The Kings Depart: German Revolution and the Treaty of Versailles 1918-19

The Kings Depart is the definitive story of a brief, pivotal moment in human history when the course and shape of the twentieth century might have been altered. Author Richard M. Watt begins with the defeat of the Kaiser in 1918 and the convention of the Versailles conference, where Europe was to be remade. This was the time when the victorious Allies might have imposed democracy on Europe by means of a peace with justice. Watt's gripping narrative quickly becomes tragedy as diplomacy and politics fail at every turn. He tells of victorious Allies too greedy and short-sighted to impose equitable peace on a defeated Germany, of Woodrow Wilson's tortured betrayal of his own idealism, and of a German people caught up in the realities of revolution, anarchy, and violence--waiting for the inevitable rise of a leader to exact vengeance on Europe--a Fuhrer. What began with the church bells of victory and hopes ends a year later in the first appearance of Adolf Hitler as a political power. Richard M Watt's book unfolds the story of 1918-19, the fateful year that saw the tragedy of Germany, soon to become the tragedy of Europe. In 1918 came the brief moment when the victorious Allies at the Versailles Conference had the opportunity - by means of a peace with justice - to set up democracy in central Europe. The Kings Depart tells of their failure; of the Allies' rapacity which drove a ruined Germany to seek vengeance; of Germany's terrible collapse into anarchy and Red revolution and her even more frightful salvation at the hands of the army and the Freikorps; of the appearance of the swastika banner and right-wing terrorists and adventurers awaiting their Fuhrer. Contents Part One 1 Stand Not Upon the Order of Your Going 2 A Prophet Is Not 3 The Russian Dilemma 4 ‘I don’t give a damn for logic!’ Part Two 5 Prelude to Revolution 6 The Kiel Mutiny 7 November Ninth Part Three 8 ‘Someone must become the bloodhound’ 9 ‘Volunteers to the front’ 10 Weimar and Munich 11 The Second Bavarian Revolution 12 The East Part Four 13 Preparation for Versailles 14 ‘The hour has struck for the weighty settlement of our account’ 15 Frontiers, Reparations and Guilt 16 The Last Seven Days Afterword Author’s Notes and Acknowledgements Bibliography Index What began in 1918 with the church bells of victory and the hopes of Versailles ended a year later with the appearance of Adolf Hitler and the beginnings of his fateful and fatal role