The Reichstag passed on last reading the measures sent from the Federal Council to put into effect the Kaiser's recommendations of September 30th. Their most important provision was one placing the military command under control of the civil government, which had been demanded by the Majority Socialists as one of their conditions for participation in the government. The Kaiser sent to the Imperial Chancellor on October 28th the following decree:
"I send your Grand Ducal Highness in the enclosure the measures for the alteration of the Imperial Constitution and of the laws concerning the representative powers of the Chancellor, of March 17, 1878, for immediate promulgation. It is my wish, in connection with this step, which is so full of meaning for the German people, to give expression to the feelings that move me. Prepared by a number of acts of the government, a new order of things now becomes effective, transferring fundamental rights from the person of the Kaiser to the people. Thus there is closed a period which will endure in honor in the eyes of future generations.
"Despite all struggles between inherited powers and forces striving to raise themselves, this period discloses itself unforgettably in the wonderful accomplishments of the war. In the fearful storms of the four years of the war, however, old formulae have been shattered, not to leave ruins, but rather to give way to new forms of life. In view of the accomplishments of this period, the German people can demand that no right shall be withheld from them which insures a free and happy future. The measures proposed by the allied governments[21] and now accepted by the Reichstag owe their existence to this conviction.
[21] Here meaning merely the German federal states.
"I accept these decisions of the people's representatives, together with my exalted allies, in the firm desire to coöperate, as far as lies in my power, in rendering them effective, and in the conviction that I shall thus serve the interests of the German people.
"The post of Kaiser means service of the people (_Das Kaiseramt ist Dienst am Volke_).
"May the new order release all good forces which our people need in order to endure the hard trials that have been visited upon the Empire, and to win the way, with firm step, from out the dark present to a bright future."