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
Sunday's parade was of imposing proportions, and it was marked by a grim
earnestness that foreboded trouble. The organizers claimed that 150,000
persons were in the line of march. The real number was probably around
twenty thousand. Transparencies bore defiant inscriptions. "Down with
Ebert and Scheidemann, the Bloodhounds and Grave-diggers of the
Revolution!" was a favorite device. "Down with the Bloodhound Wels!" was
another. Cheers for "our Police-President" and groans for the cabinet
were continuous along the line of march. The great mass of the paraders
were ragged, underfed, miserable men and women, mute testimony to the
sufferings of the war-years.
Liebknecht addressed the paraders. Counter-revolution, he declared, was
already showing its head. The Ebert-Scheidemann government must be
overthrown and the real friends of the revolution must not shrink from
using violence if violence were necessary. Others spoke in a similar
vein.
Conditions appeared propitious for the _coup_ that had been preparing
for a month. Late Sunday evening armed Spartacans occupied the plants of
the _Vorwaerts_, _Tageblatt_, the Ullstein Company (publishers of _Die
Morgenpost_ and _Berliner Zeitung-am-Mittag_), the _Lokal-Anzeiger_ and
the Wolff Bureau.
The Spartacans in the _Vorwaerts_ plant published on Monday morning _Der
rote Vorwaerts_ (the Red _Vorwaerts_). It contained a boastful leading
Article announcing that the paper had been taken over by "real
revolutionists," and that "no power on earth shall take it from us." The
Liebknechtians also seized on Monday the Buexenstein plant, where the
_Kreuz-Zeitung_ is printed. There was much promiscuous shooting in
various parts of the city. Spartacans fired on unarmed government
supporters in front of the war ministry, killing one man and wounding
two. There were also bloody clashes at Wilhelm Platz, Potsdamer Platz
and in Unter den Linden.
The _Vollzugsrat_ rose to the occasion like a _bourgeois_ governing
body. It conferred extraordinary powers on the cabinet and authorized it
to use all force at its disposal to put down the Bolshevist uprising.
That it was Bolshevist was now apparent to everybody. The cabinet, still
hesitant about firing on _Genossen_, conferred with the Independents
Haase, Dittmann, Cohn and Dr. Rudolf Breitscheid, the last named one of
the so-called "intellectual leaders" of the Independent Socialists.
These men wanted the government to "compromise." The cabinet declared it
could listen to no proposals until the occupied newspaper plants should
have been restored to their rightful owners. The delegation withdrew to
confer with the Spartacan leaders. These refused flatly to surrender
their usurped strongholds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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