And the Kaiser abdicates Part 13

Sunday was ushered in with the crack of rifle fire and the rattle of machine-guns. Nervous _Genossen_, incited by fanatics or irresponsible agitators saw the specter of counterrevolution on every hand and circulated wild tales of officers firing on the people from various buildings, chiefly the Victoria Cafe and the Bauer Cafe at the corner of Unter den Linden and Friedrichstra.s.se, some buildings near the Friedrichstra.s.se railway station, other buildings farther down Unter den Linden, and the Engineers' Society building and the official home of the Reichstag president, the two last-named buildings situated across the street to the east of the Reichstag. While it is barely possible that some loyal cadets may have fired on a crowd in one or two places, it has never been definitely proved. The talk of resistance by officers is absurd. The only occupant of the residence of the Reichstag president, which was fired at with machine guns from the roof of the Reichstag, was one frightened old woman, who spent the day crouching in a corner of the cellar. There was n.o.body in the Engineers' building. The day's victims were all killed to no purpose by the wild shooting of persons--mainly youths--who lost their heads. The shooting continued on Monday, but gradually died out. The stories sent to the outside world through the soviet-controlled Wolff Bureau of officers firing on the revolutionaries and then escaping by subterranean pa.s.sages were the inventions of excited and untrained minds.

It had been decided at Sat.u.r.day night's conference to hold an election on Sunday morning for district workmen's and soldiers' councils, and to hold a meeting at the Circus Busch at five o'clock Sunday afternoon to form the government. Sunday morning's papers published the summons for the election. The larger factories were directed to elect one delegate for every thousand employees. Factories employing fewer than five hundred persons were directed to unite for the election of delegates.

Each battalion of soldiers was also to choose one delegate. These delegates were directed to meet at Circus Busch for the election of a provisional government.

The Majority Socialists were in a difficult position. The Independents claimed--and with right--that they had "made the revolution." The preponderance of brute force was probably, so far as Berlin alone was concerned, on their side. In any event they had a support formidable enough to compel Scheidemann and his followers to make concessions to them. The three delegates from each party met again. The result of their deliberations was concessions on both sides. The Majority Socialists agreed to exclude _bourgeois_ elements from the cabinet, but the Independents agreed that this should not apply to those ministers (war, navy, etc.), whose posts required men of special training--the so-called _Fachminister_. The Independents consented to enter the government without placing a time-limit on their stay or on its existence. Each party was to designate three "people's commissioners" (_Volksbeauftragte_), who were to have equal rights.

The Independents stipulated further in their conditions (which were accepted):

"The political power shall be in the hands of the workmen's and soldiers' councils, which shall be summoned shortly from all parts of the empire for a plenary session.

"The question of a const.i.tuent a.s.sembly will not become a live issue until after a consolidation of the conditions created by the revolution, and shall therefore be reserved for later consideration."

The Independents announced that, these conditions being accepted, their party had named as members of the government Hugo Haase, Wilhelm Dittmann and Emil Barth. Dittmann had but recently been released from jail, where he was serving a short sentence for revolutionary and anti-war propaganda. He was secretary of the Independent Socialist party's executive committee, an honest fanatic and but one step removed from a communist. Barth was in every way unfit to be a member of any government. There were grave stories afloat, some of them well founded, of his moral derelictions, and he was a man of no particular ability.

Some months later, and several weeks after he had resigned from the cabinet, he was found riding about Southern Germany on the pa.s.s issued to him as a cabinet member and agitating for the overthrow of the government of which he had been a part.

The Majority Socialists selected as their representatives in the government Friedrich (Fritz) Ebert, Phillip Scheidemann and Otto Landsberg, the last named an able and respected lawyer and one of the intellectual leaders of the Berlin Socialists.

When, at 5:00 P.M., the combined workmen's and soldiers' councils of Greater Berlin met in the Circus Busch, Ebert was able to announce that the differences between the two Socialist parties had been adjusted. The announcement was greeted with hearty applause. The meeting had a somewhat stormy character, but was more orderly than might have been expected. A considerable number of front-soldiers were present, and the meeting was dominated throughout by them. They demonstrated at the outset that they had no sympathy with fanatic and ultraradical agitators and measures, and Liebknecht, who delivered a characteristic pa.s.sionate harangue, demanding the exclusion of the Majority Socialists from any partic.i.p.ation in the government, had great difficulty in getting a hearing. The choice of the six "people's commissioners" was ratified by the meeting.

It is a striking thing, explainable probably only by ma.s.s-psychology, that although the meeting was openly hostile to Liebknecht and his followers, it nevertheless voted by an overwhelming majority, to "send the Russian Workmen's and Soldiers' government our fraternal greetings,"

and decided that the new German government should "immediately resume relations with the Russian government, whose representative in Berlin it awaits."

The meeting adopted a proclamation declaring that the first task for the new government should be the conclusion of an armistice. "An immediate peace," said this proclamation, "is the revolution's parole. However this peace may be, it will be better than a continuation of the unprecedented slaughter."[45] The proclamation declared that the socialization of capitalistic means of production was feasible and necessary, and that the Workmen's and Soldiers' Council was "convinced that an upheaval along the same lines is being prepared throughout the whole world. It expects confidently that the proletariat of other countries will devote its entire might to prevent injustice being done to the German people at the end of the war."[46] Following the adoption of this proclamation, the meeting elected a _Vollzugsrat_ or executive council from the membership of the workmen's and soldiers' councils present. It was made up of twenty-eight men, fourteen workmen and fourteen soldiers, and the Majority and Independent Socialists were represented on each branch of the council with seven members. The twenty-eight men chosen were Emil Barth, Captain von Beerfelde, Bergmann, Felix Bernhagen, Otto Braun, Franz Buchel, Max Cohen (Reuss), Erich Daumig, Heinrich Denecke, Paul Eckert, Christian Finzel, Gelberg, Gustav Gerhardt, Gierth, Gustav h.e.l.ler, Ernst Julich, Georg Ledebour, Maynitz, Brutus Molkenbuhr, Richard Muller, Paul Neuendorf, Hans Paasche, Walter Portner, Colin Ross, Otto Strobel, Waltz and P. Wegmann.

Captain von Beerfelde was made chairman of the soldiers' branch and Muller of the workmen's representatives on this council. Muller, a metal-worker by trade, was a rabid Independent Socialist, a fiery agitator and bitter opponent of a const.i.tuent a.s.sembly. It was largely due to his leadership and to the support accorded him by Ledebour and certain other radical members of the _Vollzugsrat_ that this council steadily drifted farther and farther toward the Independent and Spartacan side and ultimately became one of the greatest hindrances to honest government until its teeth were drawn in December.

[45] Germany would have accepted almost any kind of peace in November. This is but one of many things indicating it.

[46] There is something both characteristic and pathetic in the German Socialists' confidence that the proletariat in the enemy countries would follow their example. The wish was, of course, father to the thought, but it exhibited that same striking inability to comprehend other peoples' psychology that characterized the Germans throughout the war.

The council, however, started out well. Its first act, following the Circus Busch meeting, was to order the _Lokal-Anzeiger_ and the _Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung_ restored to their lawful owners, and this was done. The council formally confirmed the choice of the six _Volksbeauftragte_ and established rules for their guidance. Neither the council nor the people's commissioners could claim to have their mandate from the whole Empire, but they a.s.sumed it. Revolutionary governments cannot be particular, and Berlin was, after all, the capital and most important city. There was, furthermore, no time to wait for general elections. The Circus Busch meeting had good revolutionary precedents, and some sort of central government was urgently necessary.

There was still some scattered firing in Berlin on Monday, but comparative order was established. The six-man cabinet was in almost uninterrupted session, and the first result of its deliberation was an edict, issued on Tuesday, making many fundamental changes in existing laws. The edict lifted the "state of siege," which had existed since the outbreak of the war. All limitations upon the right of a.s.sembly were removed, and it was especially provided that state employees and officials should enjoy the right freely to a.s.semble. The censorship was abolished, including also the censorship of theaters.[47] "Expression of opinion in word and print" was declared free.[48] The free exercise of religion was guaranteed. Amnesty was granted all political prisoners, and pending prosecutions for political offenses were annulled.[49] The Domestic Servants law was declared repealed.[50] It was promised that a general eight-hour law should become effective not later than January 1, 1919. Other sociological reforms were promised, and woman's suffrage was introduced with the provision that "all elections for public offices shall hereafter be conducted under equal, secret, general and direct vote on the proportional system by all males and females twenty years old or over."[51] The same system, it was decreed, should be followed in the elections for the national a.s.sembly.

[47] Consistent efforts were made by those interested in discrediting all news sent from Germany after the revolution to make the general public believe that a rigid censorship of outgoing letters and news telegrams was still maintained. The American so-called Military Intelligence--which is responsible for an appalling amount of misinformation--reported in January that the censorship was stricter than during the war. This was untrue. The author, at that time a working journalist in Berlin, was repeatedly entrusted with the censor's stamp and told to stamp his own messages when they were ready, since the censor desired to leave his office. The only reason for maintaining even the formality of a censorship was to prevent the illegitimate transfer of securities or money out of the country. There was no censorship whatever on news messages.

[48] The immediate result of this was a flood of new papers, periodicals and pamphlets, some of them p.o.r.nographic and many of them marked by the grossness which unfortunately characterizes much of the German humor. Some of the publishers fouled their own nests in a manner difficult to understand. One pamphlet sold on the streets was _Die franzosischen Liebschaften des deutschen Kronprinzen wahrend des Krieges_.

[49] This principle was to make much trouble later for the government, for the radical Socialists consider murder a "political crime" if the victim be a _bourgeois_ politician.

There are also extremists for whom any prisoner is a victim of capitalism, and hundreds of dangerous criminals were released in Berlin and various other cities in raids on jails and prisons.

[50] Domestic servants, particularly those in hotels, were real gainers by the revolution. Chambermaids, for example, who had always been on duty from 6 A.M. until 11 or 12 P.M., suddenly found themselves able, for the first time in their lives, to get enough sleep and to have some time at their own disposal.

[51] Twenty-five years had formerly been the age ent.i.tling one to vote. The reduction undoubtedly operated primarily in favor of the Socialists, for youth is inclined to radicalism everywhere.

_Vorwarts_, in a leader on the same day, spoke of the const.i.tuent a.s.sembly as of a thing a.s.sured. A good impression was made by the report that Hindenburg had remained at his post and placed himself at the disposition of the new government. Prince Leopold of Prussia also a.s.sured the government of his support.

The revolution had started well. Reports that the Poles were plundering in Posen and Upper Silesia made little impression. The proletariat was intoxicated with its new liberty. The saner _bourgeoisie_ were differently minded: "_Das Bose sind wir los; die Bosen sind geblieben_."[52]

[52] We have shaken off the great evil; the evil-doers have remained.

CHAPTER XII.

"The German Socialistic Republic."

The character and completeness of the revolution were even yet not realized in all parts of Germany. Rulers of various states, in some places aided by Majority Socialists, made desperate eleventh-hour attempts to save their thrones. Prince Regent Aribert of Anhalt received a deputation of National Liberals, Progressives and Socialists, who presented a program for parliamentarization. The Socialists, Progressives, Clericals and Guelphs in Brunswick coalesced "to further a policy of peace and progress and to spare our people severe internal disorders." The two Reuss princ.i.p.alities amalgamated, and a reformed franchise and parliamentarization were promised. The government in Hesse-Darmstadt ordered thorough parliamentary reforms. The Wurttemburg ministry resigned and the Progressive Reichstag Deputy Liesching was appointed Minister-President. Grand Duke Ernst Wilhelm of Saxe-Weimar renounced the right of exemption from taxation enjoyed not only by him personally, but by all his family and court officials. Grand Duke Friedrich Franz of Mecklenburg-Schwerin received a deputation to discuss parliamentary reforms. A Socialist meeting in Breslau broke up in disorder because the Majority Socialists opposed the Independent Socialists' demand that force be employed to secure the fulfillment of their demands.

But dynasties could not longer be saved. When night came on Monday, the revolution in Germany was to all practical intents an accomplished fact.

Fourteen of the twenty-five states, including all four kingdoms and all the other really important states, were already securely in the revolutionaries' hands. The red flag waved over the historic royal palace in Berlin. King Ludwig of Bavaria had been declared deposed and had fled from his capital. King Friedrich August of Saxony was still nominally occupying his throne, but soldiers' councils had taken over the government both in Dresden and Leipsic, and were considering the King's abdication. Wurttemberg had been declared a republic and the King had announced that he would not be an obstacle to any movement demanded by the majority of his people. The free cities of Hamburg, Bremen and Lubeck were being ruled by Socialists. In the grand duchies of Oldenburg, Baden, Hesse and the Mecklenburgs the rulers' power was gone and their thrones were tottering. Grand Duke Ernst August of Brunswick, the Kaiser's son-in-law, abdicated.

And the Kaiser and King of Prussia fled.

Nothing more vividly ill.u.s.trates the physical, mental and moral exhaustion of the German people at this time than the fact that the former ruler's flight hardly evoked more than pa.s.sing interest. Many newspapers published it with no more display than they gave to orders by Germany's new rulers, and none "played it up" as a great news item.

The clearest picture of the occurrences at the Kaiser's headquarters on the fatal November 9th has been given by General Count von Schulenberg, chief of the General Staff of the Crown Prince's army. Von Schulenberg was present also on November 1st, when Minister of the Interior Drews presented the government's request that the Kaiser abdicate. Drews had hardly finished speaking, reports von Schulenberg, before the Kaiser exclaimed:

"You, a Prussian official, who have sworn the oath of fealty to your king, how can you venture to come before me with such a proposal?

"Have you considered what chaos would follow? Think of it! I abdicate for my person and my house! All the dynasties in Germany collapse in an instant. The army has no leader, the front disintegrates, the soldiers stream in disorder across the Rhine. The revolutionaries join hands, murder, incendiarism and plundering follow, and the enemy a.s.sists. I have no idea of abdicating. The King of Prussia may not be false to Germany, least of all at a time like this. I, too, have sworn an oath, and I will keep it."

Hindenburg and Groener (Ludendorff's successor) shared the Kaiser's opinion at this time that abdication was not to be thought of. The situation, however, altered rapidly in the next few days. Von Schulenburg declares that Scheidemann[53] was the chief factor in the movement to compel the monarch to go. Early on the morning of November 9th, when von Schulenberg reached headquarters building in Spa, he found general depression. "Everybody appeared to have lost his head." The various army chiefs were present to report on the feeling among their men. Hindenburg had reported to them that revolution had broken out in Germany, that railways, telegraphs and provision depots were in the revolutionaries' hands, and that some of the bridges across the Rhine had been occupied by them. The armies were thus threatened with being cut off from the homeland. Von Schulenberg continues:

"I met Generals von Plessen and Marschall, who told me that the Field Marshall (Hindenburg) and General Groener were on the way to tell the Kaiser that his immediate abdication was necessary.

I answered: 'You're mad. The army is on the Kaiser's side.' The two took me with them to the Kaiser. The conference began by Hindenburg's saying to the Kaiser that he must beg to be permitted to resign, since he could not, as a Prussian officer, give his King the message which he must give. The Kaiser answered: 'Well, let us hear the message first.' Thereupon Groener gave a long description of the situation, the homeland in the hands of revolutionists, revolution to be expected in Berlin at any minute, and the army not to be depended on. To attempt with the enemy in the rear to turn the army about and set it in march for civil warfare was not to be thought of. The only salvation for the Fatherland lay in the Kaiser's immediate abdication. Hindenburg, the general intendant and chief of military railways agreed with Groener."

[53] Cf. Scheidemann's statement to von Payer, chapter viii.

The Kaiser asked von Schulenberg's opinion. He disagreed with the others, and counseled resistance. He agreed that it would be impossible to invade all Germany with united front, but advocated an attack on a few places, such as Cologne and Aachen, with picked troops, and an appeal to the people to rise against the marines, who had been "incited to action by the Jews, who had made great profits in the war, and by persons who had escaped doing their duty in the war and were now trying to knife the army in the back."

The Kaiser approved this counsel. He would not abdicate, he declared, nor would he have any part in bringing about civil warfare, but Cologne, Aachen and Verviers must be attacked immediately.

Groener was unconvinced. He declared that the revolution had gone too far and was too well organized throughout Germany to make it possible to put it down by force of arms. Moreover, he said, several army chiefs had reported that the army could no longer be depended on. The Kaiser thereupon asked for a report from every army chief on the army's dependability. A summons to this effect was sent out, and Groener, Hindenburg and von Schulenberg remained with the Kaiser.

One calamitous report after another began coming from Berlin. The military governor reported that he had no longer any dependable troops.

The Chancellor telephoned that civil war was inevitable unless the Kaiser's abdication was received within a few minutes. The Kaiser and the Crown Prince conferred together. Another report came from the Chancellor that the situation in Berlin was steadily becoming graver.

Admiral von Hintze, Minister of Foreign Affairs, who had joined the little group in the Kaiser's rooms, declared that the monarchy could not be saved unless the Kaiser abdicated at once.

Von Schulenberg continues:

"His Majesty thereupon told Excellency von Hintze to telephone to the Chancellor that, in order to prevent bloodshed, he would abdicate as Kaiser, but that he would remain as King of Prussia and not leave his army. I declared that His Majesty's decision should be formulated in writing and telephoned to the Chancellor only when it bore the Kaiser's signature. His Majesty thereupon commissioned Excellency von Hintze, Generals von Pless and Marschall and myself to draw up the declaration. While we were at work on it, the chief of the Imperial Chancellery, Excellency von Wahnschaffe, telephoned. I talked with him myself, and when he said that the abdication must be in Berlin within a few minutes, answered that such an important matter as the Kaiser's abdication could not be completed in a few minutes. The decision was made and was now being put into form; the government must be patient for the half-hour that would be required to place the abdication in its hands. The declaration had the following form:

"'1. His Majesty is prepared to abdicate as Kaiser if further bloodshed can be hindered thereby.

"'2. His Majesty desires that there be no civil war.

"'3. His Majesty remains as King of Prussia and will lead his army back to the homeland in disciplined order.'