Vice-President: "I repeat my request"). I must touch on this question if
I am to 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 a discussion 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 Daeumig, the editor of
the Socialist organ _Vorwaerts_, 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 the Reichstag, 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."
LIEBKNECHT'S REMARKS ON THE GERMAN WAR LOAN
(_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. MUeLLER 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. Mueller
Meiningen goes to the tribune and in a violent tone hurls indignant
reproaches at Liebknecht. The minority Social-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.)
LIEBKNECHT'S MAY DAY MANIFESTO
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 landed proprietors, 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!'"
LIEBKNECHT'S MAY DAY, 1916, SPEECH
_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. The part 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 witty Socialist
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 role 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 right to 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 have reached a price
that is beyond the probable reach of the workingman!
"Another well-nourished Pharisee exhorts in the columns of the
_Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung_ by 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 shout for 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
frightened men 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.
LIEBKNECHT'S REPLY TO HIS JUDGES
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, and
accordingly 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 the _Lusitania_, 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 with Sir 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!)