The Social Democrats had possession of the
Reichstaggebaeude, and every official head still affixed to its
shoulders was as helpless--a fuming prisoner in its own house--as if
those arrogant brains had turned to porridge. Every royal and official
residence throughout the Empire was surrounded by an army of women with
fixed bayonets, and before noon every unsubmissive member of the old
regime would be in either a fortress or the common prison.
This news Gisela heard at ten o'clock when she returned to the wireless
station on the Maximilianeum. The Berlin news came from Mariette.
In Munich the old King had been returned to the Red Palace which he had
occupied during the long years of his father's regency, and it too was
surrounded by an alert but silent army. The other royal palaces were
guarded in a similar manner, but the women had no intention of killing
these kindly Wittelsbachs if it could be avoided. All they asked of them
was to keep quiet, and keep quiet they did. After all, they had reigned
a thousand years. Perhaps they were tired. Certainly they always looked
bored to the verge of dissolution.
The Munich Socialists had taken possession of the Residenz in which to
proclaim their victory and the new Republic, and by this time were
crowding the Hofgarten and adjoining streets.
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