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 assists. 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: