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Title: The Situation in Germany Author: Charlotte Wilson Date: April 1890 Language: en Topics: history, germany, social democracy Source: https://www.revoltlib.com/anarchism/the-situation-in-germany/view.php
The result of the last elections in Germany, the success achieved by the
Social Democrats and the defeat of Bismarck, the last move of the German
emperor and his flirtations with the workers, are often the subject of
lively discussions in this country. Not so lively, however, we must say,
and certainly mot so enthusiastic as they might have been expected to
be, just as if a certain feeling of distrust was awakened amid the
workers by the intrusion of imperialism into their struggle against the
exploiters. In fact, the present conditions of Germany are of so
complicated a nature, so many factors must be taken into account, that
the lack of enthusiasm at the last victories of the German Social
Democrats is fully justified. "What maybe the outcome of all that?" is
the question generally asked, and we shall do our best to sum up the
elements for the answer.
The last great revolution was in France, the foretaste-in this country.
In both it had the characteristic of breaking down the power of
autocratic rule-and autocratic rule means the rule of the courtiers, in
both countries it meant the advent to power of a more or less democratic
middle class in lieu of the landed and Court aristocracy; and in both
countries the revolution, before resulting in constitutional
parliamentary rule, passed through a period of Republican rule. Both in
France and Britain it also was the result of two distinct elements: the
growth of a powerful middle class, consequent on a sudden development of
industry and commerce on the one side; and on the other side of a great
movement of thought and awakening of consciousness among the poorer
classes, both converging together to break down the powers of landed
aristocracy and Court rule.
But, while having so much in common, the French revolution evidently was
a step in advance as compared with the revolution of 1640. It had the
advantage of that great philosophical movement which was born on the
soil of liberated Scotland and England during the 18th century, and the
French encyclopedists, as well as the revolutionists of 1789-93, were
nurtured with ideas which were the outcome of the English revolution. It
also had the benefit of the experience of the English revolution, and
that of an additional hundred and fifty years in the general evolution
of Western Europe-not to speak of the genius of the French nation giving
a further and more harmonious development to the ideas of Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity. The movement, on the whole, was imbued with
loftier ideas; it was free from the puritanical religious element; it
stirred the masses much deeper and it embraced a larger part of the
population. It thus developed with greater rapidity and it cleared the
way for a more rapid further evolution. Therefore, sixty years had
hardly passed since 1789 before France had 1848-the first move of the
industrial proletariat-and 1871, which was the first revolutionary
attempt at the municipalization of property and the break down of the
centralized State.
Coming a hundred and fifty years later than the English revolution, it
naturally made 9, stop more in the enfranchisement of the masses from
the bonds of State, Religion and Capital.
It so happened that in the slow progress of industrial civilization,
from West to Past, Germany was the next country to assimilate the
results of the two revolutions. She inherited most of the industrial
development, the philosophical thought, the institutions which were the
outcome of 1640 in England and 1789 in France. Though Italy (which only
quite recently has conquered her independence), Spain, Austria, and even
Russia have also shared to a certain degree, the fruits of the new stage
of civilization inaugurated by England since 1640, nevertheless Germany
was the nation which has most advanced in that direction. And, as the
end of each century has been marked for the last five hundred years by a
great revolution, it appears most probable that the next great
revolution will have for its met Germany. Germany is the country which,
in all probability, will soon offer us a movement analogous to those of
1640-88 and 1789-95.
But, as we often have pointed out in Freedom, no revolution can remain
any longer confined to one single country. It was natural for England
not to make a further move while France was undergoing the tempest of
1789, and even to join the counter-revolution. Her insular position and
the extreme limitedness of international intercourse at that time
rendered it so. It was also possible for all governments to the East and
South of France to join in an alliance against the Great Revolution
because at that time their respective countries were entirely in the
bonds of Serfdom, Aristocracy and the Church. But steam and a hundred
years of steam-civilization have totally changed all that. Neither in
the West, nor in the East and South, would the German revolution find
enemies: on the contrary, it would find either allies or elder brethren
also marching onwards. The two great revolutionary steps which France
made in 1848 and 1871 the rapid growth of the powers of Capital and its
internationalization: and, above all, the development of international
Socialist thought-all there are such important factors in our present
life that no revolution can happen anywhere without being echoed all
through the civilized world. So it was in 1848; it will be the more so
at the next conflagration.
In fact, Germany may or way not make her revolution, but Italy is bound
to do it, and precisely on the same lines. Royalty is dead in Italy; the
land question is ripe; the factory slaves already in open revolt. Spain
and Portugal are simply waiting for favorable circumstances for sending
away their kings find courtiers, and the proclamation of a republic in
Spain will be the signal for provincial independence, for communes being
proclaimed, for land being seized from the landlords, and so on. Vienna
is as revolutionary a center as Paris is; and the autocracy in Russia is
on its death-bed. As to the "elder brothers," whatever may be the state
of affairs in middle Europe, France cannot avoid a Communalist
Revolution which necessarily must become Communist; while the old rotten
institutions of this country can stand no longer, especially in face of
the breakdown of an industrial system based on benefits ripened from the
rapidly decaying export trade. The change must come, and all that can be
said is, that the two countries which have made their revolutions in
1640 and 1789 have most chances of achieving the greatest results with
the least amount of foolish resistance and bloodshed; while Germany and
the other continental nations are sure of meeting with plenty of that
same foolish resistance which resulted in Cromwell's and Robespierre's
Terror.
The French revolution was in advance of Cromwell's revolution. So also
the German revolution must be in advance of that of 1789. In its
economical life Germany already has made the step which the French
peasants imposed upon France by burning the chateaux. Serfdom was
abolished in Germany after 1848. So also in her political life Germany
has obtained what France strove for in 1792. She has representative
government, manhood suffrage and middle-class rule, and the attempts at
Cesarism now made by Wilhelm II. can only be the means of accelerating
the crisis. Having thus middle-class rule, and having put an end to
serfdom, Germany strives now, in politics, for a republican form of
government, and in economics for Louis Blane's State management of
production. She is where France was in 1848.
As to the economical views of the Social Democrats, no one who is
acquainted with their writings will doubt of the close analogy between
their program and that of Louis Blane's Organization du Travail. Their
ideal is the State ownership of the chief branches of production.
As to the republicanism of Germany, it is not so generally noticed as it
ought to be. An English Social Democratic paper wrote the other day that
one million Germans have voted in February last for common property. But
that is a great mistake. The thirteen hundred thousand voices given to
Social Democratic candidates are a most heterogeneous aggregate, and we
have no means of judging what their opinions as to common property am.
That question has long since disappeared from the S. D. electoral
program as well as from their writings. The question at issue during the
last elections was not common or private property, but-Bismarck or not;
the Cartel (the alliance of parties which support him) and exclusive
legislation against the Socialists, or not-" Down with the Cartel," and
nothing else, was the official watchword launched by the Council of the
S. D. party before the ballots.
Certainly we know that there is a considerable number of real Socialists
in Germany, and we know perfectly that a very great number of them are
revolutionists; we know and appreciate their devotion to the cause,
their powers of joining together in common work, their cheerful and
steady activity. Precisely, therefore, we are sure that the coming
revolution will have a Socialist tint as pronounced, and possibly even
more pronounced, than the revolution of 1848. But we maintain that the
voices given to S. D. candidates represent the greatest possible variety
of programs, aspirations and political tendencies. The real meaning of
the last elections must be looked for in another direction, and we see
in them a great and important manifestation of Republican feeling.
Two parties have made sudden progress in February last-the Radicals who
have added 42 seats to the 38 seats they had before, and the Social
Democrats who have won 37 seats instead of 11. Both together they have
117 deputies, out of 347; and, whatever the shades of opinion among the
deputies, we may say that one-third of the German electors have voted
for the Republic, and that nearly one-third of the Reichstag is already
republican,
That is, in our opinion, the chief lesson of the last elections, and
that is what so much alarmed the Government and induced the Emperor (who
foresaw it, though not to that extent) to seek among the workers for the
Support Of some 'Social Democrats against the Republicans. Just, as on
former occasions, in Lassale's times, Bismarck resorted to the support
of the Socialists in order to defeat the Liberal bourgeois. To endeavor
to win the support of the workers was the last anchor of salvation to be
out out against the growing wave of Republicanism.
That manifestation of republican feeling has nothing to astonish us. In
1878, after Hoedel's and Nobiling's attempt against the emperor, several
hundred men were condemned to many years of imprisonment for having
openly, in public houses and public thoroughfares, expressed their
regret at Hoedel's and Nobiling's failures. Such an expression of
republican feeling, seven years after the great war and against so old a
man as Wilhelm I was the more significant; and the present elections
fully confirm it.
If we take into account that all men less than 25 years old and having
less than a six mouth's residence in their district have no Voice in the
elections, and that few Social Democrats do reason as Liebknecht is
reported to have reasoned at Brunswick (he is said to have promised the
emperor the support of one million and a half of Social Democrats) -1 if
we remember that the emperor ran do nothing for improving the conditions
of the workers even if he obtains a Zen hours law from the Parliament
(the eight hours already have grown to ten) and finally, if we take into
account that the German army is the German nation-we must conclude that
a republican revolution is ripe in Germany. The days of the Empire are
numbered, and all that a war against Russia could do by reviving German
jingoism, would be to prolong imperial rule for a few years more.
Germany rapidly marches towards a Republic, and a Republic in Germany
would mean the United States of Central Europe. It will also mean, as we
said, attempts on a large scale at expropriation of certain branches of
industry by the State. That would be the beginning of the Social
Revolution. As to how far it would go in Germany, nobody can predict.
All that our German friends have to do is, to abandon their tactics of
Bismarck-fighting which has absorbed them until now, and openly, plainly
and energetically set to work for the spreading of the so long forgotten
Socialist idea. Not the authoritarian Socialist idea they indulged until
now, but the Anarchist Socialism, without which their revolution in so
heterogeneous a country as the German Empire would be sure to be drowned
in blood,