also proclaimed at Osnabrück, Hanover. At Baden, General von Davans, Commander in Chief of the Army, asserted he would support the Baden Government against the Berlin Government.

On the other hand, Baron von Wangenheim, superior garrison officer at Al

GUSTAV NOSKE

German Minister of Defense

tona, near Hamburg, issued a statement in which he announced the advent of the Imperial Government," and declared that he assumed executive power over Greater Hamburg and the surrounding district.

PROGRESS OF THE STRIKE

The general strike proclaimed by President Ebert went into effect in Berlin on the 14th with the closing down of all the cafés, traction lines, and many other forms of public service. At Cologne, Essen and Düsseldorf the workmen adopted a resoluti n calling for a twenty-four-hour strike as a protest against the reactionary coup.

At Hamburg on the evening of the 14th Public Security troops succeeded in

taking possession of the town hall, the Trades Union Building and other public places in order to demonstrate their support of the Ebert Government.

From other places, however, came reports of adherence to the new Government. In Breslau, Lieut. Gen. Count Schmeetow assumed the military command, and arrested thirty persons, including Oberpräsident Philipp. Hamburg reported Oberburgomeister Distel as having stated: "We will follow Berlin." From East Prussia the Governor, August Winnig, and General von Estorff, chief in command of the First Reichswehr, telegraphed Dr. Kapp as follows: "We of East Prussia, who are surrounded by enemy neighbors must welcome any development promising our province a chance of peace and work."

At Coblenz the American commander informed the Socialist leaders on March 13 that no general strike interfering with the functions of the allied forces of occupation would be permitted.

FALL OF REBEL GOVERNMENT Until the afternoon of the 15th the reactionary Government kept up a bold front, though its utter lack of support was already evident. A defiant proclamation was issued against leaders of the general strike, threatening them with capital punishment; but by this time the strike had swept the country from end to end. Berlin experienced a complete paralysis of all its living and commercial facilities. Food and service could not be obtained even in the hotels, and the water supply was cut off. Railroad and other transportation came to a standstill. It thus became evident to the Kapp-Lüttwitz régime that whatever chance for success it might have possessed was lost. Its coup d'état had failed.

In this emergency Dr. Kapp's first move was to seek the assistance of Field Marshal von Hindenburg and the former Vice Chancellor, Dr. Karl Helfferich; but they had kept in the background and refused to be entangled in the abortive revolt. General Groener, the Prussian War Minister, was also credited with having telegraphed that, in his opinion, the Kapp-Lüttwitz scheme was impos

sible, whether from the point of view of home or of foreign affairs.

With the guns of a counter-revolt beginning to thunder in his ears Chancellor Kapp next turned to placate those he had ousted. He ordered the release of the Bauer Cabinet members, who had been detained, but kept Prince Albrecht Joachim in prison. His efforts, however, to open negotiations with the Ebert Government at Stuttgart proved futile. He was again repulsed. As evidence of the power still retained by Ebert, the Imperial Finance Minister refused to turn over the money for the payment of the troops demanded by the revolutionary Chancellor, and other officials absolutely declined to take orders from the Kapp Government.

Thus Dr. Kapp, deprived of the support of the most influential men among the military party and rebuffed by the Majority Socialists, faced a tidal wave of the communist working classes to sweep his impossible Government out of existence. For a few hours more, however, he held on to the " rudderless ship at the urging of Colonel Bauer, leader of the Royalist Party, and of General Ludendorff, who was believed to be the evil genius behind the whole movement.

is moved by the conviction of the extreme necessity of the Fatherland, which demands solid union of all against the annihilating dangers of Bolshevism.

FINAL SCENE PICTURED

The last scene was described by a correspondent as pathetic. Already some of the Under Secretaries of the Bauer Cabinet had put in an appearance, and there were many handshakes of congratulation. Inside the palace door a small crowd of people waited to see the end. General von Lüttwitz had fled earlier in the evening. Most of the rooms were littered with straw for the housing of soldiers. Some of them actually slept through all the final acts. Documents were littered about in many rooms. Officials of brief authority were packing up their belongings. Confusion was everywhere. Orders were being shouted in echoing halls and machine guns and ammunition were being stored away. Here and there a motor car whirred and dashed away into the gathering gloom.

Presently Dr. Kapp and a few friends. emerged from the Chancellor's palace and entered a ray automobile, heaped with baggage and bundles of documents. Out through the huge gates it went, scarcely any one in the crowd of civilians and soldiers being aware of who were in the car. Not a single soldier saluted. Thus the Kapp Government d' appeared into the night of rain and mud from the scene of its astounding coup. "It was a fit setting for the final scene in one of the maddest, saddest and clumsiest revolutions ever staged. There had been nothing picturesque about it. A Central American republic could have staged something more thrilling."

RETURN OF NOSKE

On March 17 Gustav Noske, Minister of Defense, arrived in Berlin to take charge of the Government on behalf of President Ebert. Together with Vice Chancellor Ochiffer, in whose hands the sudden retirement of Dr. Wolfgang Kapp had temporarily placed the administrative power, he proceeded to restore order. Regular troops, loyal to the Ebert Government, guarded the streets, while detachments of them be

gan tearing down wire entanglements and barricades which the revolutionary soldiers had erected in profusion.

These latter took one last fling of vengeance before leaving the city. When lined up for their departure, they withstood impatiently for a time the hoots and jeers of the crowds in Wilhelmstrasse and Unter den Linden. Suddenly they opened fire and wounded several persons. The crowd rushed to take refuge in the Adlon Hotel, where the wounded were treated. Again, after passing through the Brandenburg Gate, the retreating revolutionary soldiers fired a parting volley with machine guns, wounding a score or more. The terrified mob once more rushed to the hotel, the gates of which were torn down in the ensuing panic.

President Ebert, Minister of Defense Noske and Foreign Secretary Müller, with other members of the Cabinet, had decided during the revolt that Dresden was too near Berlin for entire security, and had accordingly moved to Stuttgart on the 15th. At a Cabinet meeting on the following day, presided over by President Ebert, the report of General Merker relative to negotiations with Dr. Kapp was considered. It was decided that there could be no negotiations with the rebels, and that the Government's only response should be that Kapp and Lüttwitz must withdraw immediately from Berlin with their troops.

On the 17th the Council of the Empire assembled in the Castle of Stuttgart and unanimously approved the Government's attitude with strong condemnation of the coup d'état. The same place and date were set for the National Assembly to meet to consider the situation. As a precautionary measure the city had been garrisoned by several thousand loyal troops. By that time President Ebert was preparing to return to Berlin.

NEW COMMUNIST UPRISING

In the conflicts which rose out of the general strike between the supporters of the reactionary revolt and those faithful to the Ebert Government, the Communist

GENERAL VON LUETTVITZ Military leader of the Junker revolt ( Underwood & Underwood)

the harbor, killing hundreds and demolishing many houses.

Meanwhile the Independent Socialist Party, the trade union leaders and the Workmen's Council, who, in co-operation, had been busily engaged in trying to engineer the general strike to their own advantage, issued the following joint proclamation:

The counter-revolution has triumphed. It is through you that the freedom of the working classes, the revolution and the cause of socialism must be defended to the last man and the last woman. Every worker and every official in this hour of destiny must recognize that there is only one solution, namely, a general strike along the whole front. Workmen, workwomen and officials, away with party distinctions! Be united under the standard of revolutionary socialism! You have nothing to lose except your chains!

On the 15th a number of Spartacans seized the arsenal in Berlin, killing six officers and a number of soldiers. Kapp troops retook the arsenal, in turn killing about 200 rioters.

Advices of March 16-17 reported Spartacan activity throughout Germany, though, for the most part, the south was said to have remained less affected. In Westphalia battles took place between troops and bands of Spartacans, especially at Hagen, where the Radical Extremists had proclaimed a Soviet r public. All Rhenish and Westphalian industry declared itself ready to follow in the footsteps of the Soviet. At Halle and Ohligs, however, where the Spartacans had deposed the Mayors and hoisted the Red flag, British troops restored order and reinstated the Mayors.

In the eastern part of the industrial region of Bochum and in Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen and Unna, the proletariat was in charge. Armed laborers sped to various places to assist their comrades in the fighting, while Government troops vigorously used their artillery. At Münster 8,000 armed laborers disarmed two battalions of troops and directed heavy machine-gun fire upon airmen sent to observe them. eserves, however, were concentrated at Söst and Weil, awaiting reinforcements. Forty-five persons were reported killed at Essen in street fighting, and one officer and nine men were

killed in a conflict with Spartacans at Wetter. In Leipsic the situation was very bad. While fighting with machine guns was proceeding, food was becoming scarce, and the water supply had been cut off, but the Ebert Government troops were holding their own against the revolutionaries. In the Charlottenburg and Steglitz suburbs of Berlin serious rioting was in progress. All Berlin viewed the situation with alarm, asking: The White or Red terror, which? Meantime the leaders of the general strike issued a hopeful proclamation, which said: "The general strike of the railway men has been completely successful, and, therefore, it is suspended forthwith."

FIGHTING THE REDS

When these pages went to press, on March 22, the Kapp revolt was a thing of the past, but the Red rebellion that had followed in its wake was still a serious and bloody problem for the Ebert Government.

The Communist revolt had grown to alarming proportions, especially in the western districts. Essen had been captured by a Spartacan army after inflicting many hundreds of casualties. The Ruhr mining district was in a fierce ferment of radical revolt, and the Communists had a fully equipped army estimated at 70,000 men. Serious outbreaks were reported in Bavaria, Württemberg and Baden. By the 19th the dead in these local conflicts were estimated at more than 2,000.

President Ebert and the members of his Government returned to Berlin on March 21 after a week's absence and began taking vigorous measures to combat the Communist revolt, which had proved much more formidable than that of the militarists. Already the Ebert régime had taken an important step toward conciliation of the radicals by making a 'swing to the left in its announcement of its future policy. As the outcome of a conference with the Strike Committee in Berlin, which lasted all through the night of the 19th-20th, the following convention was signed early in the morning of the 20th. Its chief concession to the

66

radicals was the promise that Noske should be dropped from power:

1. The Government's representatives will intervene with the various political parties in order to reform the same. Prussian Cabinet Ministers will be nominated by agreement between the parties and the trade unionists.

2. The labor organizations will have a decisive influence in these nominations, respecting, however, the rights of Parliament.

3. Punishment of the leaders of the recent coup, including all officials and civil servants who supported the Kapp régime.

4. Democratization of all administrations and the dismissal of all who proved disloyal to the Constitution.

5. Immediate extension of existing social laws and the framing of new laws.

6-7. The immediate socialization of all industries, therefore nationalization of the coal and potash syndicates.

8. Confiscation of agricultural products and confiscation of land improperly and unintensively cultivated.

9. Dissolution of Reichswehr formations not loyal to the Constitution and their replacement by formations from the workmen, artisans and State teachers.

10. The resignation of Gustav Noske and Dr. Karl Heine.

The strike was declared off at noon, and the state of siege was ended the following day, but Noske's strong hand was still active in the work of combating rebellion, and it was agreed that he would not retire immediately. The disturbances everywhere were increasing in seriousness. The Reds had occupied Leipzig and fought a pitched battle there with Government troops on the 19th, resulting in the killing of 3,000 persons before the Government recaptured the city. Communist control was spreading in the Rhine districts, and the German Republic was facing the most serious crisis in its brief history.

DOWNFALL OF ERZBERGER

The chief event of the month in Germany, aside from the attempted revolution, was the Erzberger trial. The voluntary resignation of Minister of Finance Erzberger on Feb. 24 had come as the sensational climax to a long series of attacks which culminated in accusations against his personal integrity. Herr Erzberger was said to have become the best hated man in Germany, even more

The trial began on Jan. 19, and one among several sensational incidents was the attempted assassination of Erzberger on the 26th by Hirshfield, a former military cadet. He was seriously wounded. From the outset the nature of the defense placed Erzberger himself on the defensive. Dr. Helfferich pleaded 'justifiable libel," and produced such an array of witnesses that Erzberger presented the figure of a man charged with a capital offense. Testimony went to show that he had been involved in numerous questionable transactions, and had used his official position to the end of personal gain. In the final scene State Attorney Messerschmidt testified that Erzberger had smuggled large amounts of private funds to Switzerland. In cross-examination he stated that he

had come across Erzberger's trail in connection with an investigation of Michael Thalberg, a Zurich attorney, who, he testified, acted as transfer agent in financial transactions which he believed would total 15,000,000 marks.

The proceedings rose to the dramatic when Dr. Helfferich personally examined Erzberger, and forced the Minister to admit that he was acquainted with Thalberg, that the Minister's wife had been in communication with the attorney at Zurich, and that he had funds on de

posit there. Herr Erzberger, in attempting to defend himself, asserted that the