German headline writers attached exclamation points to such belligerent polysyllabic as "MAJESTATSBELEIDIGUNG!" (High Treason!) Wrathy editors distilled their venom into starkly brutal paragraphs. The week brawled out into a stramash of contention—all because some millions of Germans were preparing to seek the polls and cast their ballots upon the following proposition:
"The German people, through popular initiative and referendum, decree the following law:
"Article 1—The entire fortunes of the princes who have ruled in any one of the German states until the revolution of 1918, as well...