During those weeks the Revolution in Germany was forced to give at least an appearance of extreme moderation, if it was not to run the risk of being cut to pieces in a moment by two or three German divisions. For if even a single divisional commander had made up his mind then and there, with his faithful division, to drag down the red flag and stick the “councils” up against a wall, or to break any resistance with Minenwerfer and hand-grenades, that division would not have taken a month to grow into an army of six divisions. The Jew wire-puller was terrified of this more than anything.
The Revolution, however, was not made by the forces of peace and order but by those of riot, robbery and plunder. And the further development of the Revolution was not in accord with the will of these latter elements, nor for tactical reasons could its course be explained or made palatable to them.
As Social Democracy gradually gained power, that Movement dropped more and more the character of a Revolution of brute force.
Even before the War was over, and whilst the Social Democratic Party, deriving its character from the inertia of the masses, hung like a load of lead on the neck of national defence, the radical-activist ele¬ ments were extracted from them and formed into new and aggressive columns of attack. These were the Independent Party and the Spartacus Union, the storm-battalions of revolutionary Marxism. But when the Army returning from the front appeared in the light of a menacing sphinx, the national course of the Revolution had to be toned down. The main body of the Social Democratic host took charge of the con¬ quered positions, and the Independents and Spartacists were thrust on one side. This did not happen without a struggle. The change had hardly taken place when there appeared two camps side by side : the party of peace and order and the group of bloody terror. Was it not perfectly natural that the bourgeoisie should betake themselves with colours flying into the camp of peace and order ?