And the Kaiser abdicates: The German Revolution November 1918-August 1919

The territory of the Commonwealth consists of the territories of the German States. Other territories may be incorporated into the Commonwealth by national law, if their inhabit...

The provisional constitution adopted at Weimar in February, 1919, was naturally only a makeshift. It contained but ten paragraphs, furnishing the barest outline for the organiza...

Events moved with lightning rapidity. All that has been related in the foregoing chapter concerning the developments of November 9th had happened before 11:00 A.M. The Majority...

Even before the anti-war and revolutionary propaganda had attained great proportions there were indications that all was not well in one branch of the empire's armed forces. Rum...

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...

The concluding statement in the previous chapter must by no means be taken as a general arraignment of Socialism, and it requires careful explanation. Indiscriminately to attack...

Privileges or discriminations due to birth or rank and recognized by law are abolished. Titles of nobility will be regarded merely as part of the name and may not be granted her...

The Independent Socialist trio in the cabinet had been compelled to give up--at least outwardly--their opposition to the summoning of a national assembly. Popular sentiment too...

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 rea...

Dr. Michaelis, unequal to his task, laid down the Imperial Chancellorship. His successor was Count Hertling, Minister-President of Bavaria. The decision to appoint this man Impe...

The conclusion of the armistice was the signal for a general collapse among Germany's armed forces. This did not at first affect the troops in the trenches, and many of them pre...

The peoples of this generation--at least, those of highly civilized and cultured communities--had little or no familiarity with revolutions and the history of revolutions before...

We have seen how the whole manner of life and the traditions of the Germans were obstacles to their political development. Mention has also been made of their peculiar tendency...

In preparation for the National Assembly, the various existing political parties effected generally a sweeping reorganization, which included, for the most part, changes of desi...

The men whose duty it was to take every measure to increase Germany's preparedness for war and her ability to carry on an extended conflict had long realized that the Empire had...

No people ever entered upon a war with more enthusiasm or a firmer conviction of the justice of their cause than did the Germans. Beset for generations on all sides by potential...

Even by the end of November it had become apparent to all intelligent observers on the ground and to many outside Germany that such provisioning was urgently necessary, and that...

The first news of the Kiel revolt reached Berlin on November 5th, when the morning papers published a half-column article giving a fairly accurate story of the happenings of Sun...

In the six weeks that Emil Eichhorn had been Police-President of Berlin the situation in his department had become a public scandal. The arming of the criminal and hooligan clas...

Prince Max, although inspired by the best intentions and filled with modern and liberal ideas, failed to realize that what was needed was not a change of men, but a change of me...

All revolutions have their second phase, and this phase ordinarily presents features similar in kind and varying only in degree. After the actual overthrow of the old government...

History of the new constitution--An advancedly democratic institution--Important change in constitution on third reading--The imperial constitution ceases to exist--Two "main di...

Submarine losses shake sailors' morale--Independent Socialists' propaganda--Admiral von Cappelle admits serious mutiny at Wilhelmshafen--Haase, Dittmann and Vogtherr denounced--...

General enthusiasm at the war's outbreak--Socialists support the government--Liebknecht denounces the war--Otto Ruehle, Franz Mehring, Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg--The "Spar...

The menace of internationalism--Marx and Engels--Socialist teachings of the brotherhood of man--Lassalle's national Socialists join the _Internationale_ of Marx, Engels and Lieb...

Chancellor Michaelis resigns and is succeeded by Count Hertling--Empire honeycombed with sedition--Count Lichnowsky's memoirs--Another Chancellor crisis--Socialists consent to e...

Revolutions--Not unknown in Germany--Prussia and the Hohenzollerns--Frederick the Great--Germany under foreign domination--The Battle of the brotherhood of man--Lassalle's natio...

Ebert becomes Premier for a day--The German Republic proclaimed--Liebknecht at the royal palace--Officers hunted down in the streets--The rape of the _bourgeois_ newspapers by r...

Lansing announces that the allied governments accept Wilson's fourteen points with one reservation--Max appeals to the people--Hamburg revolutionaries reach Berlin--Government t...

Front soldiers return--The central congress of Germany's Soviets--Radicals in an insignificant minority--A new _Vollzugsrat_ of Majority Socialists appointed--The People's Marin...

Germany's inability to feed and clothe her inhabitants--The war reduces production--Germany's imports in 1913--Food conservation--The "turnip-winter"--Everybody goes hungry--Ter...

The end of the dynasties--The Kaiser flees--Central Soviet displays moderate tendencies--Wholesale jail-releases--The police disarmed--_Die neue Freiheit_--A Red Guard is planne...

Mutiny at Kiel--Troops fire on mutinous sailors--Demands of the mutineers granted--Noske arrives--The red flag replaces the imperial standard--Prince Henry's flight--Independent...

Germany's armed forces collapse--Some effects of "the new freedom"--The Reichstag is declared dissolved--The cabinet's helplessness--Opposition to a national assembly--Radicals...

Germany still hungering--Promised supplies of food delayed--Gas and coal shortage--Strikes add to people's sufferings--The Spartacans plan another uprising--Severe fighting in B...

The first Bolshevist uprising--Prominent Berlin newspapers seized by the Spartacans--The Independent Socialists' double-dealing--Capture of the _Vorwaerts_ plant--Ledebour, Lieb...

Reforms come too late--The Independent Socialists attack the government--Liebknecht released from prison and defies the authorities--The Kaiser makes sweeping surrenders of powe...

Germany's political parties reorganize--Theodor Wolff--Composition of the National Assembly--Convenes at Weimar--Spartacans stage various uprisings--Friedrich Ebert elected prov...