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| - Previous: Social Democrats and National Liberals Win Bebel invites representatives from trade unions, women`s associations and civil rights groups as well as the editors-in-chief of several newspapers to the urgent cabinet meeting. And they come. The imminent dangers of the conservative revolt are discussed, conditions for a support of the government are negotiated and in the end, a common strategy is developed. After an unprecedented concerted mobilisation campaign, more than a million pro-government demonstrators take to the streets on Saturday, the day before the Catholic-conservative campaign promised its new attack on the Reichstag. The conservative side is shocked. They had hoped to surf on a wave of anti-government resentment, but now they`re not even sure if they can muster enough people so as not to look ridiculous after Saturday`s mass demonstrations. Josef Jörg, leader of the Catholic Centre party, pleads for postponing the march on the Reichstag, in the name of "public peace and safety". Radical right-wing groups immediately contradict him. So, on Sunday, August 29th, approximately 10,000 conservative protesters march on the Reichstag, where the meet the resistance of a slightly larger group of unionists and civil rights activists. Violence breaks out. Nobody manages to storm any governmental facility, but in the streets of Munich, fights continue into the night, with police forces helplessly trying to quell riots or at least keep the opponents separated from each other. Smoke from burning barricades rises into the night sky, but even farther and faster travel the news of civil unrest in Munich, across the entire empire and beyond. Tuesday`s newspapers already speak of 120 casualties. Both sides are outraged, and each blames the other. More protests and riots break out in towns and cities across the entire empire. After two weeks, the situation has not been deescalated at all. Both sides have radicalised. The conservatives now demand from the emperor the demise of Bebel`s government, the outlawing of the SPD and NLP, and a dissolution of Parliament. Workers, liberals and women demand universal suffrage, democratisation in all member states of the empire, equal access to education and employment regardless of sex or class and a redistribution of power and wealth. The next two months see important victories for the left. In several mini-revolutions, the prince-bishopric of Osnabrück, the duchies of Cleves-Jülich-Berg-Mark, Hesse-Darmstadt, Silesia, Schleswig and Holstein and the principalities of Cologne and East Frisia are overthrown and replaced by the republics of Osnabrück, Rhineland, Hesse, Silesia and Schleswig-Holstein. In many other smaller and larger states, constitutional monarchies are turned into parliamentary ones, with the monarchs consenting to become mere figureheads in order to escape the fate of their unlucky peers. As winter nears, conservative protests decrease in number, but radicalise in the form of attempted murders of parliamentarians, and union and women`s association leaders. Publicised opinion begins to speak of the "1893 Revolution" and to write off the conservative revolt - until the most gruesome bloodbath of the civil unrest so far is committed in Augsburg, where a hundred heavily armed ultra-right-wingers open fire at a pro-democracy gathering, killing hundreds and wounding more. Deeply shocked, chancellor Bebel and emperor Luitpold decide to start talking to each other again, and invite all the major groups to a "round table" discussion about a peaceful and stable future for the Reich. What will happen? No compromise is found. Civil unrest continues - perhaps until the armed forces restore order? Turn The Other Cheek. Salvador79 (talk) 14:02, February 10, 2014 (UTC)
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