fled to Holland on 10 November.

Brunswick had become a center of left-wing activity before the outbreak of the revolution. In 1917, when the radical left wing of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) split away to form the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD), the majority of party members in Brunswick went with it. On 2 November 1918, August Merges, a leader in the local branch of the USPD and an early member of the communist