their present thoughts the struggle for peoples' rights, because success
is to them, as they say, more important. Gentlemen, that is explainable.
These gentlemen know, in fact, for what this war is fought. For their
electorate this war is such a tremendously important political and
economic business that the people's rights, bad or good, have to be
retarded. Gentlemen, the mine fields of Briey and Longwy, the mine
fields of West Poland, the colonies which promise important profits and
some other nice things are really no bad investments for German capital.
The people can wait. ("Very true!" from the Soc.-Dem.) And Mr.
Pachnicke, the boldest representative of democracy in the bourgeois
parties of this house, is already satisfied in advance--sure enough,
only for the present, as he says--with the secret and direct vote! But
even the moderate optimism of Mr. Pachnicke and Mr. Cassel that a
majority is available in this house with reference to that patch-work
reform, was very roughly stripped of its mask in the Budget Commission
by a conservative interruption. Even here everything shall be as it was
before! And even for this patch-work reform Mr. Pachnicke wants to wait
until after the war. Gentlemen, we are not so modest. ("Very true!" from
the Soc.-Dem.) We see all other classes in the war, and especially
through the war, pursue unrestrained and without any compunction their
class interests. We know that this war serves or will serve, if it will
go according to the desire of the ruling class--the great capitalistic
interests--the interest of the ruling classes in a particular way. Shall
only the masses of the people wait until after the war? The technical
restoration of the law is a trifle. ("Very true!" from the Soc.-Dem.)
Gentlemen, do we have any cause to postpone our demand for
democratization in a time of martial law, the press censorship, the
suspension of the miserable right of assembly, in a time of the darkest
reaction, including the spy system in Prussia under the name of
_Burgfrieden_ (civic truce) in a form of military dictatorship,
celebrates its triumph, in a time when the people are more than ever
without any rights, in a time when by the war not only the danger to all
of the capitalistic economic order is made more striking than ever, but
when political pressure lies harder than ever on the people. In such a
time, there is no occasion for us to postpone our demands for
democratization. ("Very true!" from the Soc.-Dem.) Never did the class
character of the present society of the Prussian state reveal itself so
rude and unmasked as right now. Nor do we have any occasion to postpone
our demands for democratization at a time when the dangerous reaction of
the inner autocracy upon the external policy shows itself so awful and
dangerous, at a time which is really clamoring for the democratization
of exterior politics. ("Very true!" from the Soc.-Dem.)
Gentlemen, Mr. Assemblyman Dr. Pachnicke said the war has given new
support to the demand for electoral reform. Frhr. v. Zedlitz shouted a
shrill denial of these words. ("Hear! Hear!" from the Soc.-Dem.) A word
which lighted up the situation as a lightning flash, a word for which I
and my friends thank him, a word of redemption which can be _a call of
alarm_ for the further interior Prussian-German development. In fact,
the war has given new support, not to a patch-work reform in the sense
of which Mr. Pachnicke speaks, but to a reform of the Prussian state in
body and soul. I mean in equal franchise and administration from below
up to the highest ranks. And that not only on account of the warlike
attitude of the German people, as Mr. Pachnicke thought. From entirely
different grounds. There never before appeared so clearly on the surface
the glaring contrast between the heavy duties of the majority of the
people and the privileged character of the state and the Administration,
as in these days; the contrast between the equal duties as cannon fodder
and the political inequalities in the state. ("Very true!" from the
Soc.-Dem.)
And further, gentlemen, in half-absolutism, in secret diplomacy, in
personal regime and all that, we see one of the most important immediate
causes for the breaking out of this war, which of course is conditioned
and made possible by international capitalism. ("Very true!" from the
Soc.-Dem.)
Gentlemen, if the imperialistic endeavors of high capitalism brought
about severe dangers to peace, there is needed more than ever control of
the exterior politics by the masses of the people ("Very true!" from the
Soc.-Dem.), a control which is denied by the constitution and
administration prevailing in Prussia and Germany to-day. I know that the
democratization of the exterior policy in other states also, where the
democratization of the interior policy has progressed, is much to be
desired and our friends in England, our friends in France, _to whom we
stand as near as ever before_, as far as they are conducting
Socialistic propaganda ("Very true!" from the Soc.-Dem.), have raised
the demand before and also now for greater democratization of
international politics. Gentlemen, only democratization can erect a wall
against imperialistic and adventurous politics. Gentlemen, the millions
of victims who are butchered in this war, are butchered especially
because the mass of the people were deprived of any rights in the
countries concerned! ("Very true!" from the Soc.-Dem.) All of us, no
matter how many differences of opinion may exist now in our small
circle, are all agreed that the mass of the people did not want the war
in any of the countries concerned. ("Very true!" from the Soc.-Dem.) And
if that is true, it follows that a democratic control of exterior
politics carried out in all states would have prevented the war. ("Very
true!" from the Soc.-Dem.) From that follows the right and duty,
especially now when Europe is buried in blood and murder, and sets on
fire its culture and the flower of its humanity, to raise the demand for
democratization of external politics, which can come only from
democratic internal politics which can be nourished in the soil of a
state democratic from head to foot. ("Very true!" from the Soc.-Dem.)
Gentlemen, I welcome the destruction of illusions which existed in large
circles of the people about the willingness of the ruling classes and
the government to grant an equal franchise law. A clear outlook is
especially necessary; the mist is now blown away, and this clearness is
not preached only--and you should not forget it--to those who are
guarding and supporting the Fatherland in their civilian clothes and
have experienced the need of these days, but also to those who are
standing in the battlefield and who are expecting to hear different news
from home, and who, when they read the papers about the debates of the
Budget Commission of Saturday and debates of to-day--I am absolutely
convinced on this point--will clinch their fists furiously in their
pockets and hurl curses at those who awakened in them hopes and
illusions, who deceived them about the truth,--namely that this war is
not carried on for the mass of the German people; about the truth, that
the mass of the people will be left after the war without rights, as
they were before the war, _unless they look out for their rights
themselves._
Gentlemen, the war preaches with a brazen tongue the necessity for
Democracy; and to you all, who think that you can rebuke in such a sharp
way the demands of the people, the idea must emerge, through the shell
of your careless hostility and provoking and people-betraying
demonstrations, that the interior political conditions of Germany will
form themselves even now during the war.
Gentlemen, the proletariat is in exactly the same position as the poor
starving wretch of the old tragi-comedy, who, dressed in distinguished
garments, for one day of illusions, pretended to be a prince. After the
present revelations, the dream, the hero dream that every one is to be
recognized as a free German citizen, as an equal German citizen, this
dream will vanish even to the last illusionist,--he will awaken from the
illusion of this monstrous three-fourths of a year. He will get sober,
and full of bitterness, draw conclusions for his political attitude even
during the war.
Gentlemen, the only salvation for the mass of the people is the struggle
that has not changed to-day from yesterday. Not by yielding and not by
adapting itself to conditions, and not by submissiveness, but only in
struggle will the people find its right. (Assemblyman Hoffman,
Soc.-Dem., "Very true!")
The class struggle alone is the salvation of the proletariat and we hope
that we will carry on very soon the class struggle in open international
intercourse with the proletariat of all countries, even with those with
whom we are at war. In this international class struggle rests not only
hope for the democratization, for the political and economic
emancipation, of the working class, but also the one hope for the mass
of the people concerned even during the war. Their one prospect and hope
for the termination of the horrible killing of peoples is in the
struggle for a peace in a socialistic sense.
Gentlemen, the equal franchise you rudely denied for the duration of the
war. Even after the war you don't want to grant such franchise.
Laughable patch-work reform is all that one of you, the representative
of the influential Progressive Party (_Fortschritlichen Volkspartei_),
expects at the most; the majority says even here "No." Gentlemen, that
means to the mass of the people the fist! ("Very true!" from the
Soc.-Dem.) Against that I place the cry: away with the hypocrisy of the
_Burgfrieden_ (civil truce)! Forward to the class struggle! Forward to
the international class struggle for the emancipation of the working
class and against the war! ("Bravo!" from the Soc.-Dem.)
IN DEFENCE OF ROSA LUXEMBURG
Dr. Rosa Luxemburg, with whom the following speech of Dr. Liebknecht
deals, was tried in 1914 because at a public meeting she attacked
militarism and the tragedies which were happening in the German
barracks: brutal treatments, abuses and suicides of German soldiers. At
her trial nine hundred and twenty-two men from all parts of Germany were
ready to testify to something like thirty thousand separate instances of
brutal treatment of soldiers.
Dr. Rosa Luxemburg was born in Russian Poland, of Jewish parents, and
studied in Switzerland. She went later to Germany in order to become
active in Social-Democratic propaganda. Being a foreigner, she would
have been immediately exiled by the authorities, had she not married a
Mr. Luxemburg--with whom she never lived--and in that way became a
German citizen.
Dr. Rosa Luxemburg, or "Die Rote Rosa" (The Red Rose) as the Junkers
call her, is one of the very brilliant speakers of the Social-Democratic
Party of Germany and very few in the party equal her in debate. She has
written various books on scientific socialism.
_Assembly Session, March 9, 1915._
Third reading of the Budget for the fiscal year 1915, with the proposed
law regarding the determination of the budget, with a special chapter in
reference to the administration of justice. Taking part in the
discussion of this special chapter, Dr. K. Liebknecht, Minister of
Justice Dr. Beseler and v. Pappenheim (Conservative), who by his motion
that the discussion on this chapter should be closed, made it impossible
for Liebknecht to answer the Secretary of Justice.
DR. LIEBKNECHT: Gentlemen, a few days ago, continuing an old tradition
of this house, which remained true to itself, even in this respect, you
deprived me of the floor; to-day you will have to endure what I shall
tell you,--what I really think.
As is known to you, my party friend, Rosa Luxemburg, was condemned to
one year in prison for an alleged appeal to the soldiers for
insubordination. This decision was approved a few months ago by the
Supreme Court. In January of this year the execution of the sentence was
postponed until March 31st on account of her illness. She spent a few
weeks in a hospital at Schoeneberg and was dismissed from it not cured,
on condition that she follow a certain course of treatment. On February
18th she was suddenly arrested at Suedende by two officers of the
Criminal Department, brought to the Berlin Police Department, and then
to Division 7, that is, to the political division, and not to the
criminal division. Thence she was transported in the green wagon,
together with common criminals, to the women's prison in the
Barminstrasse, for the fulfillment of her one year's prison sentence.
This incident unmasks with the precision of physical experiment the real
nature of the so-called _Burgfrieden_ (civil truce). ("Very true.")
Because this fundamentally political, this party political sentence is
executed now, we do not complain. Let those complain who believe in the
civil truce. (Stroebel, "Very true.") I know that my friend Luxemburg
will see in the execution of this sentence a proof that she has
fulfilled her duty, even in these times, of working for the interest of
the people in the socialistic way. But gentlemen, this is remarkable,
and this fact I wish most to emphasize--she was arrested for the
execution of the sentence, in spite of the fact that the execution of
the sentence was postponed until March 31, without giving her an
opportunity voluntarily to begin her term after the authorities thought
that the reasons for the postponement of the execution of the sentence
did not exist any longer. She was taken away without being given an
opportunity voluntarily to begin her sentence. The method of this
execution is open to much criticism. This transportation in the green
wagon and the details which I have just mentioned deserve the severest
reproach against those officials who are responsible for this action.
("Very true" by the Soc.-Dem.)
Of special political significance is the reason for this execution. The
_Deutsche Tageszeitung_ brought out a notice, even before there appeared
any communication in our party press, of the arrest of my party friend,
which was surely inspired, and probably originated from a well-informed
source, and in which it was said in unmistakable language, that this
trial was started because Madame Dr. Luxemburg arranged political
meetings ("Hear, hear!" from the Socialists), because she was active
politically ("Hear, hear!" from the Soc.-Dem.). Surely the arrest was
not really a military measure, surely it was an execution of a sentence;
but the means described were used, and put in execution from motives
which put on it the seal of partisan political persecution in the most
objectionable form. Very remarkable it is, as I know, that this happened
after the Berlin secret police told the Commander of the Province of the
appearance of Madame Luxemburg at a few meetings. ("Hear, hear!" from
the Soc.-Dem.) The Commander in the Province, as the highest military
authority in the province of Brandenburg, advised the District Attorney,
who is in these days subordinate to him, to begin action against Madame
Luxemburg, to begin action against her on account of holding meetings,
on account of her political activity. ("Hear, hear!" from the Soc.-Dem.)
Now let me give an illustration of how promptly the espionage system,
which was in this case at the service of the Justice officials and so in
confidential cooeperation with the military dictatorship, functions. On
February 10th, Madame Luxemburg spoke at a party meeting in
Charlottenburg. On the 13th of February the order was given at
Frankfort-on-the-Main to arrest her. During this interval of three days,
or rather of two days, because the meeting took place on the evening of
February 10th, the spy who must have been present at the meeting (and in
whose behalf, as an officer of the Department of Justice, you will now
approve the Budget), reported the meeting to the Police Headquarters,
which reported to the Supreme Command, and from the Supreme Command the
report was forwarded to Frankfort-on-the-Main, from which the order for
arrest was given. So promptly does the machinery of the Prussian State
function for the political suppression of the people, even in these days
of the party truce. In this field the mechanism of the Prussian State
did prove itself remarkable.
It should not be said that Madame Dr. Luxemburg was arrested because
after she held meetings she could not be located. Gentlemen, I know that
only by using all her strength, ill as she was, could she fulfill her
duty to the interests of the German people, to the interests of the
entire international proletariat. But, gentlemen, who wants to make us
believe that this action was taken without any connection with what she
did? ("Very true," from the Soc.-Dem.) The political aspect of what she
said was the determining factor for the authorities which "do not
recognize parties any longer." If she had only joined in buying the
usual market commodity labeled "Patriotism," then not only would she
have been spared from this remarkable attack but probably amnesty would
have been forced upon her. ("Very true," from the Soc.-Dem.) But,
gentlemen, she tried by summoning all her strength, to act in the
proletarian and socialistic cause against the frenzied slaughter of
peoples. This does not suit the dominant power, and that is why the
arrest took place.
But the worst feature is that it was not sufficient to arrest my friend
Luxemburg in this way, but that they also tried to stigmatize her honor
by stating that she had shown intentions of flight.
Gentlemen, Madame Dr. Luxemburg wanted to travel to a friend in Holland,
and for this purpose she asked for a foreign passport from the police in
her district, who were naturally informed about her sentence, and then
she addressed herself to the Berlin police headquarters, also well
informed about her sentence, before the permission for a passport could
be had; as suspicion was aroused at the Berlin police headquarters, she
addressed herself, one day before she was arrested, with my help, to the
District Attorney of Frankfort-on-the-Main,--the official who was to
have executed the sentence, and had asked from him permission to take
the trip to Holland. The order to make this motion to the District
Attorney was given to her lawyer in Frankfort on the afternoon of
February 17th. Gentlemen, I do not need to tell you that a woman such as
Madame Dr. Luxemburg does not belong to the class who try to escape
from a sentence,--that a woman such as Madame Dr. Luxemburg is brave
enough to look her enemies in the eye and would not think of leaving
Germany in times like these, where there is being waged such an
important part of the struggle against international reaction,--against
imperialism. It is necessary to be a real Prussian police spirit in
order not to understand that.
Considering the facts of which I just spoke, considering the
possibilities of passing the frontier in these times without the will of
the authorities, the talk about escaping can be characterized only as an
attempt to stigmatize the honor of this really persecuted woman, exactly
after the Russian method, which is not satisfied to punish politically
disagreeable subjects, but tries also to insult their honor as much as
possible. In fact, it happened that the military authorities arranged
that Madame Luxemburg should not be able to be active outside of Germany
in a manner not to the liking of the German ruling powers. Why don't you
say so openly and honestly, instead of hiding behind such obscure
phrases? Just as we have only one counterpart for your denial of the
suffrage reform, for the continuance of the exceptional laws, for your
refusal of any interior reform, namely the political ignorance and
animosity against the people of the Government of the Czar, so this
action against my friend Luxemburg is a counterpart to the arrest of the
Russian Duma Deputies, our admired and excellent friends in the struggle
for the freedom of the people and for the restoration of the peoples'
peace, trying in common with us to serve,--each in his own country,--in
universal opposition against its own government, for the benefit of its
own people and the good of the other people, the good of the
international proletariat, the good of humanity. And so sure as it is
that the arrest of the Duma deputies in Russia opened the eyes of
hundreds of thousands of blind ones, so sure are we that the action
against our comrade Luxemburg will awaken many a dreamer ("Very true"
from Soc.-Dem.), and that they will demand a struggle for a free Prussia
and a struggle for the ending of the mass murder of the people.
("Bravo!" from the Soc.-Dem.)
LIEBKNECHT CALLED TO ARMY SERVICE
On March 23, 1915, Liebknecht was ordered to place himself at the
disposal of the German military authorities.
From this day on he was under military law as a member of a Landsturm
regiment.
LIEBKNECHT QUESTIONS THE GOVERNMENT
Beginning with August 20, 1915, Liebknecht began putting his questions
in the Reichstag which so much embarrassed the German Government.
In England this form of parliamentary control of the Government is very
common. In Germany this form is very seldom used. The possibility of
putting supplementary questions gives this method a particularly great
usefulness where there is so little parliamentary criticism as in
Germany.
REICHSTAG MEETING, AUG. 20, 1915, 2 P. M.
At the table of the Federal Government are present: Ministers Delbrueck,
Helfferich, and Lisco.
The first order of business is a question by Dr. Karl Liebknecht.
DR. KARL LIEBKNECHT: (reads his question amid great commotion in the
House) "Is the Government, in case of corresponding readiness of the
other belligerents, ready, on the basis of the renunciation of
annexations of every kind, to enter into immediate peace negotiations?"
SECRETARY OF STATE V. JAGOW: "I believe I shall meet the wishes of the
great majority of the House if I decline to answer the question of the
member, Dr. Liebknecht, at the present time as inopportune." (Great
applause, especially at the right side of the House.)
DR. K. LIEBKNECHT: "That is concealing the capitalistic policy of
conquest (great uproar). The answer of the Secretary of State is a
confession of a policy of annexation (repeated great uproar). The people
want peace" (continual uproar and laughter).
REICHSTAG MEETING, DEC. 15, 1915
The energy which Liebknecht displayed at this meeting was remarkable
considering that he had not completely recovered from the injury which
he had received in October, 1915, at the front.
Twenty-third meeting of the Reichstag, Dec. 14, 1915, 2 P. M.
Present at the Federal Council table: Ministers v. Jagow and Helfferich.
The first point on the order of the day--Questions by Dr. K. Liebknecht
(Soc.-Dem.).
DR. K. LIEBKNECHT:
FIRST QUESTION
(I-a) Is the Government prepared, if the other belligerents are also
ready and prepared, to enter peace negotiations on the basis of the
renunciation of annexations? This question I withdraw since on Thursday,
Dec. 9, 1915 (Liebknecht refers here to Bethman-Hollweg's speech in the
Reichstag on Dec. 9, 1915, in which the Imperial Chancellor answered the
majority Socialist's peace interpellation. _S. Z._), the Imperial
Chancellor answered this question in the negative. The Government wants
a war of conquest, not peace!
(I-b) On what other basis is the Government ready to enter immediately
upon peace negotiations?
(Foreign Minister von Jagow by mistake begins to read the answer to
another question (laughter).) Then the following answer is given to
question I-b:
In view of the debate of the 9th of December I decline to answer this
question.
DR. K. LIEBKNECHT asks the floor for a supplementary question: What will
be the attitude of the Government towards peace proposals from neutral
countries as asked now by the Social-Democrats of Switzerland through
the Swiss Government.... (Great commotion.)
PRESIDENT DR. KAEMPF: This is not a supplementary question. It is ruled
out of order.
Dr. K. Liebknecht reads his
SECOND QUESTION
II. Is the Government ready to lay before the nation the official
documents and semi-official documents relating to the secret
negotiations which preceded the declaration of war, especially
(a) The diplomatic history of the Austrian Ultimatum to Serbia of July
23, 1914, including the official and semi-official negotiations between
the German and Austrian Governments after the crime of Sarajevo?
(b) The history of the German entry into Luxemburg and Belgium?
(c) Is the Government ready to create as soon as possible a
parliamentary commission for the examination of these documents and
reveal the responsible parties?
FOREIGN MINISTER VON JAGOW: The available material about the origin of
the war has been published already. The Government intends to publish
other important documents relating to diplomatic negotiation, _in so far
as they appear to be necessary for the enlightenment of public opinion_
(my italics, _S. Z._), but refuses to set up a parliamentary committee
dealing with the examination of these documents. The parties responsible
are our enemies.
DR. K. LIEBKNECHT asks the floor for a supplementary question (great
merriment): Is the Government ready to lay immediately before us the
entire official documentary material dealing with the war?