title: A People Betrayed: November 1918: A German Revolution (English and German Edition)
author: Alfred Doblin
description: November 1918. The First World War is over, the battle is lost a and everywhere there is talk of revolution. Leaders of the German military have formed an uneasy alliance with the socialists who control the government and have proclaimed a new German republic, but throughout Berlin rival groups stage rallies and organize strikes. In A People Betrayed, the first volume of the epic November 1918: A German Revolution, Alfred Doblin takes us into the public and private dramas of these turbulent days, introducing us to a remarkable cast of fictional and historical characters, and bringing them to life in one of the great historical epics of the century.
zlib_text: **CHAPTER VII**
  
  **THE REVOLUTION**
  
    
  
  In 1915 the enemy started his propaganda among our soldiers. From 1916 onwards
  it steadily became more intensive, and at the beginning of 1918 it had swollen
  into a storm flood. One could now judge the effects of this proselytizing
  movement step by step. Gradually our soldiers began to think just in the way
  the enemy wished them to think. On the German side there was no counter-
  propaganda.
  
  At that time the army authorities, under our able and resolute Commander, were
  willing and ready to take up the fight in the propaganda domain also, but
  unfortunately they did not have the necessary means to carry that intention
  into effect. Moreover, the army authorities would have made a psychological
  mistake had they undertaken this task of mental training. To be efficacious it
  had come from the home front. For only thus could it be successful among men
  who for nearly four years now had been performing immortal deeds of heroism
  and undergoing all sorts of