ters were now en train. In all the states of the Confederation the sovereigns had been compelled to abdicate; nowhere had there been any fighting or bloodshed in connexion with these particular events. In Berlin the Revolution wore a theatrical rather than a dramatic aspect. The bourgeoisie there as else- where had been systematically kept by the Imperial Govern- ment in ignorance of ominous symptoms and incidents. The press had not been allowed to make the slightest disclosure of these things. Thus the citizens of Berlin and the same holds true of the whole Reich were absolutely taken by surprise when on the afternoon of Nov. 9 motor-lorries suddenly appeared in the streets all over the city, full of armed workmen, mostly youths, carrying red flags. They delivered speeches from the lorries and asserted that the Government had fallen. The only other thing that they did was to tear the black-white-and-red cockades from the caps of officers and soldiers whom they met in the streets, and to cut the epaulettes from the officers' coats. The outward beginning of the Revolution in Berlin was a pro- cession of workmen which made its way into the city from the working-class quarter in the north and started by attempting to storm the barracks situated at the north end of the Fried- richstrasse. The guard fired upon them. Then the command arrived not to fire upon masses of workmen. This command was issued to all the military posts. From whom it came was never definitely ascertained. In these circumstances the only thing that the military could do* was to surrender to the insur- gents without a blow. In a number of instances sections of the troops joined the insurgents. There was therefore no bloodshed on the day of the Revolution or on the succeeding days. In fact one or two battalions would have sufficed to nip the whole business in the bud. Here and there shooting occurred at the Castle, for example, where a search was being made for officers reported to be armed, and in the neighbourhood of the Castle; but these incidents rather provided amusement for the revolu- tionary bands, largely composed of youths.
The Revolution had been systematically prepared by mem- bers of the Independent Socialist party. The deputy Ledebour afterwards publicly boasted that he had been working at these preparations since 1916. Earth and Daumig made similar statements. The Independent Socialist Cohn is understood indeed he subsequently admitted it to have received large sums of money from Russia for the purposes of the Revolution; they were said to have amounted to about 125 million marks. Bands of picked men (Stosstruppen), lavishly provided with rifles and machine-guns, had everywhere been formed. The " majority " (or governmental) Social Democratic party did not officially participate in these schemes. But when the Revolu- tion began on Nov. 9, they associated themselves with the revo- lutionaries, and it was perhaps due to them that the Revolution did not take the course which it took in Russia, and that by persistent efforts order was gradually restored. The bourgeoisie was absolutely helpless in the days of the Revolution. It took things as they came and did not lift a finger to prevent them. Many sections of this class even thought that the time had come to go over with flying colours into the revolutionary camp of the Social Democracy, in order to participate in the advantages which the Revolution promised to secure for those who pro- fessed extreme opinions.
The Social Democrat Scheidemann, who had been in the Cab- inet of Prince Max of Baden as a Parliamentary Secretary of State, had announced his resignation on Nov. 8. Prince Max, when he withdrew on Nov. 9, installed the Socialist leader Ebert as Imperial Chancellor. Ebert issued on the same day an appeal " to German citizens," inviting them to cooperate in the new order of things, even if they felt difficulty in doing so; on no account must there be any breakdown in that hour of trial. The Social Democrats then opened negotiations with the Inde- pendent Socialists, and a Council of Commissioners of the People (Volksbeauftragteri) was set up as the supreme revolu- tionary authority, the two parties each being represented on it by three of their leading men. Ebert, Scheidemann and Lands- berg were the three Social Democratic commissioners; Haase,
Dittmann and Earth were the three Independents. The bureau- cracy, with few exceptions, declared its readiness to continue its work provisionally under the new revolutionary regime. All the officials of the ministries, for example, remained at their posts, and tried their best, amid the confusion which at first reigned, to go on with their work upon the old lines.
The Council of Commissioners of the People had first of all to form a new Cabinet. It is noteworthy that this Cabinet consisted almost entirely of non-Socialists (Bilrgerliche). The Prussian War Minister, Scheuch, and the Secretary of State for the Navy, von Mann, remained at their posts, and so did Dr. Solf at the Foreign Office, and Erzberger as a Parliamentary Secretary of State. The National Liberal deputy, Schiffer, be- came Finance Secretary, and the Progressist (non-Socialist Democrat) Professor Preuss was made Secretary of State for the Interior. It was only at the Food Department of the Reich that a Social Democrat, the deputy Wurm, was appointed. The first legislative order, which was issued in the form of an " ordinance having the force of law," swept away a number of pre-re volu- tion enactments. Thus it raised the state of siege, abolished the restrictions upon the right of association and public meeting, decreed freedom of the press, proclaimed an amnesty for political offenders, repealed the wartime law which made patriotic auxil- iary service obligatory, abrogated the regulations applying to domestic service and the special provisions regarding the obli- gation of agricultural labourers to work, while it enacted that private property should be protected. Further, it was at this early stage announced that elections would be held for a Con- stituent National Assembly, and that all men and women who had attained the age of 20 should be entitled to vote. At first, it is true, the new revolutionary Government was unable to evolve order out of the turbulent situation which had arisen with the Revolution. In all the towns and the larger villages Workmen's and Soldiers' Councils were formed and took over the administration, doing as they pleased with the money that was at their disposal, and in many instances issuing absolutely ridiculous and absurd orders. A central authority that could in any way intervene did not exist, so that each Workmen's and Soldiers' Council did as it pleased. Gradually the Berlin Workmen's and Soldiers' Council attempted to introduce a certain degree of order into the situation by assuming the part of the authoritative and supreme body placed over all the Work- men's and Soldiers' Councils of Germany, although it by no means succeeded in getting itself recognized by all the rest of the Councils. There was even a movement in the Berlin Workmen's and Soldiers' Council to get the powers of the Government permanently into its hands and to prevent the elections for a National Assembly. In the other parts of Germany, especially in the south, the most violent opposition arose against this arbi- trary action of the Berlin Workmen's and Soldiers' Council. The Social Democratic party likewise published a declaration of its fundamental conviction that a reign of terror by an arbitrary Parliament of Councils was not in accordance with democratic principles such as it considered to be authoritative for the con- struction of the new Republic. The Soldiers' Councils now dis- sociated themselves from the Workmen's Councils and turned against them, accusing them of gross mismanagement of the finances and of squandering war material and food. Mean- while the Berlin Workmen's Council had elected an Executive Board as its supreme authority, and this new body was claiming for itself the management of the whole business of the Reich and representing itself as the body which was entitled to exer- cise supreme authority and surveillance over the Government.
The constant attacks which were being made by the various Workmen's and Soldiers' Councils upon officers caused the War Minister, Scheuch, to resign office on Dec. 15. Colonel Rein- hardt was appointed his successor. The Government now con- voked for Dec. 16 a congress of delegates of all the Workmen's and Soldiers' Councils of Germany to meet in Berlin. At this congress there were wild scenes of conflict between the Extrem- ists and the Moderates. The latter, however, were throughout in the majority, so that the Congress conferred executive and
