With few exceptions the revolutionists met with no opposition. The bourgeoisie did not react. It was enough for some thirty marines from Kiel to enter a town or for a group of soldiers returning from the fighting front to present themselves at the city hall. Immediately every one yielded to their orders and the Councils were able to install themselves in power without firing a shot. In this revolution, to which no serious opposition had been presented and which appeared rather as the collapse of an old régime whose reason for existence had vanished, there lacked only to complete it the fall of the capital and the abdication of the monarch. At Berlin the military power devoted itself to the defence of the city. On the fifth a state of siege was proclaimed and on the seventh a decree forbade the formation of Councils of Soldiers and of Workers “on the Russian model.” But the same day the Social Democrats sent to Chancellor Maximilian of Baden the Secretary of State Scheidemann, the bearer of an ultimatum demanding the immediate abrogation of the decree forbidding meetings; such a transformation of the government of Prussia that those in control of it should be of the same political complexion as the majority of the Reichstag; the strengthening of the Social Democratic influence in the government; and finally the abdication of the Emperor and the renunciation by the Crown Prince of all claims to the throne. Although confronted with imminent revolution only officials and functionaries were overthrown. The bourgeoisie here as elsewhere looked on passively and attempted no resistance. As for Maximilian of Baden he hoped to find a basis for negotiation. He pondered measures to parliamentarize still further the old government and contemplated the immediate convocation of a constituent assembly to develop a new constitution. Meanwhile he did not reply to the ultimatum of the Social Democrats. Whereupon there were organized Councils of Workers and Soldiers in Berlin who made themselves felt with their first act on the morning of the ninth of November by declaring a general strike. The Chancellor could no longer delay action. On the ninth at two o’clock in the afternoon, after a telephonic conversation with William II, he announced officially that the Emperor had abdicated and that the Crown Prince had renounced the throne. He declared that he, Maximilian of Baden, would remain in office until the installation of the Regent. He would propose to the Regent the nomination as Chancellor of the Social Democratic leader Ebert, and the convocation of electoral colleges with the view of choosing a national constituent assembly to which would be given the task of directing the future of the state. Thus the Chancellor hoped to the last moment to effect in an almost legal manner the transition from the old to the new Germany. But the pressure of events was too strong for him and he was not able to realize his hope.