DOCUMENTS 655,
656 NOVEMBER 1918
947
655.
To
Ludwig Quidde
[Berlin, 15
November 1918, 10:36
a.m.][1]
Bund Neues Vaterland erstrebt die
Verwirklichung
des Socialismus durch De-
mokratie Will diese Idee in allen
Bevoelkerungkreisen ronagieren[2]
Naechstes
Ziel ist
Einberufung verfassungsgebender Nationalversammlung[3]
Erbitten tele-
graphisch Zustimmung
Ihrer
Namensnennung [zum] repraesentativen Hauptaus-
schuss[4]
Bund Neues Vaterland Berlin
Unter
den Linden 53 im
Auftrag
Doktor Graf
Arco Professor Albert Einstein Profe
August
Gaul
Wilhelm
Hertzog
René
Schickele[5]
TGM
(RMIDK,
fond
541, file
1,
no.
26,
p.
36).
[83 589].
The
telegram
is addressed to
"Professor
Guide
Muenchen."
There
are perforations
for
a
loose-leaf
binder
at
the left
margin
of
the
document.
[1]The
year
is
provided by Quidde’s response
the
following day (see
the
following document).
[2]Should
be
"propagieren."
[3]Two days
earlier,
under
the
auspices
of the Bund
"Neues Vaterland"
(BNV),
Einstein
had
addressed
a large gathering, calling
for the immediate
convening
of
a
National
Assembly
and
inveigh-
ing against
the
dictatorship
of
the
proletariat (see Vol.
7, Doc.
13,
and
an
account
of
the
meeting
in
Berliner
Tageblatt
47
(14 November
1918),
no.
583,
p.
[3]).
For Einstein’s refusal about the
same
time
to
support an appeal
based
on
the mobilization
of
intellectuals,
see
Doc. 653.
Einstein’s
optimism
about the German
political
situation
only days
earlier
(see
Docs. 651 and
652)
had been
qualified
to some
degree by
the
growing
rift
between,
on
the
one
hand,
the
Majority
Social-
ists
(SPD),
the moderate
wing
of
the
Independent
Socialists
(USPD),
and
most
of
the workers’ and
soldiers’
councils,
who
sought
the
rapid convening
of
a
National
Assembly
to reinforce
a parliamen-
tary
tradition,
and
on
the
other,
the radical
wing
of
the USPD and the
Spartacists (Spartakusbund),
who favored
a
Council
democracy (Räterepublik).
[4]Quidde was a
Vice President
of
the Provisional National Council
of
Bavaria
(Provisorischer
Na-
tionalrat des Volksstaates
Bayern).
The executive committee
(Hauptausschuß)
of
the
BNV,
comprising
seventeen individuals,
includ-
ed the
publisher
Paul
Cassirer
(1871-1926),
the
journalist
and
diplomat Harry
Count
von
Keßler
(1868-1937), the
sculptress
and
graphic
artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945),
Georg
Nicolai,
Walther
Schucking,
the novelist Heinrich Mann (1871-1950), and the
painter
Max Pechstein (1881-1955).
[5]Georg
Count
von
Arco;
Georg August
Gaul (1869-1921),
sculptor
and
graphic designer, mem-
ber of
the Prussian
Academy
of
Arts;
Wilhelm
Herzog
(1884-1960),
publisher
of
the
pacifist journal
Das
Forum and
managing
editor of
the Socialist
daily,
Die
Republik;
and René Schickele (1883-
1940),
Alsatian
literary
figure
and
publisher
of
the Expressionist
journal,
Die
weißen Blätter,
in exile
in.Zurich.
656. From
Ludwig
Quidde
München, 16.
Nov. 1918.
An den Bund "Neues Vaterland" Berlin.
Auf
Ihr freundl.
Telegram von
gestern[1]
habe ich nicht
telegraphisch geantwor-
tet,
weil ich meine
Bedenken,
die
mir
einfache
Zustimmung
nicht wohl
möglich
machten,
nicht
so
kurz ausdrücken konnte.