abstract
| - In a hurried and secret operation,Bebel`s government and the coalition factions of the Reichstag leave Munich and re-unite in Berlin, where they gather in the ceremonial rooms of the city council and draft plans for keeping control of the country. Meanwhile in Munich, the protesters triumph. Supported by the emperor, the remaining factions vote to dissolve Parliament and call for re-elections without proposing a date on which they should be held. According to their votum, the Emperor should form an interim government. This view is not shared at all in Berlin. To assert their position, the exiled parliamentarians pass the disputed common Civil Law Code and another law creating a federal bureau of police co-operation against "armed criminal gangs". The Emperor in Munich refuses to even comment on these measures. Now the crisis reaches the member states` governments. They must decide which federal institution they follow. The free cities and a handful of liberal states openly declare their allegiance to the exiled parliament, preparing the implementation of the measures decided in Berlin. Most aristocratic states remain loyal to the Emperor. Some of them, e.g. the duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, are overthrown by new democratic revolts. Tensions seem to increase with every new day. After the Emperor declares all the bills null and void and withholds payment to all magistrates who execute them, a dozen cities and states stop fiscal transfers to Munich and, in a joint session with the exiled parliament, declare themselves independent, forming the "Federal Republic of Germany". The country is on the verge of civl war. Everything seems to hinge on how the one institution that has not yet been divided - the armed forces - will decide. The Reichwehr supports the Federal Republic. The Reichswehr remains loyal to Emperor Luitpold. The Reichswehr stays out of the conflict. Salvador79 (talk) 14:49, February 21, 2014 (UTC)
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