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
The Soldiers' Council noted with increasing displeasure the drift of the
_Vollzugsrat_ toward the left. At the end of November, after a stormy
session, the council adopted a resolution expressing dissatisfaction
with the attitude of the _Vollzugsrat_ and appointing one representative
from each of the seven regiments stationed in Berlin to weigh charges
against the executive council and, if necessary, to reform it. The
resolution charged the _Vollzugsrat_ with holding secret sessions,
usurping powers, grafting, nepotism,[55] failure to take steps to
protect the country's eastern border against the aggressions of the
Poles and hindering all practical work.
[55] A long chapter could be written upon this subject alone. The
trail of German revolutionary governments (but not the
national cabinet) is slimy with graft, robbery and nepotism.
Eichhorn, in the two months that he held the office of
Berlin's Police President, made not a single one of the daily
reports required of him and never accounted for moneys
passing through his hands. Himself drawing salary from
_Rosta_ and also as police-president, he appointed his wife
to a highly paid clerkship and his young daughter drew a
salary for receiving visitors. An Independent Socialist
minister's wife drew a large salary for no services. The
_Vollzugsrat_ employed a hundred stenographers and messengers
who had nothing to do except draw their salaries. The _53er
Ausschuss_, a committee of marines and soldiers which took
entire charge of the admiralty and conducted its affairs
without any regard to the national government, voted itself
sums larger than had been required to pay all the salaries of
the whole department in other days. The police captain of a
Berlin suburb, a youthful mechanic, received ninety marks a
day, his wife was made a clerk at fifty marks, and he
demanded and received an automobile for his private use. The
first revolutionary military commandant of Munich tried to
defraud a bank of 44,000 marks on worthless paper. The
_Vollzugsrat_ never made an honest accounting for the
tremendous sums used by it. Hundreds of soldiers' and
workmen's committees constituted themselves into soviets in
tiny villages and paid themselves daily salaries equaling the
highest weekly pay that any of them had ever earned. Robbery
through official requisition became so common that the people
had to be warned against honoring any requisitions.
The Independent Socialists' ascendancy in the executive body was assured
on December 5th, when an election was held to fill two vacancies among
the soldier members. Two Independents were chosen, which gave that party
sixteen of the council's twenty-eight members.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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