members of the SPD had served in the imperial government, although since 1912 the party had had the most seats in the Reichstag of any party. Despite his reservations, Scheidemann and other leading politicians in the parliamentary majority became state secretaries without portfolio in the von Baden cabinet. Scheidemann was chosen for the position instead of Friedrich Ebert due to his greater popularity. These ministers were the true political decision-makers; Max von Baden was primarily representative to the outside world. Scheidemann as a member of the government initiated an amnesty for political prisoners. In particular, he personally pushed through the release of Karl Liebknecht in the face of opposition from the War Ministry and military courts, as well as objections from the Reich chancellor. Proclamation of the Republic In the face of an impending defeat in the war and the threat of revolutionary developments at home, Scheidemann said on 5 November 1918 that he thought Bolshevism a greater danger than the external enemy. In this he agreed with the Supreme Army Command. Communist propaganda and historiography later attributed the Reich government's severance of relations with the Soviet Union on that day to Scheidemann and declared him "the author of the anti-Soviet provocation directed against the Spartacus League". Unlike the military, Scheidemann had come to the conclusion that a successful fight against the extreme left was possible only if Emperor Wilhelm II abdicated. Ebert and Scheidemann nevertheless postponed the fundamental question of monarchy or republic for the time being. Scheidemann had formulated the party's course on 6 November: "Now we must put ourselves at the head of the movement or there will be anarchistic conditions in the Reich." By use of an ultimatum the MSPD parliamentary group was able, among other things, to push through the parliamentarization of Prussia, Germany's largest state, without being able to stop the outbreak of revolutionary actions in Berlin. On 9 November 1918 Chancellor Max von Baden unilaterally announced the abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II and the renunciation of Crown Prince Wilhelm's hereditary rights to the throne. Scheidemann handed in his resignation as secretary at 10 A.M. Around noon, Friedrich Ebert arrived at the Reich chancellery and demanded that the authority to govern be handed over to him and the MSPD. Von Baden resigned and in an unconstitutional act designated Ebert his successor as Reich chancellor and minister president of Prussia. When Ebert and Scheidemann went