Sunday's parade was of imposing proportions, and it was marked by a grim earnestness that foreboded trouble. The organizers claimed that 150,000 persons were in the line of march. The real number was probably around twenty thousand. Transparencies bore defiant inscriptions. "Down with Ebert and Scheidemann, the Bloodhounds and Grave-diggers of the Revolution!" was a favorite device. "Down with the Bloodhound Wels!" was another. Cheers for "our Police-President" and groans for the cabinet were continuous along the line of march. The great mass of the paraders were ragged, underfed, miserable men and women, mute testimony to the sufferings of the war-years.
Liebknecht addressed the paraders. Counter-revolution, he declared, was already showing its head. The Ebert-Scheidemann government must be overthrown and the real friends of the revolution must not shrink from using violence if violence were necessary. Others spoke in a similar vein.
Conditions appeared propitious for the _coup_ that had been preparing for a month. Late Sunday evening armed Spartacans occupied the plants of the _Vorwärts_, _Tageblatt_, the Ullstein Company (publishers of _Die Morgenpost_ and _Berliner Zeitung-am-Mittag_), the _Lokal-Anzeiger_ and the Wolff Bureau.
The Spartacans in the _Vorwärts_ plant published on Monday morning _Der rote Vorwärts_ (the Red _Vorwärts_). It contained a boastful leading Article announcing that the paper had been taken over by "real revolutionists," and that "no power on earth shall take it from us." The Liebknechtians also seized on Monday the Büxenstein plant, where the _Kreuz-Zeitung_ is printed. There was much promiscuous shooting in various parts of the city. Spartacans fired on unarmed government supporters in front of the war ministry, killing one man and wounding two. There were also bloody clashes at Wilhelm Platz, Potsdamer Platz and in Unter den Linden.
The _Vollzugsrat_ rose to the occasion like a _bourgeois_ governing body. It conferred extraordinary powers on the cabinet and authorized it to use all force at its disposal to put down the Bolshevist uprising. That it was Bolshevist was now apparent to everybody. The cabinet, still hesitant about firing on _Genossen_, conferred with the Independents Haase, Dittmann, Cohn and Dr. Rudolf Breitscheid, the last named one of the so-called "intellectual leaders" of the Independent Socialists. These men wanted the government to "compromise." The cabinet declared it could listen to no proposals until the occupied newspaper plants should have been restored to their rightful owners. The delegation withdrew to confer with the Spartacan leaders. These refused flatly to surrender their usurped strongholds.