CHAPTER VIII

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The Last Days of Imperial Germany.

Prince Max, although inspired by the best intentions and filled with modern and liberal ideas, failed to realize that what was needed was not a change of men, but a change of methods. Radical, fearless and immediate action was necessary, but the government did not perceive that every passing day lessened its chances and possibilities. It relied upon the slow progress of ordinary business routine. It accomplished much, it is true, but it accomplished it too slowly and too late.

Too late the Conservatives in the Prussian Diet abandoned their opposition to a reform of the franchise system. On October 10th, they adopted this resolution:

"In the hour of the Fatherland's greatest distress and with a realization that we must be equipped for hard battles for the integrity of the Fatherland's soil, the Conservative Party in the Diet considers it its duty to lay aside all internal conflicts. It is also ready to make heavy sacrifices for the ends in view. It believes now, as ever, that a far-reaching radicalization of the Prussian Constitution will not further the welfare of the Prussian people. It is nevertheless prepared to abandon its opposition to the introduction of equal franchise in Prussia in accordance with the latest decisions of its friends in the House of Lords in order to assure the formation of a harmonious front against the outside world."

This resolution removed the last obstacle to a real reform of the Prussian franchise.

Too late the Federal Council adopted radical amendments to the Imperial Constitution. On October 13th and 16th, it accepted measures repealing Article 21, paragraph 2, which provided that Reichstag members should forfeit their seats if they accepted salaried state or imperial offices, and providing that cabinet members should no longer be required to be members of the Federal Council, but should at all times have the right to demand a hearing before the Reichstag. It also amended Article 2 to read: "The consent of the Federal Council and the Reichstag is required for a declaration of war in the Empire's name, except in a case where imperial territory has already been invaded or its coasts attacked." Section 3 of the same article was amended to read: "Treaties of peace and treaties with foreign states which deal with affairs coming under the competence of the Imperial law-giving bodies require the consent of the Federal Council and the Reichstag."

Too late the rulers of different states promised democratic reforms. The crown council of Saxony on October 10th summoned the Landtag (Diet) for October 26th, and directed the minister of the interior to draft a measure "which shall substitute for the franchise now obtaining for the Landtag's second chamber a franchise based on a broader foundation." Saxony then had a four-class system. The crown council also considered requesting the Socialists to join the government.

The King of Bavaria caused it to be announced that the crown had decided to introduce reforms enabling Bavaria's popularly elected representatives to participate directly in governing the kingdom. Minister Dandl was directed to form a new ministry with some Socialist members. It was announced also that a proportional franchise system was to be introduced and the upper chamber reformed along progressive lines.

The government of Baden announced that steps would be taken to abolish the three-class franchise and to introduce the proportional system. In Wuerttemberg measures were prepared providing that the kingdom's representatives in the Federal Council should take their instructions direct from the people's elected representatives, instead of from the government. A democratization of the first chamber was also promised.

The Grand Duke of Oldenburg, in the address from the throne at the opening of the Landtag, declared that reforms were contemplated giving the people increased power to decide all important questions of state. The Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar accepted the resignation of his whole ministry and announced that a new ministry would be formed from among the members of the Diet. The Diet at Darmstadt unanimously adopted measures providing for a parliamentary form of government in Hesse.

But while these concessions were being made at home, _Schrecklichkeit_ continued to rule unhampered on the sea. The _Leinster_, a passenger boat plying between Kingston and Holyhead, was torpedoed by a submarine, and 480 of her 687 passengers were lost. The wave of indignation in enemy countries following this act was reflected at home in an uneasy feeling that the new Chancellor could as little curb militarism as could his predecessors. Ludendorff, too, had regained his lost nerve. He told Prince Max that the military situation was better than he had believed when he recommended that an armistice be requested. Minister of War General Scheuch had promised to send six hundred thousand new troops to the front.

The Chancellor's position was also rendered more difficult at this time by an agitation for a _levee en masse_ begun by some fire-eating Germans of the old school. The possibility of a military dictatorship was discussed, and an appeal was made to "the spirit of 1813." The natural result was to increase the prevailing hostility to everybody in authority, whether he had been connected with the former governments or not.

The Independent Socialists and their Spartacan brethren grew bolder. Dr. Oskar Cohn, who had made a speech in the Reichstag four months earlier, denouncing the war as "a Hohenzollern family affair," now openly declared in the same assembly that the Kaiser must go.

"The question can no longer be evaded," he said. "Shall it be war with the Hohenzollerns or peace without the Hohenzollerns? World-revolution will follow on world-imperialism and world-militarism, and we shall overcome them. We extend our hands to our friends beyond the frontiers in this struggle."

Liebknecht, released from prison on October 20th by a general amnesty, celebrated his release by attacking the Kaiser and the government that released him. On October 27th, he addressed a half dozen Independent Socialist meetings, and called for a revolution of the proletariat and the overthrow of the capitalists and _bourgeoisie_ of all lands. He closed each speech with cries of "Down with the Hohenzollerns!" and "Long live the Socialist Republic!" Nothing could more clearly demonstrate the helplessness of the government than the fact that Liebknecht was neither compelled to stop talking nor arrested. There were outbreaks of rioting in Berlin on the same day, but they were largely due to the unwise and provocatory measures of the police, who to the last preserved a steadfast loyalty to the government and to that grim sense of duty that had marked the Prussian _Beamter_ in former days.

The Reichstag passed on last reading the measures sent from the Federal Council to put into effect the Kaiser's recommendations of September 30th. Their most important provision was one placing the military command under control of the civil government, which had been demanded by the Majority Socialists as one of their conditions for participation in the government. The Kaiser sent to the Imperial Chancellor on October 28th the following decree:

"I send your Grand Ducal Highness in the enclosure the measures for the alteration of the Imperial Constitution and of the laws concerning the representative powers of the Chancellor, of March 17, 1878, for immediate promulgation. It is my wish, in connection with this step, which is so full of meaning for the German people, to give expression to the feelings that move me. Prepared by a number of acts of the government, a new order of things now becomes effective, transferring fundamental rights from the person of the Kaiser to the people. Thus there is closed a period which will endure in honor in the eyes of future generations.

"Despite all struggles between inherited powers and forces striving to raise themselves, this period discloses itself unforgettably in the wonderful accomplishments of the war. In the fearful storms of the four years of the war, however, old formulae have been shattered, not to leave ruins, but rather to give way to new forms of life. In view of the accomplishments of this period, the German people can demand that no right shall be withheld from them which insures a free and happy future. The measures proposed by the allied governments[21] and now accepted by the Reichstag owe their existence to this conviction.

[21] Here meaning merely the German federal states.

"I accept these decisions of the people's representatives, together with my exalted allies, in the firm desire to cooperate, as far as lies in my power, in rendering them effective, and in the conviction that I shall thus serve the interests of the German people.

"The post of Kaiser means service of the people (_Das Kaiseramt ist Dienst am Volke_).

"May the new order release all good forces which our people need in order to endure the hard trials that have been visited upon the Empire, and to win the way, with firm step, from out the dark present to a bright future."

These were fine phrases, but, like all other pronunciamentos and reforms of October, they came too late. The political censorship had recently been relaxed, and the people, ignorant though they may have been of actual conditions at home, knew what was going on within the borders of their greatest ally. Ten days earlier a strike had been begun at Prague as a peace demonstration, and had involved much of Bohemia and Moravia. At Budapest revolution was in the air, and the Magyar deputies of the Parliament were openly discussing the question of declaring Hungary's independence. On October 17th, Kaiser Karl announced that steps were to be taken to reorganize the Monarchy on a federalized basis.

Two days later President Wilson rejected Baron Burian's peace offer. He declared that the United States Government had recognized the Czecho-Slovak state and the aspirations of the Jugo-Slavs, and he was therefore "no longer at liberty to accept the mere autonomy of these peoples as a basis of peace, but is obliged to insist that they and not he shall be the judges of what action on the part of the Austro-Hungarian Government will satisfy their aspirations and their conception of their rights and destiny as members of the family of nations."

Count Michael Karolyi, leader of the opposition in Hungary, on the same day, in a speech in the lower house of Parliament at Budapest, attacked the alliance of Austria-Hungary with Germany. He admitted that the Central Powers had lost the war, and appealed to his countrymen to "try to save the peace." A memorial was sent to Kaiser Karl declaring that "Hungary must return to its autonomy and complete independence."

The Czechs were already in virtual control in Prague. Magyar Hungary was rotten with Bolshevism, the fruits of the propaganda of returned soldiers and Russian agents. Croatian soldiers at Fiume had revolted. Baron Burian retired and was succeeded by Count Andrassy.

Much of this was known to all Germans when the Kaiser's decree was issued. But they did not know what the Kaiser and his advisers knew, and they did not know why Ludendorff had deserted the sinking ship a day earlier, sending his resignation to the Kaiser and being succeeded as Quartermaster-General by General Groener. All indications had, indeed, pointed to the defection of Austria, but so long as it did not come the Germans--that is, such of them as had not completely lost hope or been infected with internationalist doctrines--still had a straw to cling to.

On October 26th Kaiser Karl informed the German Emperor that he intended to ask for peace "within twenty-four hours." He invited Germany to join in the request. Before the German reply could be received Count Andrassy sent a note to Washington accepting President Wilson's conditions for an armistice and for peace, and declaring that Austria-Hungary was ready, "without awaiting the result of other negotiations, to enter into negotiations upon peace between Austria-Hungary and the states in the opposing group, and for an immediate armistice upon all the Dual Monarchy's fronts."

On October 29th the government at Vienna issued a report declaring that a note had been sent to Secretary Lansing, asking him to "have the goodness to intervene with the President of the United States in order that, in the interests of humanity as well as in the interests of all those peoples who live in Austria-Hungary, an immediate armistice may be concluded on all fronts, and for an overture that immediate negotiations for peace may follow." A semi-official statement was issued the same day in an attempt to make it appear that the Dual Monarchy had not been recreant to its treaty agreement not to conclude a separate peace. Count Andrassy's note to Lansing, it was explained, did not "necessarily mean an offer of a separate peace. It means merely that Austria-Hungary is ready to act separately in the interests of the reestablishment of peace."

The fine distinction between "separate peace" and "separate action to reestablish peace" could deceive nobody. All Germany staggered under the blow, and while she was still staggering, there came another. Turkey quit. Germany stood alone, deserted, betrayed.

Fast on the heels of the Austrian collapse came the terror of defeated governments--revolution. The ink had not dried on Vienna's note on October 29th before students and workingmen began assembling in front of the Parliament buildings in the Austrian capital. Officers in uniform addressed cheering thousands, and called on the soldiers among their hearers to remove the national colors from their caps and uniforms. President Dinghofer of the National Council declared that the council would take over the whole administration of the country, "but without the Habsburgs." When, on the same afternoon, the National Assembly came together for its regular session, a crowd gathered in front of the Diet and cheered a huge red flag unfurled by workingmen on the very steps of the Diet building.

Revolution is both contagious and spontaneous in defeat. The news from Vienna was followed by reports of revolution in Hungary. In Budapest laborers plundered the military depots and armed themselves. In Prague the _Prager Haus-Regiment_, No. 28, took charge of the revolution. This was one of the regiments that had been disbanded in 1915 for treachery in the Carpathians. Now it came into its own. Count Michael Karolyi telegraphed on October 31st to the Berlin _Tageblatt_:

"Revolution in Budapest. National Council has taken over the government. Military and police acknowledge National Council completely. Inhabitants rejoicing."

The message was signed by Karolyi as president of the National Council.

The revolution in Bohemia exercised a particularly depressing effect upon loyal Germans because of its outspoken anti-German character. Even in these first days the Czechish newspapers began discussing the division of German territories. The _Vecer_ demanded Vienna as a part of the new Czecho-Slovak state on the ground that a majority of the city's inhabitants or their ancestors originally came from Bohemia and Moravia. The _Narodini Listy_ gave notice that the Germans of Northern Bohemia would not be permitted to join Germany. These were among the more moderate demands made by this press.

"What will the Kaiser do?" asked the Berlin _Vorwaerts_ in its leading Article on the last day of October. The article voiced a question which all but the most extreme reactionaries had been asking for two weeks. Even men devoted to the monarch personally and themselves convinced monarchists in principle realized that the only hope of securing a just peace lay in sacrificing Kaiser Wilhelm. Scheidemann, the Socialist Secretary of State, wrote to Chancellor Prince Max, declaring that the Kaiser must retire, and that his letter had been written "in agreement with the leaders of the Socialist party and its representatives in the Reichstag." Up to the time of the publication of the _Vorwaerts_ leader the authorities had forbidden any public discussion of the Kaiser's abdication. The censorship restrictions on this subject were now removed and the press was permitted to discuss it freely.

But while many of the party leaders were already inwardly convinced that the supreme sacrifice of abdication must be made by the Kaiser, none of the Empire's political parties except the two Socialist parties considered it politically expedient to make the demand. Even the Progressives, farthest to the left of all the _bourgeois_ parties, not only refused to follow the Socialists' lead, but went on record as opposed to abdication. At a convention of the party in Greater Berlin on November 6th, Dr. Mugdan, one of the party's prominent Reichstag deputies, reporting the attitude of the party on the question of abdication, said:

"The Progressives do not desire to sow further unrest and confusion among the German people."

This was the attitude of a majority of the leaders among the people. It was dictated less by loyalty to the sovereign than by a realization that the disintegrating propaganda of the Internationalists had affected so large a part of the people that the abdication of the Kaiser would almost inevitably bring the collapse of the state. They could not yet realize that this collapse was inevitable in any case, nor that the number of those devoted to the Kaiser was comparatively so small that it was of little consequence whether he remained on the throne or abdicated.

The Kaiser himself, as will be seen later,[22] was mainly moved by the same considerations. He believed chaos would certainly follow his abdication. It is also far from improbable that he had not yet abandoned all hope of military victory. The German army leaders, in trying to deceive the people into a belief that a successful termination of the war was still possible, had doubtless deceived their monarch as well. Possibly they had even deceived themselves. Field Marshal von Hindenburg sent a message to the press on November 3d, wherein he declared:

"Our honor, freedom and future are now at stake. We are invincible if we are united. If the German army be strongly supported by the will of the people, our Fatherland will brave all onslaughts."

[22] _Vide_