Factory Councils bill, the provisions of which did not go far enough to satisfy the extreme Left, the Independent Socialists. In consequence of the agitation conducted by that party, a crowd numbering close upon 100,000 persons assembled in the vast square in front of the Reichstag building and ultimately attempted to force their way into the National Assembly. The armed police were compelled to fire upon them, 40 persons being killed and over 100 wounded. The bill was finally passed on Jan. 18. The Taxation bill was then discussed the income tax for the Reich, a special tax of 10% on incomes from invested capital (Kapitalertragsteuer) and the taxation of companies. Erzberger continued to be the leading spokesman of the Govern- ment in the advocacy of these proposals. He was at the same time occupying public attention in consequence of the action for libel which he had brought against the Conservative leader and former Secretary of State, Helfferich, who had accused Erzberger of combining with his political activity the advocacy of private commercial interests, and had also charged him with untruthfulness. The trial lasted seven weeks and resulted in the condemnation of Helfferich to a fine of 300 marks for libel or insult (Beleidigung), although the court animadverted upon Erzberger's conduct in terms which led his party, the Catholic Centre, to recommend his withdrawal for a time from public life. He had previously resigned the Ministry of Finance. During the trial an attempt had been made on Erzberger's life by a young officer named von Hirschfeld, who succeeded in wounding him.
Immediately after the conclusion of peace the Allied Powers demanded from Holland the extradition of the German Emperor. Holland persisted in declining to comply with this demand, but undertook to subject the ex-Kaiser to strict surveillance. Although the ex- Kaiser now enjoyed little popularity in Germany, the demand for his extradition was regarded as a national humiliation, and this feeling was intensified in the highest degree by the subsequent demand for the extradition of the so-called war criminals, seeing that the original French list contained the names of almost all the military leaders, including Hindenburg, Ludendorff and Tirpitz, and further the former Imperial Chancel- lor Bethmann Hollweg, several German sovereigns and heirs to German thrones, as well as 895 persons of different military ranks belonging to all classes of the German people. The list, moreover, was very imperfect and inaccurate in its designation of the persons whose extradition was demanded. Some of them were dead. The president of the German Peace Commission in Paris, Baron von Lersner, accordingly declined to receive the list which Millerand handed to him on Feb. 4 1920. The list was then presented in Berlin, and was followed by an exchange of notes and finally by a decision of the Supreme Council on Feb. 14 to the effect that certain alleged war criminals should be tried by the German Supreme Court at Leipzig. A list con- taining the names of 45 persons was presented to the German Government on May 7 1920. The trials were delayed by the fact that the Allied Powers took a long time to furnish the German public prosecutor with the names and the evidence of the witnesses for which he had asked. Some 15 cases were tried in the summer of 1921, some of them ending with a ver- dict of guilty and a sentence, others with an acquittal. In the army the excitement over the demand for the extradition of the military leaders was especially strong. Among the soldiers, as among the police, there was a determination to refuse to coop- erate in any way in fulfilling this demand. Another cause of discontent was that the members of the small -new army re- mained in complete uncertainty regarding their personal future. According to the Treaty, the German army, which in peace times had numbered about 700,000 men and during war had risen to 12,000,000, had now to be reduced to 100,000. This reduction had to take place within three months of the ratifica- tion of the Treaty. At Germany's request, however, the Supreme Council agreed on Feb. 18 1920 to extend the period for reduc- tion to July 10. Until April 10 a strength of 200,000 men was to be permitted. In Spa, in July 1920, it was decided that the new army (Wehrmacht) should have a strength of 150,000 until
the following Oct., but should be reduced to 100,000 by Jan. r 1921. This decision was carried out by Germany.
The army reduction originally determined for April 10 was one of the direct causes of the military Putsch on March 13. There were two bodies of troops, the Ehrhardt Marine Brigade and the Lowenfeld Brigade, which refused to be disbanded. The political grounds for the insurrection, known as the " Kapp Putsch," may be explained as follows. In Jan. 1920 the text of the electoral bill for the first republican Reichstag and for the election of the President of the Reich had been published. It seemed that the date for the general election could not be long delayed. Yet the National Assembly rejected on March 9 a Conservative proposal for the dissolution of the National Assembly on May i. On the Right the view was held that the mandate of the National Assembly had been fulfilled when it had constructed a new Constitution and concluded peace. It presently became known that the Social Democrats intended to propose that the President of the Reich should be elected by the Reichstag instead of, as the bill provided, by the whole nation. The feeling against the Government and Parliament created by this prospect was utilized by Kapp (see KAPP, WOLFGANG) of Konigsberg and by Gen. von Luttwitz, and on the morning of March 13 1920 they seized power in Berlin with the aid of the marine brigades quartered at Doberitz. The Government offices in the Wilhelmstrasse were occupied. Kapp assumed the Chancellorship and Luttwitz the office of Minister of National Defence, and the constitutional Government was declared to be deposed. A new Government of " order, liberty and ac- tion " was described in a proclamation as having been instituted. The National Assembly and the Prussian Constituent Assembly were declared to have been dissolved. A Committee of the Social Democratic party replied by the proclamation of a gen- eral strike, an appeal to which the names of the President of the Reich and the Socialist ministers were attached. The Govern- ment and the President of the Reich fled to Dresden to prevent civil war and bloodshed. The Kapp movement was, however, confined to parts of north Germany and collapsed in a few days. Kapp and Luttwitz threw up the game on March 17 and fled. Warrants for their arrest and for that of their leading accom- plices on the charge of high treason were issued. Among these accomplices were Col. Bauer (a right-hand man of Ludendorff), Capt. Ehrhardt and the former Berlin prefect of police, von Jagow, who for a few days during the Putsch had played the part of Minister of the Interior. The National Assembly met on March 18 in Stuttgart, whither the Government had removed, and denounced the Putsch as a monstrous crime against the German nation. In the sequel disciplinary measures were taken, and a number of officers and officials were dismissed. The rank and file of the participators in the movement, how- ever, were let alone. The prosecution of the chief conspirators was ultimately fixed to take place at the end of 1921.
The Kapp enterprise had been started with an incredible degree of political ignorance, and must be regarded as having amounted to an attempt at a monarchist revolution. It may be asserted, however, that none of the parties represented in the Parliament, including the Deulschnalionalen (Conservative) party, participated in the movement. During the Putsch days there were sanguinary collisions in various towns between work- men and those bodies of troops which had declared for Kapp. Nine officers were murdered at Schoneberg, a suburb of Berlin, and a number of persons were shot on the departure of the so-called Baltic Corps at the Brandenburg Gate. In con- sequence of these events there was a new outbreak of the extreme revolutionary movement. In the Ruhr region in partic- ular there were regular warlike operations by the Red Army, while at the same time the Communist free-lance, Max Holz, overran the Saxon Vogtland and burned and plundered. A Bolshevist " terror " reigned for some days in the Ruhr region, where the extremists considered the moment to have arrived for setting up a Soviet republic, for which they had long been mak- ing preparations. There was a good deal of intimidation and raiding of banks and other commercial establishments, and
