by the plebiscite of July 24 to Belgium. In the summer of 1920 ambassadors from the Powers which had been at war with Germany were once more sent to Berlin, the business of their embassies having meanwhile been conducted by charges d'affaires. On July i the French Ambassador Laurent, on July 2 the British Ambassador Lord d' Abernon, and on July 3 1 the Italian Ambassador Martino presented their credentials to the Presi- dent of the Reich. Germany had, for her part, sent in Jan. 1920 the Catholic Centre deputy, Dr. Mayer, to Paris, the Hamburg senator, Dr. Sthamer, to London, and the former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Self, to Tokyo. The newly instituted Papal nunciature to the Reich was taken over by the Papal Nuncio at Munich, Mgr. Pacelli.
The next business of the Reichstag was to give effect to the Spa decisions. On July 30 universal and compulsory military service, which had existed for more than 100 years, was abol- ished, and also military jurisdiction. On July 31 the law on the disarmament of the civil population was passed. It was carried out in the autumn by Secretary of State Peters, a process which included the surrender and destruction of over 2,000,000 rifles. In this connexion the much-canvassed " Orgesch " (Organiza- tion Escherich) instituted by the Bavarian Director of Woods and Forests, Escherich, for the protection of the citizens in the event of a renewal of Bolshevist disturbances an organization char- acterized by certain extreme reactionary tendencies was for- bidden in Prussia. After the London Conference of May 1921 it had to be dissolved, together with the Bavarian Eimuohner- wehr (voluntary military organization for citizens' defence).
The movement for the socialization of industry, which had reached its zenith during the period of the revolution, had in course of time become concentrated upon schemes for the social- ization of the mining industry. A Socialization Commission had been appointed, and in Sept. 1920 it presented two alterna- tive schemes. The one scheme was for the immediate and complete socialization of the mining industry, with ^compen- sation for the mine-owners. The other, of which Walther Rathenau, afterwards Minister for Reconstruction, was the author, contemplated a State monopoly of the wholesale coal trade, with still more ample compensation for the mine-owners. Meanwhile a new and novel kind of parliament had been estab- lished (June 30). This was the so-called provisional Economic Council of the Reich (Reichswirtschaflsral), a non-political, purely economic parliament with 326 members. A joint com- mittee of this Economic Council and the Coal Council of the Reich (Reichskohlenrat) discussed the two socialization schemes. Its verdict, of which Hugo Stinnes was doubtless the father, was in favour of a proposal that the coal-miners and workmen should participate in the capital and the profits of the industry by means of small shares. The miners, however, rejected this pro- posal, and in the course of a debate in the Reichstag the Minis- ter for Economics, Dr. Scholz, declared that the question was not yet ripe and could be decided only on economic grounds.
About this time fundamental changes took place in the group- ing of the Socialist parties. The Independent Socialists had applied at Moscow to be received into the fold of the Third In- ternational, whereupon the Third International had set up 21 conditions of admission, among them the exclusion from the party of all leading members who professed any kind of democ- racy or were infected with any kind of " social patriotism." At the Independent Socialist party congress held at Halle these conditions were accepted, after a speech by the Russian Bolshe- vik Zinoviev, on Oct. 16 1920, against a strong minority vote. The minority, the right wing of the Independents under the leadership of Crispien, thereupon separated from the New Com- munists, whose leaders were Daumig and Stocker. The latter united in Berlin on Nov. i with the Communist party (led by Dr. Levi) and formed the " United Communist party of Germany, Section of the Third International." In the preceding spring a still more extreme group, the Communist Workers' party, had seceded from Dr. Levi's organization. 1 This group eschewed all
1 In German books and newspapers the first of these groups was frequently designated by the letters K. P. D. (Kommunistische
participation in elections or parliamentary work. The Majority Socialists (i.e. the governmental or moderate Socialist party) renewed in Aug. 1920 at Geneva their adhesion to the Second (the Amsterdam-London) International, and, in the presence of their foreign associates, made confession of their own and Germany's responsibility for the German war policy.
The United Communist party instigated in March 1921 in central Germany, in the region between Halle and Eisleben, an insurrection, the chief object of which doubtless was to demon- strate their revolutionary character to their masters at Moscow. The Chief President of the Prussian province of Saxony, Horsing, had had recourse to the services of the armed police (Schutzpoli- zei) in consequence of the intolerable situation in several great factories, where thefts, intimidation and strikes were the order of the day. The Rote Fahne, the organ of the K.P.D. (the Com- munist party of Germany), thereupon called a general strike and exhorted the whole of the workmen to take up arms. Many of the workmen of central Germany accordingly rose. What might be called the military conduct of the insurrection was assumed by the locksmith Max Holz, who extorted money from " the bourgeoisie " for his Red Army and set their houses on fire. Attempts were made to wreck railway bridges and stations, post-offices and banks. In the great Leuna nitrogen works near Merseburg, the centre of the movement, all authority was for some weeks, on the Russian model, in the hands of the workmen. The Prussian Government, which at that time was predomi- nantly Socialist, considered it politically expedient not to em- ploy the regular army (Reichswchr) against the insurgent work- men, but to use only the armed police (Schutzpolizei). This police liberated the central region of Germany after hard fight- ing. The violent agitation conducted by the central committee of the K.P.D. in Berlin had meanwhile succeeded in causing the insurrection to spread to other towns, particularly Hamburg. The movement altogether cost the lives of several thousands of workmen and armed police. Dr. Levi and Klara Zetkin had shortly before this Putsch been compelled to retire from the leadership of the central committee of the Communists, in order to make room for people who would blindly obey the orders of Noske. The failure of the insurrection led to further discipli- nary measures and splits within the Communist party in the Reichstag and also at the Communist party congress. Holz was tried and condemned to penal servitude for life. The insurrec- tion had nevertheless proved that by far the greater part of the Socialist working classes were no longer inclined to be driven into hopeless enterprises by irresponsible agitators.
In Prussia the elections for the Diet took place in Feb. 1921. Their result, like that of the elections for the Reichstag six months earlier, was that the old coalition was weakened and that the Social Democrats left the Government. A new Government was formed, after difficult negotiations, by the leader of the Christian trade unions, Stegerwald, a member of the Catholic Centre party; it was composed of Catholic Centre men and Democrats. The Fehrenbach-Simons Government fell in May over the Reparations question. The Allies, after a number of preliminary meetings, had settled at their Paris Conference in Jan. 1921 that the total amount to be paid by Germany should be 226 milliards of gold marks and an ad valorem tax of 12% on German exports. The German Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Simons, stated on Feb. i in the Reichstag that these pro- posals did not give the German Government any possible basis for an arrangement. At the Reparations Conference in London (March 1-7) he submitted a German counter-proposal which was summarily rejected by the Allies. A memorandum, which was submitted by German experts, pointed out that the result of accepting the Paris decisions would be to compel the German workman to work 14 hours a day, and German industry and commerce to dump German goods on the markets of the world. The negotiations were finally broken off, and Dr. Simons left with the German delegation. The Allied Powers now imposed their so-called " sanctions." Diisseldorf, Duisburg and Ruhrort
Partei Deutschlands), the second by the letters K. A. P. D. (Kom- munistische Arbeiler-Partei Deutschlands).
