And the Kaiser abdicates: The German Revolution November 1918-August 1919Bouton, S. Miles (Stephen Miles)
History
And the Kaiser abdicates: The German Revolution November 1918-August 1919
Bouton, S. Miles (Stephen Miles)
Germany -- History -- Revolution, 1918; Germany -- Politics and government
"5. Officers and men shall receive the same extra allowances of
pay and perquisites."
"Voluntary submission" by soldiers to officers might be feasible in a
victorious and patriotic army, but it is impracticable among troops
infected with Socialist doctrines and retreating before their
conquerors. Authority, once destroyed, can never be regained. This was
proved not only at the front, but at home as well. _Die neue Freiheit_
(the new freedom), a phrase glibly mouthed by all supporters of the
revolution, assumed the same grotesque forms in Germany as in Russia.
Automobiles, commandeered by soldiers from army depots or from the royal
garages, flying red flags, darted through the streets at speeds defying
all regulations, filled with unwashed and unshaven occupants lolling on
the cushioned seats. Cabmen drove serenely up the left side of Unter den
Linden, twiddling their fingers at the few personally escorted and
disarmed policemen whom they saw. Gambling games ran openly at
street-corners. Soldiers mounted improvised booths in the streets and
sold cigarettes and soap looted from army stores.
Earnest revolutionaries traveled through the city looking for signs
containing the word _kaiserlich_ (imperial) or _koeniglich_ (royal), and
mutilated or destroyed them. Court purveyors took down their signs or
draped them. The _Kaiser Keller_ in Friedrichstrasse became simply a
_Keller_ and the bust of the Kaiser over the door was covered with a
piece of canvas. The Royal Opera-House became the "Opera-House Unter den
Linden."
One of the most outstanding characteristics of the German people in
peace times had been their love of order. Even the superficial observer
could not help noticing it, and one of its manifestations earned general
commendation. This was that the unsightly billboards and placarded walls
that disfigure American cities were never seen in Germany. Neat and
sightly columns were erected in various places for official, theatrical
or business announcements, and no posters might be affixed anywhere
else. Nothing more strikingly illustrates the character of the collapse
in Germany than the fact that it destroyed even this deeply ingrained
love of order. _Genossen_ with brushes and paste-pots calmly defaced
house-walls and even show windows on main streets with placards whose
quality showed that German art, too, had suffered in the general
collapse of the Empire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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