Purchased by the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College on August 12, 2020 from Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York.

Street Fighting in Berlin! Spartacans and government troops are still fighting in Berlin. Herr [Gustav] Noske has issued an order that anyone found fighting against the government will be executed. This order is being put into effect. The photograph shows government troops in action against the Spartacans on a barricaded street, World War I.

The Spartacist uprising (also known as the January Uprising / Januaraufstand), was a general strike in Berlin from January 5 - 12, 1919. The strike included armed battles. Germany was in the middle of a post-war revolution, and two of the perceived paths forward were social democracy and a similar council republic. The uprising was primarily a power struggle between the moderate Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) led by Friedrich Ebert, and the radical communists of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. Liebknecht and Luxemburg had previously founded and led the Spartacist League (Spartakusbund). The revolt was improvised and on a small-scale, and it was quickly crushed by the superior firepower of government troops.

Credited in plate with typeset credit and title on label affixed to verso.

Ferrotyped prints are processed in such a way that they are shiny. The print has a sensitive surface, usually thinner, because it was put through a press while still wet.

Ferrotyped prints have a sensitive surface, usually shiny and thinner, because they are put through a press while still wet. Ferrotyping makes the surface of the photograph smoother. Light does not scatter as much on a smoother surface, so this increases contrast. That makes ferrotyped images better for press photography.

This object has the following keywords:

• Artillery
• Berlin
• Gustav Noske
• Post-war world
• Revolutions
• Soldiers
• Spartacist uprising
• Street Scenes
• Strikers
• World War I

This object is a member of the following portfolios: