“THE GOVERNMENT HAS FAILED, GERMANY NEEDS CHANGE”

The people of Germany were not satisfied with the government. Anyone could see that. Protests by the SPD and the unions had become weekly occurrences, and showed no signs of stopping. Crime is rampant, jobs are needed. A speech in Berlin on May 1 by a local SPD member ignited a riot, before it was quelled by the police.

Yet it is not just the SPD, anarchists and syndicalists roamed the streets as well, looking for trouble. Hooligans waving black and red flags have been spotted across western Prussia in the Rhineland, particularly in Cologne, Essen, and Dortmund.

Karl Helfferich, State Secretary for Economic Affairs and a member of the DVLP, has resigned from the cabinet. Disappointed with conflict within the cabinet and the inaction of the Chancellor, the resignation deals another blow to the government. The Chancellor quickly replaced him with Zentrum member Matthias Erzberger.

"It seems that every week there is a new rumor and new issues," says Helmuth Bergner, the owner of a local Berlin newspaper, Der Vaterlandspost. "The only thing certain is that this country needs stability more than ever. The workers need jobs, we need a solid government who will not let anything stand in the way of prosperity and stability for our nation."

Meanwhile, SPD members Carl Severing and Otto Braun, some of the SPD big wigs in Prussia, have been in talks with Wilhelm Külz and Walther Rathenau, members of the Progressive People’s Party (Fortschrittliche Volkspartei/FVP), seeking to form a solid alliance between their parties similar to 1918. While the conclusions of these talks are still unknown, this has surprisingly worried the right-wing more than they already are.