And the Kaiser abdicates Part 9

On October 29th the government at Vienna issued a report declaring that a note had been sent to Secretary Lansing, asking him to "have the goodness to intervene with the President of the United States in order that, in the interests of humanity as well as in the interests of all those peoples who live in Austria-Hungary, an immediate armistice may be concluded on all fronts, and for an overture that immediate negotiations for peace may follow." A semi-official statement was issued the same day in an attempt to make it appear that the Dual Monarchy had not been recreant to its treaty agreement not to conclude a separate peace. Count Andra.s.sy's note to Lansing, it was explained, did not "necessarily mean an offer of a separate peace. It means merely that Austria-Hungary is ready to act separately in the interests of the reestablishment of peace."

The fine distinction between "separate peace" and "separate action to reestablish peace" could deceive n.o.body. All Germany staggered under the blow, and while she was still staggering, there came another. Turkey quit. Germany stood alone, deserted, betrayed.

Fast on the heels of the Austrian collapse came the terror of defeated governments--revolution. The ink had not dried on Vienna's note on October 29th before students and workingmen began a.s.sembling in front of the Parliament buildings in the Austrian capital. Officers in uniform addressed cheering thousands, and called on the soldiers among their hearers to remove the national colors from their caps and uniforms.

President Dinghofer of the National Council declared that the council would take over the whole administration of the country, "but without the Habsburgs." When, on the same afternoon, the National a.s.sembly came together for its regular session, a crowd gathered in front of the Diet and cheered a huge red flag unfurled by workingmen on the very steps of the Diet building.

Revolution is both contagious and spontaneous in defeat. The news from Vienna was followed by reports of revolution in Hungary. In Budapest laborers plundered the military depots and armed themselves. In Prague the _Prager Haus-Regiment_, No. 28, took charge of the revolution. This was one of the regiments that had been disbanded in 1915 for treachery in the Carpathians. Now it came into its own. Count Michael Karolyi telegraphed on October 31st to the Berlin _Tageblatt_:

"Revolution in Budapest. National Council has taken over the government. Military and police acknowledge National Council completely. Inhabitants rejoicing."

The message was signed by Karolyi as president of the National Council.

The revolution in Bohemia exercised a particularly depressing effect upon loyal Germans because of its outspoken anti-German character. Even in these first days the Czechish newspapers began discussing the division of German territories. The _Vecer_ demanded Vienna as a part of the new Czecho-Slovak state on the ground that a majority of the city's inhabitants or their ancestors originally came from Bohemia and Moravia.

The _Narodini Listy_ gave notice that the Germans of Northern Bohemia would not be permitted to join Germany. These were among the more moderate demands made by this press.

"What will the Kaiser do?" asked the Berlin _Vorwarts_ in its leading Article on the last day of October. The article voiced a question which all but the most extreme reactionaries had been asking for two weeks.

Even men devoted to the monarch personally and themselves convinced monarchists in principle realized that the only hope of securing a just peace lay in sacrificing Kaiser Wilhelm. Scheidemann, the Socialist Secretary of State, wrote to Chancellor Prince Max, declaring that the Kaiser must retire, and that his letter had been written "in agreement with the leaders of the Socialist party and its representatives in the Reichstag." Up to the time of the publication of the _Vorwarts_ leader the authorities had forbidden any public discussion of the Kaiser's abdication. The censorship restrictions on this subject were now removed and the press was permitted to discuss it freely.

But while many of the party leaders were already inwardly convinced that the supreme sacrifice of abdication must be made by the Kaiser, none of the Empire's political parties except the two Socialist parties considered it politically expedient to make the demand. Even the Progressives, farthest to the left of all the _bourgeois_ parties, not only refused to follow the Socialists' lead, but went on record as opposed to abdication. At a convention of the party in Greater Berlin on November 6th, Dr. Mugdan, one of the party's prominent Reichstag deputies, reporting the att.i.tude of the party on the question of abdication, said:

"The Progressives do not desire to sow further unrest and confusion among the German people."

This was the att.i.tude of a majority of the leaders among the people. It was dictated less by loyalty to the sovereign than by a realization that the disintegrating propaganda of the Internationalists had affected so large a part of the people that the abdication of the Kaiser would almost inevitably bring the collapse of the state. They could not yet realize that this collapse was inevitable in any case, nor that the number of those devoted to the Kaiser was comparatively so small that it was of little consequence whether he remained on the throne or abdicated.

The Kaiser himself, as will be seen later,[22] was mainly moved by the same considerations. He believed chaos would certainly follow his abdication. It is also far from improbable that he had not yet abandoned all hope of military victory. The German army leaders, in trying to deceive the people into a belief that a successful termination of the war was still possible, had doubtless deceived their monarch as well.

Possibly they had even deceived themselves. Field Marshal von Hindenburg sent a message to the press on November 3d, wherein he declared:

"Our honor, freedom and future are now at stake. We are invincible if we are united. If the German army be strongly supported by the will of the people, our Fatherland will brave all onslaughts."

[22] _Vide_ chapter X.

But while Hindenburg was writing the situation was altering for the worse with every hour. Kaiser Karl had fled from Vienna. German officers had been attacked in Bucharest. Bavarian troops had been refused permission to use railways in Austrian Tirol. German troops had been disarmed and robbed in Bohemia and even in Hungary. The German armies in the West were still fighting bravely, but even the ingeniously worded communiques of Great Headquarters could not conceal the fact that they were being steadily thrown back, with heavy loss of prisoners and guns.

Rumors of serious revolts in the fleet were circulating from mouth to mouth and, after the manner of rumors, growing as they circulated. Even the monarchist, Conservative _Lokal-Anzeiger_ had to admit the gravity of the situation. On November 6th it declared that "a mighty stream" was rolling through the land, and every one who had eyes to see and ears to hear could perceive "whither this current is setting." It continued:

"New factors of great importance have increased the confusion: the collapse of our allies, their complete submission to the will of our enemies, the multiplication thereby of the military dangers that surround us, and, not least, the catastrophic dissolution of all order in Austria-Hungary. The blind fanaticism of Bolshevism, which would with brutal force tear down everything in its way and destroy in Germany as well every remnant of authority, is planning now, in the very moment when the final decision must be reached, to play into the hands of our enemies through internal revolution. We will not at this time discuss whether the authorities have done their complete duty in putting down this movement, which everyone could see growing. It is enough to say that the danger is here, and duty demands that we stand together from left to right, from the top to the bottom, to render these destroying elements harmless or, if it be too late for that, to strike them to the ground.

"And another thing must be said. Just as the people's government has undertaken to bring about a peace that does not destroy the vital interests of the German people, * * * it must just as energetically endeavor to protect us from internal collapse with all the strength and all the authority which its const.i.tution as a people's government confers upon it. * * * When, as now, the overthrow of all existing inst.i.tutions is being preached, when the people's government is disregarded and recourse is had to force, the government must realize that there is but one thing to do. The people, whose representatives the members of government are, want concrete evidence that an insignificant minority will not be permitted to trample upon the inst.i.tutions of state and society under whose protection we have heretofore lived. * * * The German Empire is not yet ripe for the disciples of Lenine and Trotzky."

General von h.e.l.lingrath, Bavarian Minister of War, issued a proclamation calling on the people to preserve order and not to lose their confidence in the government. A report that Bavarian troops had been sent to the North Tirol to protect Bavaria's borders against possible aggression by Czechish and Jugo-Slavic troops of the former ally further depressed all Germans, and particularly the South Germans.

The new government made an appeal to the people's reason. In a proclamation issued on November 4th and signed by Prince Max and all other members of the cabinet, including Scheidemann, it called attention to the parliamentary reforms already accomplished and summoned the people to give their fullest support to the government. These reforms were:

Equal franchise in Prussia; the formation of a government from the majority parties of the Reichstag; the Chancellor and his ministers could retain office only if they possessed the confidence of the Reichstag and hence of the people; declarations of war and conclusions of peace now required the a.s.sent of the Reichstag; the military had been subordinated to the civil authorities; a broad amnesty had been declared, and the freedom of a.s.semblage and of the press a.s.sured.

"The alteration of Germany into a people's state, which shall not stand in the rear of any state in the world in respect of political freedom and social reforms, will be carried further with decision," said the proclamation.

It was a very respectable array of real reforms that was thus set forth.

If they had come a few months earlier the subsequent course of Germany's and the whole world's history would doubtless have been changed. But, unknown to the great ma.s.s of Germans except through wild rumor, revolution had already come and the German Empire was tottering to its fall.

CHAPTER IX.

A Revolt Which Became a Revolution.

The elements that had long been working to bring about a revolution had for months been nearer their goal than even they themselves suspected, but they were nevertheless not ready for the final step when events, taking the bit into their teeth, ran away with the revolutionists along the very road which they had wanted to follow.

It lies in the nature of the employment of those that go down to the sea in ships that they are more resolute and reckless than their sh.o.r.e-keeping brothers, and less amenable to discipline. They are also subject to certain cosmopolitan, international influences which do not further blind patriotism. Furthermore, the percentage of rude, violent and even criminally inclined men is proportionately higher afloat than ash.o.r.e. The Russian revolution of 1905 started among the sailors in Cronstadt. The same men set the example in atrocities against officers in the Russian revolution of 1917. Sailors played a prominent part in the Portuguese revolution, and there are few fleets in the world without their history of rough deeds done by mutinous mariners.

On October 28th there came an order from the Admiralty at Berlin that the fleet was to be prepared for a cruise into the North Sea. Just what this cruise was intended to accomplish is not clear. High naval officers have a.s.sured the writer that it was to have been primarily a reconnaissance, and that no naval battle was intended or desired. The report circulated among the crews, however, that a last desperate stand was to be made, in which the whole fleet would be sacrificed, but in which as great losses as possible were to be inflicted on the British Fleet. This was not at all to the liking of men demoralized by long idleness--an idleness, moreover, in which Bolshevist Satans had found much work for them to do.

Just at this time, too, came a gruesome story which further unfavorably affected the crews' morale. A submarine cruiser, it was reported, had become entangled in a net, but had freed itself and reached port, dragging the net with it. When the net was pulled ash.o.r.e, it was declared, three small U-boats were found fast in it, their crews dead of suffocation. The story was probably false, but it increased the men's opposition to the cruise ordered. They were also disquieted by the fact that large numbers of floating mines were being brought aboard the speedier cruisers.

Rumblings of the coming storm were heard first on board the battleships _Thuringen_ and _Helgoland_, a part of whose crews flatly refused to obey orders to carry out the cruise ordered by the Admiralty. The mutiny was not general even aboard these ships, and it was quickly quelled. The embers, however, smouldered for three days and then burst into flame.

Alone among the great revolutions of the world, the German revolution was the work of the humblest of the proletariat, unplanned and unguided by _bourgeois_ elements. It came from below not only in the figurative but also in the literal sense of the word, for it came from the very hold of a battleship. It was the stokers of the _Markgraf_ at Kiel who set rolling the stone which became the avalanche of revolution.

The crews of the _Markgraf_ and of some of the other ships in the Kiel squadron demanded that the mines be taken ash.o.r.e and the projected cruise abandoned. The officers refused their demands. Thereupon the stokers of the _Markgraf_ left the ship and went ash.o.r.e. This was on Sunday morning, November 3d. The stokers were joined by members of other ships' crews ash.o.r.e at the time, and a meeting was held. When the stokers returned to the _Markgraf_ they found her guarded by marines and they were not permitted to come aboard. They boarded another ship nearby and demanded their dinner. Messtime had pa.s.sed while they were holding their meeting ash.o.r.e, and their demand was refused. The stokers broke into the provision-rooms and helped themselves. Thereupon the mutineers, about one hundred and fifty in number, were arrested and taken to the military prison in the center of the city. All the small boats of the _Markgraf_ were taken ash.o.r.e to prevent the rest of the crew from reaching land.

When the arrest of the mutinous stokers became known aboard their battleship there was an outburst of indignation. The officers, in sending the boats ash.o.r.e, had overlooked an old barge which lay alongside the ship. As many of the crew as the barge could carry clambered into it and rowed ash.o.r.e, using boards as paddles. Then they sent the small boats back to bring ash.o.r.e the rest of their comrades. At four o'clock in the afternoon practically the entire crew of the _Markgraf_ held a meeting on the large promenade and maneuver grounds near the harbor. A great many members of other ships' crews attended this meeting. Violent speeches were made and it was decided to demand the immediate release of the _Markgraf's_ stokers. Shortly before six o'clock the inflamed mob--it was already little else--went to the Waldwiese (city park), where a company of the First Marine Division was quartered. The mutineers demolished the barracks, released several men who were locked up for minor military offenses, and stole all the arms and ammunition in the place.

An ordered procession then started toward the center of the city. It grew steadily in size as it went through accretions from sailors, marines and other members of war-vessels' crews, and also from the riotous and criminal elements common to all larger cities and especially to harbor-cities.

The military authorities had meanwhile made preparations to deal with the mutineers. As early as four o'clock _erhohte Alarmbereitschaft_ (literally, "increased readiness to respond to an alarm") had been ordered. Buglers and drummers pa.s.sed through the streets, proclaiming the order and warning against demonstrations.

The mutineers' procession reached the central railway station about 7 P.M., and proceeded, its numbers increasing steadily, through the Holsteinstra.s.se to the Market Place. It pa.s.sed through the Danische Stra.s.se and Brunswigerstra.s.se toward Feldstra.s.se, in which was situated the military prison where the _Markgraf_ stokers were confined. The procession had by this time become a howling, whistling, singing mob, whose progress could be heard many blocks away. Pa.s.sers-by were compelled to join the procession. The entrances to the Hospitalstra.s.se and to the Karlstra.s.se at the so-called _Hoffnung_, near the prison, were guarded by strong military forces, and the prison itself was protected by a machine-gun detachment. Firemen were also ready to turn their hoses on the mob.

The procession reached the _Hoffnung_ and prepared to force its way into the Karlstra.s.se. The commander of the troops stationed there ordered the mob to halt. His order was disregarded. The troops fired a blind volley over the heads of the mutineers, who nevertheless forged steadily ahead.

The next volley was poured into the ranks of the marchers. It was followed by shrieks of rage, by scattering shots from the mutineers and by some stone-throwing. There was a sharp conflict for two or three minutes, and then the mob, howling and cursing, scattered panic-stricken.[23] Eight of them lay dead on the street, and twenty-nine were wounded. The officer in command of the troops and one lieutenant were also fatally injured, the former by knife-thrusts and stones.

[23] In all the clashes that marked the subsequent course of the German revolution not one instance can be found where the enemies of authority failed to run like sheep before loyal troops and determined officers. The "martyrs of the revolution" were mainly killed by stray bullets or overtaken by bullets while they were running away.

An hour later the street was quiet, and the night pa.s.sed without further disturbances. The city was strongly patrolled, but otherwise there was nothing to indicate that the curtain had gone up on the world's greatest and most tragic revolution.

The leaders of the mutineers spent most of Sunday night and Monday morning in conference. A Soldiers' Council was formed--the first in Germany. The military governor of Kiel issued a proclamation, calling upon the mutineers to formulate and present their demands. They complied. Their demands were: The release of all persons arrested for breach of discipline; recognition of the Soldiers' Council; abolishing of the duty to salute superiors;[24] officers and men to have the same rations; the proposed expedition of the fleet to be abandoned, and, in general, better treatment of the ships' crews. The governor accepted all these demands, and announcement was made to that effect by wireless to all ships in the Kiel squadron. The mutineers declared themselves satisfied, and promised to resume their duties, to obey orders and to preserve order in the city and board their ships.

[24] It is difficult to understand why Socialists attach such importance to this question. It will be remembered that the very first decree issued by Kerensky was his famous (and fatal) "Prikaz No. 1," abolishing the salute. The Socialists, it is true, hate authority as embodied in a state, yet they voluntarily submit to a party authority quite as rigid as that of Prussian militarism.

In circ.u.mstances at all approaching the normal this would have marked the end of the revolt. But all the circ.u.mstances were abnormal. The men of the navy had, indeed, suffered fewer actual privations and hardships than those of the land forces, but even they had been underfed. Their families, in common with all Germans at home, had endured bitter want, and had written thousands of complaining letters to their relatives afloat.[25] The Socialist contagion--particularly of the Independent brand--had affected wide circles among sailors and marines. Indeed, the chief field of operations of the Ruhles, Haases, Cohns and their Russian helpers had been the navy, where idle hands invited the finding of mischief for them to do. The morale of the members of the navy had also, in common with the morale of the land troops and of the whole German people, been badly shaken by the reverses that began in July, 1918, and by the desertion of Germany by her allies.

[25] Complaining letters from home to the men in the trenches were early recognized by the authorities as a source of danger for the spirit of the troops.

In addition to and above all this there were two fatal factors: authority, the corner stone of all civilized governments, had been shaken, and the mutineers had learned their own strength. If horses were sentient beings with means of communicating their thoughts, and if all the horses of a certain community suddenly discovered that they were really immeasurably stronger than their masters, it would require no great effort of imagination to realize that few horses in that community would thereafter suffer themselves to be harnessed. The only ones that would submit would be a small number of especially intelligent animals who could look ahead to the winter, with deep snow covering the pastures, with no straw-bedded stalls and walls set up against the cold winds.

So it was in Kiel. The mutineers had made their first kill; they had tasted blood. From all the ships of the squadron they streamed into the city. Patrols, established to maintain order, began going over to the revolting seamen. The mutineers secured more arms and ammunition from the barracks at the shipyards and the soldiers stationed there joined them. In the afternoon (Monday) the mutineers joined for a giant demonstration. A procession numbering possibly twenty thousand sailors, marines and soldiers, with a band at the head, marched to the different civil and military prisons and lockups and released the prisoners, who joined the procession. The civil and military authorities of Kiel, gravely disquieted, had meanwhile communicated with the government at Berlin and asked for help. The government replied that it would send Conrad Haussmann and Gustav Noske. Haussmann, who had for many years been one of the leaders of the Clerical (Catholic) party in the Reichstag, was a member of Prince Max's cabinet. He was chosen as the government's official representative. Noske, who was later to demonstrate himself to be one of the few really able and forceful men of Germany, had been for some years a member of the Reichstag as Majority Socialist. A woodworker by trade, he had as a youth lifted himself out of the ruck of his party by energy, ambition, hard work and straightforwardness. He became a party secretary and later editor of a Socialist paper in Chemnitz.[26] Although not so widely known as many other Socialist leaders in the Reichstag, he nevertheless played a prominent part in his party's councils and was highly regarded and respected. He enjoyed also a wide popularity among members of the fleet, and it was confidently expected that he would be able to calm the unruly troublemakers and restore order.

[26] The typical career of a German Socialist leader. It is not far afield to estimate that seven of every ten of the Socialist leaders and government officials in Germany have been or still are members of the editorial staffs of Socialist newspapers or magazines. Most of the others are lawyers; proletarians who earn their bread by the actual sweat of their brows are rare in the party leadership.