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 shore-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 ashore. 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 assured 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 ashore, 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 _Thueringen_ 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 ashore and the projected cruise abandoned. The officers refused their demands. Thereupon the stokers of the _Markgraf_ left the ship and went ashore. This was on Sunday morning, November 3d. The stokers were joined by members of other ships' crews ashore 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 passed while they were holding their meeting ashore, 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 ashore 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 ashore, 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 ashore, using boards as paddles. Then they sent the small boats back to bring ashore 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 _erhoehte Alarmbereitschaft_ (literally, "increased readiness to respond to an alarm") had been ordered. Buglers and drummers passed 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 Holsteinstrasse to the Market Place. It passed through the Daenische Strasse and Brunswigerstrasse toward Feldstrasse, 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. Passers-by were compelled to join the procession. The entrances to the Hospitalstrasse and to the Karlstrasse 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 Karlstrasse. 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 passed 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 circumstances at all approaching the normal this would have marked the end of the revolt. But all the circumstances 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 Ruehles, 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.

Haussmann and Noske reached Kiel late Monday afternoon. The parading mutineers met them at the station. Noske, speaking from the top of an automobile, addressed the crowd, appealing to their patriotism and to the German instinct for orderly procedure. Their main demands, he pointed out, had already been granted. The government, representing all parties of the empire, promised that all grievances should be heard and redressed. The speech appeared to have some effect. Isolated demonstrations took place until into the evening, but there were no serious clashes anywhere.

The situation seemed somewhat more hopeful. The leaders on both sides either could not or did not realize what powerful and pernicious influences were working against them. The Governor felt his hand strengthened by the presence of Haussmann, the Minister; the Workmen's and Soldiers' Council was both calmed and encouraged by the presence of Noske, the party leader. The members of the council and the men representing the Kiel government began a joint session in the evening. Four delegates of the Social-Democratic party of Kiel also attended the conference, although their party had already, at a meeting a few hours earlier, virtually decided to order a general sympathy strike.

The deliberations of the conference showed that the situation had suddenly assumed the aspect of a strike, a mere labor and party question. The soldier and sailor delegates left the debate largely to the party leaders. Both sides, government and strikers alike, showed themselves honestly desirous of finding a peaceful settlement. The difficulties proved, however, to be very great. At 1:00 A.M., on Tuesday, the conference took a recess. Noske telegraphed to Berlin: "Situation serious. Send me another man." But despite all difficulties both sides were hopeful.

Of the many thousands of mutineers, however, there were many who were not disposed to await an orderly adjustment of the situation. Already potential masters of the squadron, they set about transmuting potentiality into actuality. On one ship after another the red flag of sedition, the emblem of the negation of loyalty to native land, replaced the proud imperial standard. It is an amazing thing that in all Germany not a dozen of the thousands of officers whose forefathers had for two centuries enjoyed the privileges of an exclusive and loyal caste gave their lives for their King in an effort to oppose revolt and revolution. At Kiel, and later at Hamburg, Swinemuende, Berlin--in fact, everywhere--the mutineers and revolutionaries met no resistance from the very men of whom one might have expected that they would die, even in a forlorn cause, in obedience to the old principle of _noblesse oblige_. At Kiel there were but three of this heroic mold. These men, whose names deserve to be remembered and honored wherever bravery and loyalty are prized, were Commander Weniger, Captain Heinemann and Lieutenant Zenker of the battleship _Koenig_, who were shot down as, revolver in hand, they defended the imperial standard and killed several of the men who were trying to replace it with the red rag of revolution. Captain Heine, commandant of the city of Kiel, was shot down in the hallway of his home Tuesday evening by sailors who had come to arrest him. These four men were the only officers deliberately shot in Kiel, except the two fatally wounded in Sunday night's fighting at the military prison.

Admiral Krafft, commander of the Kiel squadron, finally decided to leave port with his ships. But it was too late. Some of the ships had to be left behind, for the mutineers, coming alongside in small fishing-steamers and other craft, had compelled the loyal remnants of the crews to refuse to obey the order to accompany the squadron. Even on the ships least affected by the mutiny, hundreds of the crews refused to come aboard. Word of the revolt had moreover reached other coast cities, and when the ships reached Luebeck, Flensburg, Swinemuende and other ports, it proved impossible to keep the missionaries of mutiny ashore and on shipboard from communicating with each other. Thus the contagion was spread further.

Tuesday was a day of tense excitement at Kiel. There was some shooting, due--as was also the case later in Berlin--to false reports that officers had fired from houses on the mutineers. The streets were filled with automobiles carrying red flags, and red flags began to appear over various buildings. Noske, feverishly active, devoting all his iron energy to restoring order and finding a peaceful solution of the revolt, conferred continuously with representatives of the city government, with military and naval authorities and with the strikers. The movement still had outwardly only the aspect of a strike, serious indeed, but still a strike. He succeeded in having countermanded an order bringing troops to the city. Despite this, the suspicious mutineers compelled the Governor to go with them to the railway station in order to send the troops back if it should prove that the counterorder had not reached them in time. At the request of the mutineers--who treated the Governor with all courtesy--he remained at the station until the troop train arrived empty.

The situation on Tuesday was adversely affected by the flight of Prince Heinrich, brother of the Kaiser. He was not unpopular with the men of the navy and he was never even remotely in danger. Yet he fled from Kiel in an automobile and, fleeing, destroyed the remnant of authority which his government still enjoyed. The flight itself rendered the strikers nervous, and the fact that the death of a marine, who was shot while standing on the step of the Prince's automobile, was at first ascribed to him, enraged the mutineers and was a further big factor in rendering nugatory the efforts of Noske and all others who were honestly striving to find a way out of the situation. Autopsy showed that the marine had been shot in the back by one of the bullets fired after the fleeing automobile by the victim's own comrades. This disclosure, however, came a day later, and then it was too late to undo the mischief caused by the first report.

A "non-resistance" order, the first one of many that helped make the revolution possible, was also issued on Tuesday by the military authorities. Officers were commanded not to use force against the strikers. "Only mutual understanding of the demands of the moment can restore orderly conditions," said the decree.

Wednesday, the fourth day of the revolt at Kiel, was the critical and, as it proved, the decisive day. When night came the mutineers were crowned with victory, and the forces of orderly government had lost the day. And yet, strangely enough, neither side realized this. The strikers believed themselves isolated in the corner of an undisturbed empire. The more conservative among them began to consider their situation in a different light. There was an undercurrent of feeling that no help could be looked for from other quarters and that a reconciliation with the authorities should be sought. Noske shared this feeling. Speaking to the striker's delegates late on Wednesday evening, he advised them to compromise. Seek an agreement with the government, he said in effect. The government is ready and even eager to reach a fair compromise. We stand alone, isolated.

Neither Noske nor the bulk of the mutineers yet knew what had been going on elsewhere in northwestern Germany. The Independent Socialist and Spartacan plotters for revolution at Berlin saw in the Kiel events the opportunity for which they had been waiting for more than three years, and they struck promptly. Haase and some of his followers went immediately to Hamburg, and other revolutionary agents proceeded to the other coast cities to incite strikes and revolts. The ground had been so well prepared that their efforts were everywhere speedily successful. In the few cities where the people were not already ripe for revolution, the supineness of the authorities made the revolutionaries' task a light one. Leaders of the Kiel mutineers met the Berlin agitators in different cities and cooperated with them.

The procedure was everywhere the same. Workmen's and soldiers' councils were formed, policemen and loyal troops were disarmed and the city government was taken over by the soviets. By Thursday evening soviet governments had been established in Hamburg, Cuxhaven, Wilhelmshaven, Bremen, Hanover, Rostock, Oldenburg and other places. The soviets in virtually all these places were controlled by Independent Socialists--even then only a slight remove from Bolsheviki--and their spirit was hostile not alone to the existing government, but equally to the Majority Socialists. At Hamburg, for instance, the Workmen's and Soldiers' Council, which had forcibly taken over the Majority Socialist organ _Hamburger Echo_ and rechristened it _Die rote Fahne_, published a proclamation forbidding the press to take any notice whatever of proclamations issued by the Majority Socialists or the leaders of trade-unions. The proclamation declared that "these elements will be permitted to cooperate in the government, but they will not be permitted to present any demands." Any attempt to interfere with the soviet was declared to be counter-revolutionary, and it was threatened that such attempts would "be met with the severest repressive measures."

The revolution at Hamburg was marked by much shooting and general looting. A semblance of order was restored on November 8th, but it was order only by comparison with the preceding day, and life and property were for many days unsafe in the presence of the vicious elements in control of the city. Prisoners were promiscuously released. Russian prisoners of war, proudly bearing red ribbons and flags, marched with their "brothers" in the demonstrations. A detachment of marines went to Harburg, near by, and liberated all the prisoners confined in the jail there.

The cowardice, supineness and lack of decision of the authorities generally have already been referred to. A striking and characteristic illustration is furnished by the story of the revolution at Swinemuende, on the Baltic Sea. Two warships, the _Dresden_ and _Augsburg_, were in the harbor when news came of the Kiel mutiny. The admiral was Count Schwerin and one of his officers was Prince Adalbert, the sailor-son of the Kaiser. The crews of the ships were loyal, and the Prince was especially popular with them. The garrison at Swinemuende was composed of fifteen hundred coast artillerists and some three hundred marines. The artillerists were all men of the better class, technically educated and thoroughly loyal. At a word from their commanding-officer they would have blown any mutinous ship out of the water with their heavy coast guns. And yet Admiral Count Schwerin and Prince Adalbert donned civilian clothing and took refuge with civilian friends ashore.

Thirty-six submarines arrived at five o'clock in the afternoon, but left two hours later because there was no food to be had at Swinemuende. The coast artillerists begged to be allowed to wipe out the mutineers. The mayor of Swinemuende protested. Shells from the sea, he said, might fall into the city and damage it. And so, under the guns of loyal men, the sailors looted the ships completely during the evening and night.

A committee of three marines called on Major Grunewald, commander of the fortress, and insolently ordered him to direct the garrison to appoint a soldiers' council. The artillerists were dumfounded when the major complied. The council appointed consisted of three marines, one artillerist and one infantryman, of whom there were about a hundred in the garrison. One of the members was an officer, Major Grunewald having been ordered to direct the appointment of one. When the council had been formed the troops were drawn up to listen to a speech by a sergeant of marines. The major, his head bared, listened obediently.

"We are the masters here now," said the sergeant. "It is ours to command, yours to obey. The salute is abolished. When we meet a decent officer we may possibly say 'good day, major,' to him, but when we meet some little runt (_Schnoesel_) of a lieutenant we shan't recognize him. The officers may now go to their quarters. We don't need them. If we should need them later we shall tell them."[27]

[27] The flight of Prince Heinrich and later of the Kaiser made a painful impression in Germany, especially among Germans of the better class, and did much to alienate sympathy from them. It had been thought that, whatever other faults the Hohenzollerns might possess, they were at least not cowards. The flight of Prince Adalbert is even today not generally known.

The government at Berlin and the Majority Socialists endeavored, even after the events already recorded, to stem the tide, or at least to lead the movement into more orderly channels. Stolten and Quarck, Socialist Reichstag deputies, and Blunck, Progressive deputy, and Stubbe and Schumann, Socialists, representing the executive committee of the central labor federation, went to Hamburg. But Haase, Ledebour and the other agitators had done their work too well. Thursday morning brought the reports of the successes of the uprisings to the mutineers at Kiel, who were on the point of returning to their ships. A Workmen's and Soldiers' Council was formed for the whole province of Schleswig-Holstein. The revolt had already become revolution. The revolutionaries seized the railway running from Hamburg to Berlin, and also took charge of telephonic and telegraphic communication. Their emissaries started for Berlin.

It has been set forth in a previous chapter that the promise of President Wilson to give the Germans a just peace on the basis of his fourteen points and the supplementary points, and his declaration that the war was against a system and not against the German people themselves had played a very considerable part in making the revolution possible. This appears clearly in the report of the events at Bremen. On November 7th a procession, estimated at thirty thousand persons, passed through the city and halted at the market place. A number of speeches were made. One of the chief speakers, a soldier, reminded his hearers that Wilson had said that a peace of justice was possible for the Germans only if they would take the government into their own hands. This had now been done, and nobody could reproach the revolutionaries with being unpatriotic, since their acts had made a just peace possible.

A similar address was made at a meeting of the revolutionaries in Hanover, where the speaker told his hearers that the salvation of Germany depended upon their loyal support of the revolution, which had placed all power in the hands of the people and fulfilled the conditions precedent entitling them to such a peace as the President had promised them.

At the request of the government Noske assumed the post of Governor of Kiel. Order was restored. The relations between the mutineers and their former officers were strikingly good. The spirit of the Majority Socialists prevailed. Not until the Berlin revolution had put the seal upon their work did the mutineers of Kiel realize that it was they who had started the revolution.