chapter X

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But while Hindenburg was writing the situation was altering for the worse with every hour. Kaiser Karl had fled from Vienna. German officers had been attacked in Bucharest. Bavarian troops had been refused permission to use railways in Austrian Tirol. German troops had been disarmed and robbed in Bohemia and even in Hungary. The German armies in the West were still fighting bravely, but even the ingeniously worded communiques of Great Headquarters could not conceal the fact that they were being steadily thrown back, with heavy loss of prisoners and guns. Rumors of serious revolts in the fleet were circulating from mouth to mouth and, after the manner of rumors, growing as they circulated. Even the monarchist, Conservative _Lokal-Anzeiger_ had to admit the gravity of the situation. On November 6th it declared that "a mighty stream" was rolling through the land, and every one who had eyes to see and ears to hear could perceive "whither this current is setting." It continued:

"New factors of great importance have increased the confusion: the collapse of our allies, their complete submission to the will of our enemies, the multiplication thereby of the military dangers that surround us, and, not least, the catastrophic dissolution of all order in Austria-Hungary. The blind fanaticism of Bolshevism, which would with brutal force tear down everything in its way and destroy in Germany as well every remnant of authority, is planning now, in the very moment when the final decision must be reached, to play into the hands of our enemies through internal revolution. We will not at this time discuss whether the authorities have done their complete duty in putting down this movement, which everyone could see growing. It is enough to say that the danger is here, and duty demands that we stand together from left to right, from the top to the bottom, to render these destroying elements harmless or, if it be too late for that, to strike them to the ground.

"And another thing must be said. Just as the people's government has undertaken to bring about a peace that does not destroy the vital interests of the German people, * * * it must just as energetically endeavor to protect us from internal collapse with all the strength and all the authority which its constitution as a people's government confers upon it. * * * When, as now, the overthrow of all existing institutions is being preached, when the people's government is disregarded and recourse is had to force, the government must realize that there is but one thing to do. The people, whose representatives the members of government are, want concrete evidence that an insignificant minority will not be permitted to trample upon the institutions of state and society under whose protection we have heretofore lived. * * * The German Empire is not yet ripe for the disciples of Lenine and Trotzky."

General von Hellingrath, Bavarian Minister of War, issued a proclamation calling on the people to preserve order and not to lose their confidence in the government. A report that Bavarian troops had been sent to the North Tirol to protect Bavaria's borders against possible aggression by Czechish and Jugo-Slavic troops of the former ally further depressed all Germans, and particularly the South Germans.

The new government made an appeal to the people's reason. In a proclamation issued on November 4th and signed by Prince Max and all other members of the cabinet, including Scheidemann, it called attention to the parliamentary reforms already accomplished and summoned the people to give their fullest support to the government. These reforms were:

Equal franchise in Prussia; the formation of a government from the majority parties of the Reichstag; the Chancellor and his ministers could retain office only if they possessed the confidence of the Reichstag and hence of the people; declarations of war and conclusions of peace now required the assent of the Reichstag; the military had been subordinated to the civil authorities; a broad amnesty had been declared, and the freedom of assemblage and of the press assured.

"The alteration of Germany into a people's state, which shall not stand in the rear of any state in the world in respect of political freedom and social reforms, will be carried further with decision," said the proclamation.

It was a very respectable array of real reforms that was thus set forth. If they had come a few months earlier the subsequent course of Germany's and the whole world's history would doubtless have been changed. But, unknown to the great mass of Germans except through wild rumor, revolution had already come and the German Empire was tottering to its fall.

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