(At the same meeting Assemblymen Nissen (Dane) and v. Trampcynski (Pole) protested against the prosecution of their nationalities by the authorities of the Department of Justice. To them the Minister of Justice gave no definite reply. This situation gave Liebknecht another chance and he took the floor again to add his protest and by a few remarks to show the conditions existing in Austria, Germany's ally.)
Dr. Liebknecht: The disciplining of a nationality living in Prussia fits exactly into the general picture which I just sketched. Such a "liberation" of our Danish compatriots I took as certain. The Minister of Justice limited himself to general remarks about my speech, saying that I resorted to insults. In that way he thought to provide himself a comfortable retreat. I have no desire, after such words, to concern myself any longer with the Minister of Justice. Only at one point I shall have to add something, and that is in relation to his denial of my remarks about the conditions in Austria. The Minister of Justice represented that my facts had been invented. But in Austria courts-martial are carrying out a true régime of terror, such as was not carried on in the worst days inRussia. (Lively "Hear, hear!" from the Soc.-Dem.—continued noise from the majority parties.) I have the material in my hands. ("Hear, hear!" from the Soc.-Dem.) In Austria there is no possibility of discussing those things from the tribune of a Parliament. (Continued noise and shouts from the majority parties to finish the debate.)
Assemblyman Ströbel(Soc.-Dem.): You make yourselves accomplices of those bloody sentences. (Again continued noise.)
Dr. Liebknecht, continuing: In a few months hundreds of years of hard labor were decreed and also the death sentence which I mentioned before, and which was pronounced by a military court on account of the poem I spoke of before. (Lively "Hear, hear!" from the Soc.-Dem. Commotion among the majority.) One of my party comrades was sentenced to death on account of a so-called seditious speech.
(A few other sentences of the speech remain unheard on account of the noise among the majority parties in the House. That closes the debate. The Budget is approved.)
Meeting of the Prussian Assembly
March 16th, 1916, 11 o'Clock Morning SessionOn the Ministerial Bench: V. Trott zu Solz (Minister of Religion and Education).The subject of discussion was: The Education and Religion Budget, and as a special topic: The Higher Schools of Prussia.Taking part in the discussion: Dr. Karl Liebknecht (Social Democrat), Wilderman (Centrum), Frhr. v. Zedlitz (Free Conservative), Minister (Progressive People's Party).
March 16th, 1916, 11 o'Clock Morning Session
On the Ministerial Bench: V. Trott zu Solz (Minister of Religion and Education).
The subject of discussion was: The Education and Religion Budget, and as a special topic: The Higher Schools of Prussia.
Taking part in the discussion: Dr. Karl Liebknecht (Social Democrat), Wilderman (Centrum), Frhr. v. Zedlitz (Free Conservative), Minister (Progressive People's Party).
In this discussion Liebknecht exposes the method and system of teaching in the higher schools of Germany and gives full play to his great courage. "The idealclassical education lies in the spirit of independence and humanity," he exclaimed. And, addressing himself to this reactionary parliament, he added: "Your ideal of classical education is 'the ideal of the bayonet, of the bombshell, of poison gas and grenades, which are hurled down on peaceful cities, and the ideal of submarine warfare.'"
He also proves that an educational system cannot be separated from social conditions and demands, along with a reform of the entire schoolsystem, particularly that promotion from the primary school to the high school shall not be considered any longer an act of charity but a right to be demanded for every able pupil.
His remarks brought out a cyclone of protest. Liebknecht was twice recalled to the subject and thrice to order, and as the President inquired of the House after the third call to order if it wished to listen to the speaker any longer, the entire house, with the exception of the small group of Social-Democrats, voted that he be denied the floor. In this way they avoided listening to Liebknecht's indictments.
Dr. Liebknecht: The real character of capitalistic society is shown in inequality of education, especially the inequality of the Prussian state with its three-class system of voting, in the three-class system of education: primary schools, higher schools, universities. The educational system cannot be separated from social conditions. In order to acquire education, time and economic opportunities are necessary. Education in the capitalistic order of society is not an aim in itself. Utilitarianism dominates our education. The higher schools serve as preparatory institutes for higher official positions, whereas the primary schools teach the fundamentals which serve to make tools for capitalistic society. Social misfortunes come to the surface now more than ever before: overcrowding of the classes, insufficient rooms, scarcity of teachers, frequent change of teachers,undernourishment and overfatigue of the children, and child labor. Especially does undernourishment weaken the health of the proletariat and thus hinder even the limited educational work of the primary school. But more than ever before the primary school is used to-day in order to make firm the position of the ruling classes, to capture the souls of the young proletariat for the ruling class, for Militarism. When we think of all that, we recognize how urgently the proletariat must work for a fundamental reform of the entire school system.
Neglect of youth through the war cannot be denied, exists in spite of all camouflage. There is not enough rain in the heavens to wash away this sin from the bourgeois form of society. Improvement of this condition can be obtained only by sharp criticism. When one sees that,—as happened to people at the Berlin Police Headquarters,—young working girls 16 and 17 years old, who were arrested for some reason, are told: "You should be put against the wall and shot down" ("Hear, hear!" from the Soc.-Dem.)—then it must be recognized that we really do not live in an age where class differences do not exist and where the entire people stands united, but that, on the contrary, dissimilarities are intensified now in the most inciting way. Where is, in face of this fact, the sensitive German nature about which there is so much discussion here?
Very desirable would be statistics as to how few children of the proletariat on account of existing institutions have obtained opportunity to reach a higherschool education; then the unimportance of these few will be recognized, when compared with the millions and millions to whom the road to all the splendor and magnificence which the human spirit can receive, is closed. The amendments proposed (he refers to amendments which will make it easier for able pupils of the primary school to attend the higher schools in larger numbers than had been the case; another amendment introduced by Dr. Porsch (Centrum) proposed that the so-called Rektorat-Schools, which are for procuring a higher education for moneyless pupils, should be supported—S. Z.), are merely patchwork experiment, because what is proposed will be to the advantage only of the poor bourgeoisie, but not of the proletariat. Don't you really sense what it means, when they try to make the pathway to higher education an act of grace, whereas in reality it is an original human right? The mass of the people will feel that instead of their rights there is given to themBettelsuppen(coarse soup made of black bread). Certainly only to such proletarian children will those privileges be accorded, whose souls, which make them independent, are already broken, who are robbed of their class consciousness and who become accessories of capitalist society. And at the same time these laughable experiments are presented to the people with a self-sufficiency which makes it possible for them to recognize very well the insincerity of the ruling classes. In closing educational opportunities we see a brutal waste of spiritual energies, a waste of human strength in thetreadmill of mechanical labor, the denial of human economy. It is as plain as law that the children of the proletariat are held down by darkness of the soul. Touching is the description of Dante who walks with Virgil through the forest of the spirits which have not sinned, but have suffered because they did not receive baptism; to-day it is because they are deprived of money! ("Very true!" from the Soc.-Dem.)
Considering the magnitude of the World War you and also the Christian parties do not think of saving these starving ones, damned by Capitalism. You try to give an impression that something is being done.
By these Amendments you try to give an impression of wishing to throw open the road to education to the people also, but that is because Capitalism requires educated soldiers. You similarly replace the human losses in the war by giving commissions to non-commissioned officers because the dregs of the proletariat are required for service. The tendencies of the amendment show how necessary it is to destroy the demagogism and the deceit which took form in them. (President Graf Schwerin-Löwitz calls the speaker to order.) After their experiences in war time the proletariat will not allow itself to be duped.
Assemblyman v. d. Osten said, that the uniform system of education leads towards differentiation. But the truth is that capitalism makes the great mass of the people uniform in the most brutal way and differentiates the people only in classes, and makes impossible the real differentiation among the classesof the people and through the whole people. ("Very true!" from the Soc.-Dem.)
Assemblyman Oelze spoke here yesterday in glowing terms of education, science and ideals. But instruction in history has been for a long time systematically used to inculcate certain political sentiments in the pupils. The higher schools especially have been for years places to exercise this practice and in these higher schools hatred against England was systematically developed, which seed has now sprouted in such glorious fashion. The propaganda of theNavy Societyin the higher schools demonstrates strikingly the whole spirit of the system of teaching. The world's history has beenad usum delphimturned into a political fiction. Not political truth, not objective knowledge, but the opposite are the main features of what you teach. In German teaching the soul of youth should have a chance to develop freely. But what are the themes put to our children? They are set to write patriotic editorials, and certain phases of war patriotism are taught them. In that way we sow the seeds of falsehood. This procedure following advice from above is a cancerous disease for the entire school system. You will not obtain any advantages, even among the students of the higher schools who come from the bourgeois class. This most awkward method of strengthening your class rule will work against you.
And instruction in religion? By means of the most skillful dialect and by pedagogical methods was bridged over the chasm between religion and war,between Christianity and mass-murder. ("Very true!" from the Soc.-Dem.) The curtain of the temple is torn. But what spiritual embarrassment comes to our children, when they hear of the Lord, who is the Lord of all people, that is,—if I may use this word in this connection,—an international God, a God of the entire humanity, when this God of charity is claimed by each nation for itself and for the war! I asked my child, who had to learn the catechism by heart (instruction in religion is obligatory in Prussia.S. Z.), if the teacher always said: "Love thy neighbor as thyself!" The child answered: "No, we should not love the Russians, Frenchmen and Englishmen!" ("Hear, hear!" from the Soc.-Dem.) How is that reconcilable? The most beautiful pedagogy is that which reacts not through words, but through vision and good example. But what shall children who are instructed in religion say to the occurrences of the present? Here religion naturally cannot become, as Christianity demands, an element penetrating the entire life and determining each action, but something entirely different. From this contrast you cannot escape and least of all when not the religion of brotherly love but that of Baal is the religion of the world and when even the children understand that in this war the main point is the interest of capitalist society.
One can pray again and again and still remain an inciter of war. To-day an attempt is made to influence the children of the working people toward theconception of life of the ruling class, of the capitalist class, of the class of exploiters (shouts from the right part of the House) toward the conception of life of war and mass killing. And how is higher education inculcated in the occupied territories? When the first school was reopened in Belgrade, a paper published there by the Austrians stated that Servia committed a great sin when it fought against Austria. (He could not go any further.)
President Graf Schwerin-Löwitz: The Servian schools have nothing to do with the Budget. I recall you to the subject.
Liebknecht(continuing): The higher schools are also used as practical helpers in the service of the present war. A systematic propaganda is conducted in them for the war loans, and gold is collected in them. This militarization of the schools has been characterized even by some parts of the bourgeoisie as a questionable act. In the schools they have already started to educate the human beings up to being war machines. The schools are converted into training stables for the war. The physical upbuilding of the youth is encouraged now to attract new material for the Moloch, Militarism. Strengthening especially human health has thus as its aim the destruction of human life. I do not want to examine here how war psychology can reconcile itself to the foundations of our entire education.
Now I can speak only about the higher schools. Mr. Oelze demanded yesterday that Militarism should be introduced to greater extent in the higherschools, that Militarism should be the all-prevailing spirit. He (Mr. Oelze) defined Militarism as complete subordination to discipline. According to our conception Militarism means the opposite of imposed discipline. ("Very true!" from the Soc.-Dem.) Moreover, the military spirit has penetrated the school system to such a high degree that I don't know what else is left for Mr. Oelze to ask for. In committee it was said also in the bourgeois section that unilateral military education leads to brutalizing the youth. But that does not frighten you, when your holy of holies, Militarism, is helped. You want liberty only for the ruling classes and oppression for the great masses. ("Very true!" from the Soc.-Dem.) You abhor the free mind because it will mean the twilight of the gods of the ruling classes. Classical education of to-day is only a parody on real classic education. Classics surely do not consist in driving home languages and some other knowledge of facts, but their essence is the spirit of humanism, the spirit of independence, of clear vision, of criticism, of everything which is felt to be harmful. This is the real freedom of the spirit. The ideal of the bayonet, of the bombshell, of poison gas and grenades which are hurled down on peaceful cities, the ideal of submarine warfare, that is something quite different. (Uneasiness and laughter from the Right parties of the House.) This is the truth which I oppose to your endeavors to mask the reality of things. According to an edict of Governor von Schwerin of Frankfort-a-O., it was ordered that thefeeling for general fraternization, for the brotherhood of the people, for the international peace enthusiasm should be stamped out. ("Hear, hear!" from the Soc.-Dem.) Our enemies' deeds of shame against the Germans must not be excused, but only hatred and revolt must be aroused from those acts. We declare that to be a misuse of the schools of the worst kind. That is your spirit of humanism. Mr. V. Canyre spoke about softening the bones of ideas (osteomalacia), against which such a propaganda must work in the school. But if it is true that the duty to tell the truth is the aim of all education, then something entirely different must be taught. In school must be taught, how this war arose, not only that the abominable murder of Sarajevo was an incident to inspire horror, but also the fact that the crime of Sarajevo was looked upon in many circles as a gift from Heaven, serving them as a war pretext. (He could not continue. The parties of the Right side of the House broke out in cat-calls which became louder and louder. The Assemblymen had raised themselves from their seats in great excitement and left the room with continual shouts: "Put him out, put him out." Assemblyman Liebknecht shouts to them: "Go out! You flee before the truth, you can't hear the truth!")
President Graf Schwerin-Löwitz(who has rung the bell for a long time in vain): I call you to order for the second time, and I call your attention to the fact that in case you are called to order fora third time I shall ask the House if it wishes to listen to you further.
Assemblyman Liebknecht: I have told you only what I heard with my own ears.
The aim of humanistic education is that of complete freedom, a high, ideal aim. Out of this spirit, great pedagogues such as Pestalozzi demanded the unity of the school system. The school of to-day serves only purposes of expediency. This is true also of the universities. The spirit of Militarism corrodes the foundation of our entire educational system. Art and science also are restrained. (President Graf Schwerin-Löwitz: Please speak about the higher institutions of learning.) The same phenomenon can be noticed also in the higher school system. While it is the task of primary schools to make the youth of the proletariat tools for the capitalistic order of society, it is the task of the higher schools to prepare the youth of the ruling classes for the great work which they have to perform in present society. In the discussion of the question of the admission of foreigners to the schools, Mr. v. Savigny declared in the committee meeting that the admission of foreigners to German schools before (this war) was in order to gain sympathy in foreign countries and in that way to obtain indirectly political and economic advantages. This is true German idealism which comes to light here.
On the same level can be placed the present instruction about the conditions in the Orient in the higher schools. It is being taught to greater effectthan before. Thus the higher schools also are converted into an instrument of propaganda for economic purposes, which are back of this war.
This war, which has destroyed so much, has also destroyed the last vestige of the bourgeois ideal of education, and to the surface came the viewpoint of the pure utilitarianism in education. The technical quality of teaching is also very much damaged by the war. Just as the Thirty Years' War acted in ravaging and destroying in the educational field, the present war is acting. (Assemblyman Hoffman, Soc.-Dem.: "Very true!") The new method in teaching history is a sign of barbarism, a sign of the fight to death being fought by the educational ideal of the bourgeoisie. I spoke before about the poem of Schiller in which it is said: "Only a miracle can carry you into the beautiful wonderland." To the proletariat, for the unsaved souls, this word cannot be applied. No miracle and no blessing from above can bring the proletariat into the wonderland, in which all the treasures and magnificence of the human soul are to be found. And when Dante's world-epic speaks about those unsaved souls who live without hope and longing, that is also not true of the proletariat. It does not live without hopes, but full of confidence. But the liberation of the working class cannot come from such motions as put by you to-day.
President Schwerin-Löwitz: I call you to the question for the second time and call your attention to the consequences which may occur according to the rule of business.
Assemblyman Liebknecht: I speak about the motion, about the chance of those who are well off to attend high schools and colleges. This spiritual liberation can also be the deed of the working class and it is our duty to say to the working class also on this occasion:To action! Those in the trenches, as well as those here at home, should put down their arms and turn against the common enemy, which takes from them light and air (great disturbance on the right side of the House).
President Graf Schwerin-Löwitz: I call you to order for the third time and ask herewith whether the House wishes to hear the speaker any further. (Stormy applause at the right. The Assemblymen are rushing with great speed into the House. Only the Social-Democrats vote to listen further to the speaker. Assemblyman Liebknecht leaves the speaker's desk amid stormy shouts from the Assemblymen of the Right. Assemblyman Adolf Hoffman (addressing himself to the right side of the House): "When it comes to yelling, you are the masters.")
Reichstag, March 22, 1916
President Kaempfpresides.
For discussion: First reading of the Budget in connection with the taxation bill.
President Kaempf: In accordance with an understanding between the representatives of the different parties in the Reichstag the submarine warfare will be excluded from this discussion until further decisions of theSeniorenconvent. (Committee composed of the Party Leaders to discuss the business of the Reichstag before it is discussed in open session.S. Z.) The discussion of this question will take place in the meetings of the Budget Committee in the first days of next week.
Member Dr. K. Liebknecht(not belonging to any party in the Reichstag, questions the order of business): I consider it my duty to dispute the decision (laughter). This is a question which concerns most vitally the present public interests. Everything is done under cover and we are brought to discuss only accomplished facts. (Great commotion and shouts so that the following words of thespeaker can't be understood very clearly.) Very soon it will beTirpitz redivivus. The people have a right to hear the Parliament on this important question immediately. The people have a right to demand that nothing shall be hidden from them.
President Kaempf: Please make your remarks in a parliamentary fashion, and don't present general political considerations when you speak to the question of the order of business.
Dr. K. Liebknecht: In the Prussian Assembly everything is done under cover. The same methods of concealing matters obtain as here. (Stormy interruptions and calls: "This does not belong to the discussion about the order of business.") I wish to protest against such a policy injurious to the people, against the continuation of secret diplomacy in Parliament.
Discussion of the Budget and taxation bill.
Different persons spoke.
Dr. Liebknecht asks to be recognized on the motion of closing the discussion.
Dr. Liebknecht(speaks to the question): I am sorry that under this motion, which was directed in the first place against me, I will be unable to say that I certainly refuse all taxes to the Government of martial law, the government ofWar über Alles. (Excitement at the right side of the House.)
President Kaempf: I must ask you to confine yourself to this discussion of the order of business.
Member Dr. Liebknecht: I assert that even in the Prussian Assembly there exists more freedom of speech than in this House. (Laughter and excitement.)
President Kaempf: If you don't obey my orders I will be forced not to let you talk any further to the question.
Member Dr. Liebknecht: It is also made impossible for me to look into the dark chamber of our German war policies and military dictatorship.
President Kaempf: I can't give you the floor for this question any longer.
Reichstag Meeting, April 5, 1916
On April 5, 1916, Karl Liebknecht made some sharp comments on certain passages of the Imperial Chancellor's speech. Asserting that Germany's aims were peaceful, the Chancellor said that Germany wanted the "strength of quiet development" before the war. "We could have had all we wanted by peaceful labor. Our enemies chose war." Liebknecht retorted: "Lies, it was you who chose war." (Uproar followed, with cries of "Scoundrel!" "Blackguard!" "Out with him!" The President at once called Liebknecht to order.)
Later Bethman-Hollweg made reference to the necessity of guarantees against Belgium becoming again a vassal of France and England. "Here also Germany cannot give over to Latinization the long-oppressed Flemish race." Liebknecht interjected, "Hypocrisy!" "We desire to have neighbors who will not again unite against us in order to throttle us, but with whom we can work to our mutual advantage," said the Chancellor. "Whereupon you suddenly fall upon them and strangle them—the invasion of Belgium," said Liebknecht coolly. Thissally caused another uproar, Liebknecht shouting out "Invasion" whenever he got the chance.
Towards the close of his speech the Imperial Chancellor declared that the peace which ends this war must be a lasting peace. It must not contain in it the seeds of new wars, but the seeds of a final peaceful regulation of European affairs. "Begin by making the German people free!" shouted Liebknecht. "Germany is only fighting in self-defense," remarked the Chancellor. "Can any one believe that Germany is thirsting for territory?" "Yes, certainly," roared Liebknecht as loudly as possible. Thereupon the uproar redoubled. The President had to call the Reichstag to order to prevent personal violence to Liebknecht.
Vice-President Paaschein the chair.
On April 7, 1916, Liebknecht declared—in the Reichstag during the discussion of the military estimates—that he had documents showing an agreement between Herr Zimmerman, the Under Foreign Secretary, and Sir Roger Casement, by which British prisoners were to be drilled to fight against England. After some further remarks about Mohammedan prisoners of war being pressed into service for Germany, Liebknecht was prevented from speaking amid shouts of "Traitor!" from all parts of the Chamber.
Liebknecht was able to speak later about the resignation of Von Tirpitz, but was prevented from discussing the submarine campaign. Here is what he said about the resignation of Von Tirpitz:
"After the War had begun with the cry 'Against Czarism' the aim was soon shifted westward." (Vice-President Paasche: "To say that the war began with one or the other object is to insult the Government. I call you to order and ask you not to dwell at any length on our war policy.")
Dr. Liebknecht: "After the war aims had been shifted westward—(the Vice-President: "I repeat my request"). I must touch on this question if I amto discuss the opposing currents in the Government which brought about the change in the Admiralty. The manner in which the conflict was taken up in the Prussian Diet, the way in which the sharpening of the war against England was demanded in the Reichstag on account of the Baralong affair, and the scenes in the Prussian Diet before the change of office, throw an interesting light on the differences within the Government and in capitalist circles. A memorandum was to be published on the subject of armed British merchantmen. It was kept back for some length of time. In this one saw an acknowledgment by the Government of the demand for a sharper submarine warfare. The attack in the Prussian Diet was made premeditatedly, in order to show the strong opposition to certain members of the Government (the Vice-President interrupted the speaker) on pressure from the Prussian Diet. (The Vice-President again requested the speaker to keep to the point.) You must not suppress a most important political question." (General commotion. The Vice-President again requested the speaker to keep to the point.)
"I did keep to the point. I shall now discuss the memorandum on the question of armed merchantmen, for which the Admiralty is responsible. It is so composed that those who do not read it carefully with all the supplements must be misled. The memorandum attempts to prove that British merchantmen are armed in order to attack German submarines. (The Vice-President again forbade adiscussion of the submarine question, and called Dr. Liebknecht to order.) With such a ruling I am unable—(The Vice-President: "I ask the member not to criticise me.") So I am obliged to say nothing on what politically is most material!"
A few days after this scene in the Reichstag Herr Däumig, the editor of the Socialist organVorwärts, sent a Hungarian journalist with a letter of introduction to Dr. Liebknecht for an interview. The censor condensed the interview, and it only reached Budapest by messenger. The following extracts are from the suppressed portion printed in a Budapest (paper) pamphlet:
Dr. Liebknecht was greatly surprised at the visit, as he had been "quite neglected by reporters nowadays because what I say is generally considered 'dead copy' by the censor."
The correspondent explains that it is a mistake to suppose that Herr Liebknecht is as unpopular in Germany as he appears to be inside the Reichstag. He showed him correspondence from parts of Germany, a pile received in two days amounting to hundreds and hundreds of letters, ninety per cent of which are of an encouraging and congratulatory character. The remaining ten per cent are scurrilous anonymous attacks, and these he puts in a separate bundle, which he compares with great pride and satisfaction with the heap of more flattering epistles.
He is overjoyed at the idea that he is, after all, not alone, as he appears to be, and that although he is persecuted by his fellow-members of theReichstag, he is recompensed by the hearty congratulations of the people. What he wanted to say in the Reichstag when he was muzzled and expelled was said by two members, and he is quite satisfied on that point.
"Herr Davidson," said Liebknecht, "referred to the two cases I wanted to mention, and he drew just as vivid a picture of the spirit prevailing in the army and of the illegal persecutions as I should have done if I had been allowed.
"I wanted to call attention to the case of Dr. Nicolai, the world-famous professor at the University of Berlin, who attended the Empress before the war, and who was persecuted some time ago by the military authorities for what were termed indiscreet utterances. He was appointed to the directorship of two military hospitals at the beginning of the war at Graudentz, but some one reported him to the military authorities and he was discharged. On March 1st he was again sent away from Berlin, this time to Danzig, and was ordered to be sworn in as a soldier. He refused to obey, and as a consequence the world-famous professor was degraded to the status of a private. Orders were given that he was not to be allowed to provide his own food, and he was ordered to submit all his scientific literary work to the military authorities for approval.
"The same thing happened to another scientist, who wrote in a letter: 'I am sorry for and disapprove of the cruelties committed in Belgium, and,as a good Christian, I regret and disapprove of the terrors of this war.'
"I know for a fact that the higher command uses German soldiers to spy on other German soldiers, a system which brands soldiers and commanders alike."
(Reichstag Meeting, April 8, 1916)
Dr. Liebknecht: "Gentlemen, the principal work of the Secretary of the Treasury, whose salary we are asked to vote for, was his activity for the war loan during the last year. I intend to examine critically those activities (great merriment). The new loan has brought 1,400,000,000 marks less than the preceding one, but still a grand total of 10,000,000,000 marks. We should investigate carefully from what funds the money invested in the war loan comes. Does this money invested in the war loan come from private or public funds." (Cries of protest from all sides of the House. Many Deputies rise from their seats in excitement. Continued cries: "This is the limit! Shall we allow him to go so far?" Cries of "Treason." "The fellow belongs in an insane asylum.")
Dr. K. Liebknecht clenches his fists and shouts a few words which cannot be understood. Great uproar again. Shouts of "Finish! Finish!" A few members of the Reichstag call out loudly: "Mr. President, you must preserve our rights!" "Down,"from the platform! The Secretary of the Treasury tries to calm a few members of the House.
President Dr. Kaempf: According to the order of business the floor cannot be taken from a member of the House until he is called to order three times.
Member Dr. Müller Meiningen(Progressive Party): "Then he will betray us three times." (Stormy applause in the House in which the galleries join.)
Dr. K. Liebknecht: In regard to our loans, it has been said that our system of inbreeding—that the practice of obtaining loans on a former loan in order to invest the capital thus obtained in another new war loan is a sort of "perpetuum mobile." In a certain sense the loans may be compared to a merry-go-round. To a large extent it means simply the centralization of public wealth in the Treasury. (Great uproar and cries of "Finish" and "Treason.") I have the right to criticise. The truth must be spoken and you shall not hinder me. (Great uproar. Member Hubrich goes to Dr. Liebknecht and snatches Liebknecht's notes from his hands, and throws them on the floor. Stormy applause in the House in which the galleries join. Liebknecht raises his clenched fists and shouts. He then addresses himself to the President in an agitated tone. He is twice called to order by the President. Around the speakers' tribune are small and excited groups gesticulating. Member Dr. Müller Meiningen goes to the tribune and in a violent tone hurls indignant reproaches at Liebknecht. The minoritySocial-Democrats of the Reichstag—Henke, Dittmann and Zubeil—rush to the tribune and put themselves in front of Liebknecht, other members of the House try to calm down the excited ones. The majority Social-Democrat Keil shouts: "Put the fellow out and then all will be finished." The whole House is in great excitement and uproar, notwithstanding the continual clang of the presidential bell. Finally the President is able to restore order, and declares that the chair finds that there is no quorum. The meeting is adjourned.)
This May Day Manifesto called the people of Berlin to the May Day Demonstration of 1916. He was sentenced to jail for expressions in this May Day Speech.
"Poverty and misery, need and starvation, are ruling in Germany, Belgium, Poland and Servia, whose blood the vampire of imperialism is sucking and which resemble vast cemeteries. The entire world, the much-praised European civilization, is falling into ruins through the anarchy which has been let loose by the world war.
"Those who profit from the war want war with the United States. To-morrow, perhaps, they may order us to aim lethal weapons against new groups of brethren, against our fellow-workers in the United States, and fight America, too. Consider well this fact: As long as the German people does not arise and use force directed by its own will, the assassination of the people will continue. Let thousands of voices shout 'Down with the shameless extermination of nations! Down with those responsible for these crimes!' Our enemy is not the English, French, nor Russian people, but the great German landedproprietors, the German capitalists and their executive committee.
"Forward, let us fight the government; let us fight these mortal enemies of all freedom. Let us fight for everything which means the future triumph of the working-classes, the future of humanity and civilization.
"Workers, comrades, and you, women of the people, let not this festival of May, the second during the war, pass without protest against the Imperialist Slaughter. On the first of May let millions of voices cry, 'Down with the shameful crime of the extermination of peoples!' 'Down with those responsible for the War!'"
Delivered at the Potsdamerplatz, Berlin, May 1, 1916
(Report by one present at the demonstration)
Berlin, May 1. Very early in the morning, with three other comrades, I reached Hortensienstrasse, where Comrade Liebknecht lives. We enter No. 14, climb up the stairs, ring his bell. Comrade Liebknecht opens the door himself. He is thin, his hair looks unusually black and his face is deathly pale. He walks like a dead man, walking with grim steps. He leaves us and soon returns with his wife; she is a Russian. She nods welcome to us all. Suddenly a terrible fear comes to me. No one has spoken a word, yet we all feel that we are in the presence of a supreme moment. From Comrade Liebknecht's grim silence we judge that he is about to hurl prudence to the four winds and defy the Government.
He hands out, one to each of us, a copy of the speech which he will deliver. So far not one word has been spoken. While we are hurriedly reading his speech, which is to be delivered within a few hours, he remarks, "I have several thousand of these printed."
We have finished reading the prospectus which will make history and send him to prison. Then we go into conference. We have been with him just an hour. We leave him.
Shortly after 2 P. M. of the same May day, I have taken a hasty lunch at the Central Hotel. As I near the door I hear the footsteps of the great multitudes. As far as I can see, all the streets and side streets are full of surging, silently moving human beings; all moving in the direction where the May Day demonstration is to take place. These are men and women, mostly women. The men among them are mostly over fifty. Suddenly it becomes apparent to me that there are more children in the crowds than men and women together. As they march I notice that I cannot see one in the crowd who has a smile on her or his face. Along the route no one is cheering them. I had never seen such immense crowds in the streets of Berlin. Not even during the Agadir crisis had the streets of Berlin held such multitudes. The crowds move as though they are part of a funeral procession. They are all sad, very sad. I recognize a group of comrades in the crowd. I rush in and join them.Mund halten(keep your mouth shut) is the unwritten rule, and every one seems to observe it strictly.
Some one has turned the head of the procession into Unter den Linden. We do not know why; very few of us have noticed it, anyhow. We suddenly see a platoon of mounted guards dashing through the crowd, but they are riding on the sidewalk. Thepart of the procession that had been marching on the sidewalk rushes to the middle of the street in order to escape being trampled upon by the mounted guards. Another group of mounted guards rides past hurriedly, and still another follows. The people in the procession all about me do not seem to notice them. Not even a whisper one hears. Their footsteps have a strange sound to my ears. On reaching the palace grounds I see in the distance five persons. From their elbows up they tower over the heads of the multitude surrounding them. I leave my friends and elbow my way through the thick crowd. I explain my impolite advance on the ground that I am a reporter on a party (Socialist) paper. I finally reach the spot where Comrade Liebknecht and other comrades are standing. The crowds are close where they are standing, and I cannot make out whether they are standing on a raised platform or in a motor car. I am about twenty or twenty-five feet from the doctor.
Suddenly one of the comrades near Dr. Liebknecht raises his hand and at once proceeds to speak. The multitude is anxious to hear him. Every one is sounding "Hush" in order to obtain silence and thus making more noise. Dr. Liebknecht uncovers his head; some one near by offers to relieve him of his hat. Deathly silence reigns all about the grounds. The interior of a cathedral cannot be more silent. The doctor begins: "Comrades and friends." They start to cheer him. He holds up his hand forbiddingly, then he resumes: "Some years ago a wittySocialist observed that in Prussia we Germans have three cardinal rights, which are: we can be soldiers, we can pay taxes and we can keep our tongues between our teeth. The Socialist who made this observation made it with a grim humor, but to-day the humor of it must be disconnected from it—it is all too grim. Especially in these days this observation is too true. To-day we are sharing these three great Prussian State privileges in full. Every German citizen is given the full privilege to carry a rifle in any manner. Even the Boy Scout has been incited to play the ridiculous rôle of a soldier. They have thus planted the spirit of hate deep in his youthful soul. Meanwhile the old Landsturmer is forced to perform forced labor in invaded countries, in spite of the fact that under the laws of the Imperial Constitution he cannot be called out for any other purpose than for the defense of the Fatherland.
"As for his second privilege—his right to pay taxes—in this respect the German citizen is, up to the present time, far ahead of his brothers in foreign lands whom he is engaged in exterminating. And yet more privileges of this kind are awaiting him in the days to come—after the end of the war. The high taxes which the German people have so far paid are insignificant compared to the great burdens which they must carry after the war, and for which their masters are daily preparing them with such touching delicacy of patriotic sentiment through the medium of the official press.
"The new Germany has the unquestionable rightto hold its tongue between its teeth. Recently our official press has been flooded by authoritative and pharisaic exhortations to soldiers' wives that they must, for God's sake, not complain so much about the scarcity of food. Keep your mouth shut tight when hungry. Keep your mouth shut tight when your children are hungry, keep your mouth shut when your children want milk, keep your mouth shut when your children cry for bread, keep your mouth shut and write no letters to the front."
Outside of Germany these phrases might sound like the stock phrases of a professional agitator, but not so in Germany, at least not in those days. I carefully watched for the effect of these remarks all about me, and I saw no dry eyes.
Amid tense silence the doctor continued: "In a recent issue the mouthpiece of the Pharisees, the "Muenchener Neueste Nachrichten," complains thus (reading from a clipping):
"'Our soldiers do not always receive from their dear ones at home the best encouragement to hold on. A soldier on furlough who, before obtaining leave, had performed for his Fatherland unflinchingly, went through many hardships with good humor, but after a visit home returned to the front with a sad face, worrying day and night about his dear ones and the pretended scarcity at home.'
"'Pretended' scarcity certainly is palatable, especially when one is reminded of the fact that our police is weighing the bread, that butter is out of the market, that fat, meat and margarine havereached a price that is beyond the probable reach of the workingman!
"Another well-nourished Pharisee exhorts in the columns of theNorddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitungby asking, 'Where is scarcity to be found?' and no doubt after having partaken of a good dinner he preaches with these words: 'We must teach ourselves at home how to manage to get along in our homes with as little as possible. But of course in large families with children the small earnings of the breadwinner being now totally absent, this sum must be replaced by the creation of a relief fund so that there may not be any serious want.' Exactly, but under no circumstances must the people complain of hunger. It annoys the soldier terribly and cripples his fighting power. Therefore do not write complaining letters to the front. In other words, you wives of soldiers, hide the truth from your husbands; in fact, lie to them.
"The old proverb says, 'The mouth speaketh out of the fullness of the heart,' and if her children's stomach is empty it is hard for the wife not to mention to her far-away soldier husband that it is hard to provide for his children with food while he is offering his life for his country. But if it is not found possible for your masters to prevail upon you to 'keep your tongue between your teeth,' then they resort to a more practical means. They have a very simple means of stopping these annoying complaints. The Prussian censor is now supervising these letters of wives at home to their husbands at the front.They simply do not allow this objectionable correspondence to go through. Poor and unfortunate German soldier! He deserves pity! At the command of the militarist Government he has gone into the enemy country, and at the command of the Government he must steal from other nations. He is required to perform difficult services. The sufferings that he endures are past description. About him everywhere shells and bombs sow death and destruction. His wife and children at home are suffering want and hardship; she looks about her and finds her children crying for bread. She is desperate, but she must not appeal or complain to any one. She must hold her tongue and suffer inwardly. But how can she silence her children? She must not even share the sympathy of her husband at the front, because that cripples her soldier husband's fighting powers. Her soldier husband must 'hold on' and 'steal' in the land of her neighbors. He must hold on and 'suffer' because the capitalists, the hurrah patriots and the armor-plate kings have willed it so. Every one must keep his or her tongue between the teeth, for the war profiteers must make money out of the want and misery of the wives and their husband soldiers at the front.
"By a lie the German workingman was forced into the war, and by like lies they expect to induce him to go on with war!" A mighty shout went up from a thousand throats—"Hurrah for Liebknecht." Liebknecht raised his hand for silence. Then steadily, though knowing the cost, he said: "Do not shoutfor me, shout rather 'We will have no more war. We will have peace—now!'"
Scarcely had he finished speaking when, as if by magic, a tremendous tumult arose. Near the spot where the doctor and his friends had been standing the crowds surged back and forth. The great multitudes in the palace grounds had the appearance of an immense sea whose surface was every inch covered with human heads, those of men and women. The children became terrified. The shouts of the grown-ups and the terrified shrieks of the children added vehemence to the scene. The next moment I see Comrade Liebknecht pulled down from the stand. His friends also follow. Then I see fists raised. I suddenly discover that the jostling of the crowds about me has carried me further away from the spot where a riot is in progress. I again elbow my way toward where the doctor and his companions have been pulled down from the stand. I had made some progress when suddenly I find myself being swept backward by a huge human wave.
In spite of my wish to see what is going on behind me I am being carried away further and further. Several hundred thousand panic-stricken souls are rushing towards the streets and avenues that lead to the grounds. The scene is frightful. Every one is shouting. I steal a glimpse of the spot which is now the center of the sudden panic. I gasp with fright. I see numberless mounted soldiers with large black whips in their hands lashing the crowds. Their mounts are so close to the struggling and frightenedmen and women, yea, even children, that it is a miracle that thousands are not pinned to the ground. I cannot tell whether they are killed or whether they fainted. But there are many of them. I myself was forced to step over several persons. I tried to lift up a body, but in the next moment I was carried away....
May Day evening. Twenty-five or thirty meet secretly at the home of a comrade in —— street. We all know what the report is. Herr Doctor is arrested. We are all sad, very sad. We have met to exchange views as to what step to take next. Every one is laboring with heavy thoughts within himself. The silence is sickening. With the exception of four the men who come together to exchange views are all soldiers in the active army. Not all of them are privates. We have spent the entire night, sometimes in heavy silence and again in deliberation. It is decided that we —— —— ——. Are the German workingmen thinking? Their present thoughts are tragic. They hurt.
While in prison Dr. Liebknecht sent two letters to the military court handling his case, in which he explained his position. It was Dr. Liebknecht's hope that these letters would be read to the Reichstag and in that way reach the German people. But this was not the case. The letters were put before the Parliamentary Committee, which investigated Liebknecht's case and on whose recommendation the Reichstag, by a vote of 229 to 111, refused to ask for his release. A copy of one of these letters was smuggled out of prison and sent out of Germany.
Berlin, May 3rd, 1916.
To the Royal Military Court, Berlin:
In the investigation of the case against me, the records of remarks need the following elucidation:
I. The German Government is in its social and historical character an instrument for the crushing down and exploitation of the laboring classes; at home and abroad it serves the interests of junkerism, of capitalism, and of imperialism.
The German Government is a reckless champion of expansion in world politics, the most ardent promoter in the competition of armaments, andaccordingly one of the most powerful influences in developing the causes of the present war.
In partnership with the Austrian Government the German Government contrived to bring about this war and so burdened itself with the greatest responsibility for the immediate outbreak of the war.
The German Government started the war under cover of deception practiced upon the common people and even upon the Reichstag (compare, among other things, the concealment of the ultimatum to Belgium, the make-up of the German White Book, the elimination of the Czar's dispatch of July 29, 1914), and it tries by reprehensible means to keep up the war spirit among the people.
It carries on the war with methods that, judged even by standards hitherto conventional, are monstrous. The invasion of Belgium and Luxemburg, poisonous gases, which in the meantime have become of common use by all the belligerents, and then look at the Zeppelin bombs, which outdo everything and which are intended to kill all that live, combatants or non-combatants, within a wide region; submarine commerce warfare; the torpedoing of theLusitania, etc.; the system of hostages and forced contributions at the beginning, especially in Belgium; the systematic entrapping of Ukrainian, Georgian, Baltic Provincials, Polish, Irish, Mohammedan, and other prisoners of war in the German prison camps for the purpose of having them do treasonable war service and treasonable spying for the Central Powers; Under-Secretary Zimmerman's agreement withSir Roger Casement in December, 1914, regarding the organization, equipment, and training in the German prison camps of the "Irish Brigade," composed of captured British soldiers; the attempts by means of threats of forcible interment to compel Christians of a hostile nationality found in Germany to do treasonable war service against their countries, and so forth. (Necessity knows no law!)
The German Government has, through the establishment of martial law, enormously increased the political lawlessness and economic exploitations of the people; it refuses all serious political and social reforms, while at the same time it tries to hold the people docile for the imperialistic war policy, by means of rhetorical phrases about equal rights accorded to all parties, about alleged discontinuation of discriminations in social and political matters, about an alleged readjustment and new direction of political matters, and so on.
The German Government because of its consideration for agrarian and capitalists' interests has completely failed to care for the economic welfare of the people during the war, to guard against misery and the practice of revolting extortion upon the people.
The German Government is still holding fast to its war aims and so constitutes the chief obstacle in the way of immediate peace negotiations upon the basis of renunciation of annexations and oppressions of all sorts: Through the maintenance—in itself illegal—of martial law (censorship, etc.) itprevents the public from learning unpleasant facts and prevents Socialist criticism of its measures. The German Government thereby reveals its system of seeming legality and sham popularity as a system of actual force, of genuine hostility to the people and bad faith as regards the masses.
The cry of "Down with the Government!" is meant to brand this entire policy of the Government as fatal to the masses of the people.
This cry also indicates that it is the duty of every representative of the welfare of the proletariat to wage a struggle of the most strenuous character—the class struggle—against the Government.
II. The present war is not a war for the defense of the national integrity, not for the liberation of oppressed peoples, not for the welfare of the masses.
From the standpoint of the proletariat this war only signifies the most extreme concentration and extension of political suppression, of economic exploitation, and of military slaughtering of the working-class body and soul for the benefit of capitalism and of absolutism.
To all this the working-class of all countries can give but one answer: a harder struggle, the international class struggle against the capitalist Governments and the ruling classes of all countries for the abolition of all oppression and exploitation by the institution of a peace conceived in the Socialist spirit. In this class struggle the Socialist, whose Fatherland is the International, finds included the defense of everything that he, as a Socialist, is bound to defend.The cry of "Down with war" signifies that I thoroughly condemn and oppose the present war because of its historical nature, because of its general social causes and specific way in which it originated (developed), and because of the way it is being carried on and the objects for which it is being waged. That cry signifies that it is the duty of every representative of proletarian interests to take part in the international class struggle for the purpose of ending the war.
III. As a Socialist I am fundamentally opposed to the existing military system as well as of this war, and I always supported with all my power the fight against Militarism as an especially important task and a matter of life and death for the working-class of all countries. (Compare my book "Militarism" and my reports to the International Young People's Conferences at Stuttgart, 1907, and Copenhagen, 1910.) The war demands that we carry on the struggle against Militarism with redoubled energy.
IV. Since 1889 May 1st has been consecrated to manifestations and propaganda in favor of the great basic principles of Socialism, against all exploitation, oppression, and violence; dedicated to propaganda for the solidarity of workers of all countries—a solidarity which the war has not abolished, but strengthened—against the workers' fratricidal strife, for peace and against war.
During the war the manifestation and propaganda of these principles is a doubly sacred duty imposed upon every Socialist.
V. The policy advocated by me was outlined in the resolution adopted by the International Socialist Congress held in Stuttgart (1907), which pledged Socialists of all countries—after they should have failed to prevent a war—to work with all their energies towards its quick ending, and to take advantage of the conditions created by the war for hastening the abolition of the capitalist order of society.
This Socialist policy is meant to be international, even in its ultimate consequences. It imposes upon the Socialists of other countries the same obligation with reference to their Governments and ruling classes that I with others in Germany followed against the Government and ruling classes of Germany.
This Socialist policy has an international effect, by spreading reciprocal encouragement from nation to nation; it promotes the international class struggle against war.
Since the beginning of the war I, together with others, have defended in every possible way and upheld in the most public manner this Socialist policy, and besides, so far as possible, have entered into connections with those who shared my sentiments in other countries.
(I may mention, for example, my journey to Belgium and Holland in September, 1914; my Christmas letter in 1914 to the Labor Leader; the International Socialist Meetings in Switzerland, in which, I regret to say, I was unable to participate personally, being prevented by superior powers, etc.)
VI. This policy to which, cost it what it may, I shall hold fast, is not mine alone, but it is also the policy of an ever-increasing proportion of the people in Germany and of the other belligerent and neutral States. It will soon become, as I hope—and to this end I am resolved to toil on—the policy of the working-class of all countries, which will then possess the power to break the imperialistic will of the ruling classes, and to shape as may seem best the mutual relations and conditions of the people for the benefit of all mankind.
Karl Liebknecht,Armierungssoldat.