Seas Fleet
Following the Battle of Jutland in mid-1916, the leadership of the German Empire did not want to risk losing additional ships that it would be unable to replace. The fleet had consequently lain for the most part idly at anchor since the battle. Many officers transferred from capital ships to submarines and light vessels, which still had a role to play in the fighting. They were generally replaced by young officers who did not know how to handle the more experienced crews. The discipline and spirit of those who remained with the capital ships consequently suffered.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q702250. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1918 and 1916.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kiel mutiny” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.