<P> German women were not employed in the Army, but large numbers took paid employment in industry and factories, and even larger numbers engaged in volunteer services . Housewives were taught how to cook without milk, eggs or fat; agencies helped widows find work . Banks, insurance companies and government offices for the first time hired women for clerical positions . Factories hired them for unskilled labor--by December 1917, half the workers in chemicals, metals, and machine tools were women . Laws protecting women in the workplace were relaxed, and factories set up canteens to provide food for their workers, lest their productivity fall off . The food situation in 1918 was better, because the harvest was better, but serious shortages continued, with high prices, and a complete lack of condiments and fresh fruit . Many migrants had flocked into cities to work in industry, which made for overcrowded housing . Reduced coal supplies left everyone in the cold . Daily life involved long working hours, poor health, and little or no recreation, an increasing fears for the safety of loved ones in the Army and in prisoner of war camp . The men who returned from the front were those who had been permanently crippled; wounded soldiers who had recovered were sent back to the trenches . </P> <P> Many Germans wanted an end to the war and increasing numbers of Germans began to associate with the political left, such as the Social Democratic Party and the more radical Independent Social Democratic Party which demanded an end to the war . The third reason was the entry of the United States into the war in April 1917, which changed the long - run balance of power in favor of the Allies . The end of October 1918, in Kiel, in northern Germany, saw the beginning of the German Revolution of 1918--19 . Civilian dock workers led a revolt and convinced many sailors to join them; the revolt quickly spread to other cities . Meanwhile, Hindenburg and the senior generals lost confidence in the Kaiser and his government . </P> <P> In November 1918, with internal revolution, a stalemated war, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire suing for peace, Austria - Hungary falling apart from multiple ethnic tensions, and pressure from the German high command, the Kaiser and all German ruling princes abdicated . On 9 November 1918, the Social Democrat Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed a Republic, in cooperation with the business and middle classes, not the revolting workers . The new government led by the German Social Democrats called for and received an armistice on 11 November 1918; in practice it was a surrender, and the Allies kept up the food blockade to guarantee an upper hand . The war was over; the history books closed on the German Empire . It was succeeded by the democratic, yet flawed, Weimar Republic . </P> <P> Seven million soldiers and sailors were quickly demobilized, and they became a conservative voice that drowned out the radical left in cities such as Kiel and Berlin . The radicals formed the Spartakusbund and later the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). </P>

Who led the german army in world war 1