opportunity—Soviets erected throughout Northwestern Germany—Official cowardice at Swinemünde—Noske becomes Governor of Kiel.

Chapter X. The Revolution Reaches Berlin. 147

Lansing announces that the allied governments accept Wilson's fourteen points with one reservation—Max appeals to the people—Hamburg revolutionaries reach Berlin—Government troops brought to the capital—Independent Socialists meet in the Reichstag building—The revolution spreads—Majority Socialists join hands with the revolutionaries—Supposedly loyal troops mutiny—Revolution.

Chapter XI. The Kaiser Abdicates. 159

Ebert becomes Premier for a day—The German Republic proclaimed—Liebknecht at the royal palace—Officers hunted down in the streets—The rape of the bourgeois newspapers by revolutionaries—The first shooting—Ebert issues a proclamation and an appeal—A red Sunday—Revolutionary meeting at the Circus Busch—A six-man cabinet formed—The Vollzugsrat—Far-reaching reforms are decreed.

Chapter XII. "The German Socialistic Republic." 177

The end of the dynasties—The Kaiser flees—Central Soviet displays moderate tendencies—Wholesale jail-releases—The police disarmed—Die neue Freiheit—A Red Guard is planned, but meets opposition from the soldiers—Liebknecht organizes the deserters—Armistice terms a blow to the cabinet—The blockade is extended.

Chapter XIII. "The New Freedom." 195

Germany's armed forces collapse—Some effects of "the new freedom"—The Reichstag is declared dissolved—The cabinet's helplessness—Opposition to a national assembly—Radicals dominate the Vollzugsrat—Charges are made against it—The Red Soldiers' League—The first bloodshed under the new régime.

Chapter XIV. The Majority Socialists in Control. 209

Front soldiers return—The central congress of Germany's Soviets—Radicals in an insignificant minority—A new Vollzugsrat of Majority Socialists appointed—The People's Marine Division revolts—Independent Socialists leave the cabinet—The Spartacus League organized—The national government's authority flouted—Aggressions by Czechs and Poles—An epidemic of strikes.

Chapter XV. Liebknecht Tries to Overthrow the Government; Is Arrested and Killed. 225

The first Bolshevist uprising—Prominent Berlin newspapers seized by the Spartacans—The Independent Socialists' double-dealing—Capture of the Vorwärts plant—Ledebour, Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg arrested—Liebknecht and Luxemburg killed—The Bolsheviki turn their attention to coast cities.

Chapter XVI. The National Assembly. 237

Germany's political parties reorganize—Theodor Wolff—Composition of the National Assembly—Convenes at Weimar—Spartacans stage various uprisings—Friedrich Ebert elected provisional president of the German Republic—Germany's desperate financial situation—The difference between theory and practice.

Chapter XVII. The Spartacans Rise Again. 251

Germany still hungering—Promised supplies of food delayed—Gas and coal shortage—Strikes add to people's sufferings—The Spartacans plan another uprising—Severe fighting in Berlin—The radical newspaper Die rote Fahne suppressed—Independent Socialists go over to the Spartacans—Independent Socialist and Spartacan Platforms contrasted.

Chapter XVIII. Red or White Internationalism: Which? 265

Radicalism encouraged by Bolshevism's success in Hungary.

Chapter XIX. The Weimar Constitution. 273

History of the new constitution—An advancedly democratic institution—Important change in constitution on third reading—The imperial constitution ceases to exist—Two "main divisions"—Construction of the state—Preambles of old and new constitutions compared—Fundamental and sweeping changes—Radical curtailment of states' rights—The President—The Reichstag, importance assigned to it—The Reichsrat—Legislative procedure—Referendum and initiative—Amendments—"Fundamental rights and fundamental duties of the Germans"—Articles on social and economic life—Socialist influence becomes unmistakable—Sweeping socialization made possible—Workmen's council is "anchored" in the constitution.

The Constitution of the German Commonwealth. 294

Translation by William Bennett Munro and Arthur Norman Holcombe. Reprinted by permission of the World Peace Foundation.

Foreword.

The developments leading up to the German Revolution of November, 1918, and the events marking the course of the revolution itself are still but imperfectly known or understood in America. For nearly two years preceding the overthrow of the monarchy, Americans, like the people of all other countries opposing Germany, were dependent for their direct information upon the reports of neutral correspondents, and a stringent censorship prevented these from reporting anything of value regarding the conditions that were throughout this period gradually making the German Empire ripe for its fall. To a great extent, indeed, not only these foreign journalists, but the great mass of the Germans themselves, had little knowledge of the manner in which the Empire was being undermined.

During the crucial days of the revolution, up to the complete overthrow of the central government at Berlin, a