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“In light of recent events, President Ebert, who at this very moment is on his way back from Munich, has called for new elections. The unresistable tides of change are sweeping over Germany, and it is only just that a new government be created to most accurately reflect the will of the German people. Therefore, new elections shall be held on a Sunday, May Second,” Halstead paused for cheers from the audience, “and the will of the people as a whole shall be heard! Yes, let our annual May Day celebration of the German worker be a great one, and let us go to the polls on the following day with an equally joyous spirit! “And let us not forget the fact that I strive for both Germany and the workers therein! The elite band of men you see before you, the marinebrigade Ehrhardt, believe they have been serving the interests of the Fatherland! Their efforts shall not go unrecognized! The marinebrigade Ehrhardt shall form the nucleus of a new German military, the Wehrmacht! The Wehrmacht’s sole aim shall be to attain glory and conquests for the entire German people, the people from whom it shall draw its rank and file!” At this assurance that failed to mention Halstead’s plans for expanding the military and thus incurring the need for soldiers from all walks of life, the trade unionists clapped enthusiastically, while the men of the Ehrhardt Brigade maintained their stony silence. Halstead pounded the podium with both fists. “But first, we must restore law and order to Germany, and address the Bolshevist threat! The Wehrmacht’s first duty will be to put down the uprisings in Saxony, Thuringia, and the Ruhr, to restore order! And I hope that the German worker will return to his duties as a German and give full aid to his military brother, and allow all of us to come together to meet this challenge. Germany will never regain her former glory as a Bolshevist puppet state of Russia! Therefore, let us return to the trains, the factories, and the battlefields, let us get on with our individual duties to the Fatherland, whatever those might be!” Halstead stepped back from the podium and from the shouts of “Heil Hitler!” that reverberated off the columns of the Brandenburg Gate behind him, stepped back to savor the moment and to avoid being shot by any one of Ehrhardt’s five thousand who might have felt betrayed by their new leader’s declaration of a military drawn from the working classes, or by a member of those same working classes who had failed to hear him mention the punishments for the putschists that he had also promised to the trade union leaders. |