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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

Charlotte Wilson

The Situation in Germany

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,