1918.10.25 “Kaiser Must Quit”
by Carey Cassius Orr (1890-1967)
12 x 15 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection
In his youth, Orr was a semi-professional baseball pitcher, and he used the money he made from baseball to study at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. After a $15 a week job at the Chicago Examiner, he was 24 when he began at the Nashville Tennessean as a full-time editorial cartoonist. In 1917, he signed on with the Chicago Tribune, where he stayed for 46 years. Initially filling in for John T. McCutcheon, Orr created the "Tiny Tribune" strip that appeared in the paper; each of the four panels caricatured a section of the paper. This is an early example from that strip.
On October 25, 1918, as World War I neared its end and Germany faced military collapse, calls for Kaiser Wilhelm II to abdicate intensified, especially from US President Woodrow Wilson demanding his removal for an armistice, leading to internal political pressure from figures like Chancellor Prince Max von Baden, and culminating in the Kaiser's actual abdication on November 9 amidst naval mutinies and widespread revolution, forcing him to flee to the Netherlands. Germany was declared a republic, and the new government signed the armistice on November 11, ending the war.
Wilson's Ultimatum (Oct 23): President Woodrow Wilson made it clear that Germany could only get an armistice if the Kaiser abdicated, signaling that democratic reform and the Kaiser's removal were linked.
Political Pressure Mounts (Oct 24-25): Chancellor Prince Max von Baden threatened resignation to force the Kaiser's hand, especially regarding military demands. The German public, already aware of the dire war situation, widely discussed the necessity of the Emperor's resignation. Socialist party members, like Oskar Cohn, publicly demanded not just the Kaiser's exit but a socialist republic on October 25th.
