On September 3rd 1919, during the Spartacist uprising that followed Germany's defeat in World War I, there was fighting in public places in the streets of Berlin between the security forces of the German government and the Spartacists. People were shot dead in the streets, and the streets were strewn with bodies. The fighting, which resulted in many deaths, left the dead, injured and dying lying in the streets.
In January 1919, the Spartacus Revolution took a decisive and violent turn. After the Spartacus uprising broke out in Berlin and the coalition government of the SPD and USPD collapsed, the uprising flared up in the capital city of Berlin. On January 5th, the Spartacus League incited revolutionary workers and soldiers to revolt and declared the dissolution of the People's Deputies Assembly. Left-wing extremists occupied a publishing house in Berlin and formed a revolutionary committee. After negotiations with the People's Representative Assembly broke down, Gustav Noske, the Minister of Defense of the Weimar Republic, ordered the German Imperial Army to suppress the rebellion. The Imperial Army strengthened its position through ruthless street fighting, which resembled a civil war in Germany. The violence of the Spartacus Rebellion did not end with defeat. As part of a political cleansing operation, the Weimar army and the Freikorps searched every working-class district in Berlin to find and intern revolutionary workers.