ABSTRACT
On the night of the Kaiser’s flight Ebert sat at the Chancellor’s desk in Berlin and contemplated his problems. Germany seemed to be heading for chaos; the system which had been held together for so long by such great efforts threatened to collapse as soon as the motive for making the efforts disappeared. External failure threatened to reverse the internal integration which had been achieved since 1871. There was a danger that separatist movements in the different states would undo Bismarck’s work of unification. All over the country the soldiers and workers were forming themselves into Councils (which in Russia were called Soviets) and hoisting red flags. Those in the capital were talking in wild terms and it was natural, if incorrect, to suppose that the same held good everywhere. The Spartakists, as the left-wing Socialists called themselves, clearly intended to follow the Russian example and, by seizing the leadership of the Councils, precipitate a social revolution. But Ebert had no intention of being the German Kerensky. He and his immediate colleagues were Democrats before they were Socialists. Long years spent trying to establish parliamentary government in Germany had accustomed them to think in terms of order and fairness; their first instinct was to let the German people as a whole decide on the future by a free vote. But their chances of putting through their ideas depended on the force at their command. What attitude was the Army going to take?
