"(7) Aims at coordination of the Imperial Government and the summoning of Government representatives from Parliament to carry out a uniform Imperial policy. The strict observance of all constitutional responsibility. The abolition of all military institutions that serve for the exercise of political influence.
"(8) Says that with a view to the protection of personal liberty, right of meeting, and the freedom of the press, prescriptions regarding the state of siege shall immediately be amended and the censorship restricted to questions of relations to foreign governments, war, strategy, and tactics, troop movements, and the manufacture of war material. The establishment of a political control department for all measures taken on the ground of the state of siege is also demanded."
During the next two weeks a number of constitutional reforms were instituted. The Prussian Diet passed an equal franchise law. The emperor's prerogative to make war and peace and to make treaties with foreign nations was abridged and required the consent of the Federal Council and the Reichstag.
Day by day now the signs of internal collapse became more evident. On October 24, 1918, Dr. Karl Liebknecht was released from prison. Three days later the emperor accepted the resignation of General von Ludendorff, considered generally the head and leader of the militarists and junkers. On the same day a meeting of the Crown Council and of many dignitaries of the entire empire took place. Abdication of the emperor and crown prince became one of the principal topics of discussion, even though the emperor on November 3, 1918, in a manifesto expressed his full support of all reforms.
On November 7, 1918, the German fleet revolted. Kiel was seized by the Soldiers' Council. The emperor's brother, Prince Henry of Prussia, was reported to have fled. On November 8, 1918, the chancellor resigned, but his resignation was not accepted. On the same day Bavaria was declared a republic. The revolution broke out in many other parts of the empire. On November 9, 1918, the chancellor published the following decree:
"The kaiser and king has decided to renounce the throne.
"The Imperial Chancellor will remain in office until the questions connected with the abdication of the kaiser, the renouncing by the crown prince of the throne of the German Empire and of Prussia, and the setting up of a regency have been settled.
"For the regency he intends to appoint Deputy Ebert as Imperial Chancellor, and he proposes that a bill shall be brought in for the establishment of a law providing for the immediate promulgation of general suffrage and for a constitutional German National Assembly, which will settle finally the future form of government of the German nation and of those peoples which might be desirous of coming within the empire.
The Imperial Chancellor."
The new German chancellor, the Socialist Deputy Friedrich Ebert, announced these momentous events in the following manifesto, dated November 10, 1918: