The Abendschule from November 21, 1918

The Abendschule from November 21, 1918, begins with the “Waffenstillstand”(armistice) of 1918.  As you can imagine, German Americans were ecstatic that the “Krieg” was over. What they could not know in November of 1918, however, was what the Allies would do to Germany (and Austria-Hungary and Turkey) soon afterward. In the meantime, it is interesting to note a number of individuals who would become major players in the “Nachkriegszeit,” such as the Emperor Wilhelm, who had just abdicated (“Welche Wende!”), Prince Maximilian von Baden, who became head of state of the Empire, and Friedrich Ebert, who took over the government of a country that was about to become a republic and then later morph into an entity that gave the word “Reich” a bad name in both English and German. Meanwhile, on November 5 of that year there were elections here in the US, but, more important, the Spanish flu had just started reaching dangerous levels everywhere.

In other words, if you want a German-American summary of the events surrounding what was then called Armistice Day, now Veterans Day, the Abendschule for November 21, 1918, is a good source for that information!