Chapter IV. Germany under the "Hunger-Blockade." 61
Germany's inability to feed and clothe her inhabitants--The war reduces production--Germany's imports in 1913--Food conservation--The "turnip-winter"--Everybody goes hungry--Terrible increase of mortality--Discontent engendered and increased by suffering--Illegitimate trade in the necessaries of life--Rations at the front become insufficient.
General enthusiasm at the war's outbreak--Socialists support the government--Liebknecht denounces the war--Otto Rühle, Franz Mehring, Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg--The "Spartacus Letters"--Extreme Socialists begin to follow Liebknecht--The first open break in the party--The seceders attack the war--Liebknecht sent to prison--The Russian Revolution as a factor--The political strikes of January, 1918--The army disaffected--Shortage of trained officers.
Submarine losses shake sailors' morale--Independent Socialists' propaganda--Admiral von Cappelle admits serious mutiny at Wilhelmshafen--Haase, Dittmann and Vogtherr denounced--Lenine passes through Germany--Russian Bolshevist propaganda in Germany--Treaty of Brest-Litovsk throws down the bars--Activities of the Bolshevist Ambassador Joffe--Haase, Cohn and other Independent Socialists work with him--Joffe expelled from Germany--Allied propaganda helps weaken German morale at home and on the fronts--Atrocity stories.
Chapter VII. Germany Requests an Armistice. 107
Chancellor Michaelis resigns and is succeeded by Count Hertling--Empire honeycombed with sedition--Count Lichnowsky's memoirs--Another Chancellor crisis--Socialists consent to enter a coalition government--Bulgaria surrenders--Hertling admits desperateness of situation--The German front begins to disintegrate--Prince Max of Baden becomes Chancellor, with the Socialist Philip Scheidemann as a cabinet member--Max requests an armistice--Lansing's reply.
Chapter VIII. The Last Days of Imperial Germany. 121
Reforms come too late--The Independent Socialists attack the government--Liebknecht released from prison and defies the authorities--The Kaiser makes sweeping surrenders of powers--Austria-Hungary's defection--Revolution in Vienna--Socialists demand the Kaiser's abdication--The new cabinet promises parliamentary reforms.