Part 18 (1/2)

The government further addressed a proclamation to the people, addressing them this time as _Mitburger_ (fellow-citizens), instead of _Genossen_. It announced that negotiations had been broken off with the rebels, and a.s.sailed the dishonest and dishonorable tactics of the Independent Socialists represented by the Haase-Dittmann delegation.

_Die Freiheit_ and _Der rote Vorwarts_ a.s.sailed the government; still the proclamation had a good effect and decent elements generally rallied to the government's support. The day's fighting was confined to the _Tageblatt_ plant, where three hundred Bolsheviki were entrenched to defend the liberty of other people's property. The place could have been taken with artillery, but it was desired to spare the building if possible.

Friday pa.s.sed with only scattered sniping. The Spartacans and their Independent helpers grew boastful. They had not yet learned to know what manner of man Gustav Noske, the new cabinet member, was. They made his acquaintance early Sat.u.r.day morning. Before the sun had risen government troops had posted themselves with artillery and mine-throwers a few hundred yards from the _Vorwarts_ plant. The battle was short and decisive. A single mine swept out of existence the Spartacans' barricade in front of the building, and a few more shots made the building ripe for storm. The government troops lost only two or three men, but more than a score of Bolsheviki were killed and more than a hundred, including some Russians and women, were captured. The _Vorwarts_ plant was a new building and much more valuable than some of the other plants occupied by the Spartacans, but it was selected for bombardment because the cabinet members wished to show, by sacrificing their own party's property first, that they were not playing favorites.

The fall of the _Vorwarts_ stronghold and the firm stand of the government disheartened the mercenary and criminal recruits of the Spartacans. Police Headquarters, the real center of the revolutionary movement, was taken early Sunday morning after a few 10.5-centimeter sh.e.l.ls had been fired into it. The official report told of twelve Spartacans killed, but their casualties were actually much higher.

Eichhorn had chosen the better part of valor and disappeared. The Bolsheviki occupying the various newspaper plants began deserting _en ma.s.se_ over neighboring roofs and the plants were occupied by government troops without a contest. News came that Liebknecht's followers had also abandoned the Boetzow Brewery in the eastern part of the city, one of their main strongholds. Late in the afternoon they also fled from the Silesian Railway Station, where they had been storing up stolen provisions, a.s.sembling arms and ammunition and preparing to make a last desperate stand.

The government, averse though it was to the employment of force to maintain its authority, had realized at the beginning of December the increasing strength of the Spartacans, and had begun a.s.sembling a military force of loyal soldiers in various garrisons outside the city.

Three thousand of these troops now marched into the city. Hundreds of the men in the ranks carried rifles slung across officers'

shoulder-straps. They marched as troops ought to march, sang patriotic songs and looked grimly determined. For miles along their route they were greeted by frantic cheering and even by joyous tears from the law-abiding citizens who had been terrorized by the sc.u.m of a great capital.[61]

[61] The task of the government was made harder throughout its darkest days by the aid and comfort given its enemies by the character of the reports published in certain enemy papers regarding conditions in Germany. Nearly the entire Paris press regularly published extravagantly untrue reports concerning the situation, and many English and American papers followed suit. The London _Times_ of December 10th gravely told its readers that ”in a political sense Ebert is suspected of being a mere tool of the old regime, whose difficult task it is to pave the first stages of the road to the restoration of the Hohenzollerns months or years hence.”

Three days later it declared that ”the German army chiefs propose to let the Spartacans upset the government so that they can summon Hindenburg to save the day and reestablish the monarchy.”Articles of this stamp were eagerly pounced upon and republished by Independent Socialist and Spartacan organs of the stamp of _Die Freiheit_, _Die Republik_, Liebknecht's _Die rote Fahne_, and others, and were of great a.s.sistance to the enemies of good government in their efforts to convince the ignorant and fanatical that the government was organizing a ”white guard” for counter-revolutionary purposes and was plotting the restoration of the monarchy.

One dispatch from Paris, published extensively in the American press on February 26th, quoted in all seriousness ”a prominent American Socialist in close touch with German Liberals and with exceptional sources of secret information,”

who had learned that ”the German revolution was a piece of theatrical manipulation by agents of the militaristic oligarchy to win an armistice.” That such a report could be published in responsible organs is a staggering commentary on the manner in which the war-psychosis inhibited clear thinking. The Conservative Deputy Hergt, speaking in the Prussian Diet on March 15th, said: ”We Conservatives are not conscienceless enough to plunge the land into civil warfare.

We shall wait patiently until the sound sense of the German people shall demand a return to the monarchic form of government.” American papers carried the following report of this statement: ”Speaking before the new Prussian Diet in Berlin, Deputy Hergt proposed that Prussia should restore the monarchy.” Volumes could be written about these false reports alone.

The week of terror had practically ended. There was still some sniping from housetops and some looting, but organized resistance had been crushed. Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg had gone into hiding.

Liebknecht's seventeen-year-old son and sister had been arrested.

Ledebour, more courageous or, perhaps, more confident that a veteran _Genosse_ had nothing to fear from a Socialist government, remained and was arrested.

It had been no part of the cabinet's plan or desire to have their veteran colleague of former days arrested. On January 12th the writer, speaking with one of the most prominent Majority Socialist leaders, said:

”You can now hardly avoid having Ledebour locked up.”

The man addressed shrugged his shoulders reflectively and answered:

”Well, you see, Herr Kollege, we can't very well do so. Ledebour is an old comrade, he was for many years one of the party's secretaries and has done great services for the party.”

”But he has taken part in an armed uprising to overthrow the government and to destroy that same party,” persisted the writer. The Socialist leader admitted it.

”But he is acting from ideal motives,” he said.

This refusal to judge opponents by their acts instead of by their motives hampered the government throughout its career. It is less specifically Socialistic than German, and is the outgrowth of what is termed _Rechthaberei_ in German an untranslatable word exactly ill.u.s.trated by the colloquy reported above. It is not the least among the mental traits that make it impossible for the average German ever to become what is popularly known as a practical politician; a trait that kept the German people in their condition of political immaturity.

In Ledebour's case, however, the government found itself compelled to act drastically. A proclamation was found which declared the government deposed and taken over temporarily by the three men who signed it. These were Liebknecht, Ledebour and another Independent Socialist named Scholtze. In the first days of the uprising they had sent a detachment of Spartacans to the War Ministry to present the proclamation and take charge of that department's affairs, and only the presence of mind and courage of a young officer had prevented the scheme from succeeding. In the face of this, no government that demanded respect for its authority could permit Ledebour to remain at liberty. His arrest was nevertheless the signal for some adverse criticism even from Majority Socialists whose cla.s.s-conscious solidarity was greater than their intelligence.

Liebknecht was still in hiding, but it was less easy to hide in Berlin than it had been a month earlier, for the old criminal police were at work again. The experiment with soldier-policemen had resulted so disastrously that every Berliner who had anything to lose welcomed the return of these men who had been so denounced and hated in other days. The search lasted but two days. On January 15th Liebknecht's apartment was searched, and great amounts of propagandist pamphlets and correspondence showing him to be in constant touch with the Russian Soviet Government were found. On the evening of the next day policemen and soldiers surrounded the house of a distant relative of Liebknecht's wife in the western part of the city and Liebknecht was found. He denied his ident.i.ty at first, but finally admitted that he was the man wanted.

He was taken to the Eden Hotel in Charlottenburg, which had been occupied in part by the staff of the government troops. Rosa Luxemburg, found hiding in another house, was brought to the hotel at the same time. After the two had been questioned, preparations were made to take them to the city prison in Moabit.

Despite all precautions, news of the arrests had transpired, and the hotel was surrounded by a vast crowd, mainly made up of better cla.s.s citizens, since the district where the hotel is situated is one of the best residential districts of Greater Berlin. The feeling of these people against the two persons who were in so great measure responsible for the terrors of the week just past naturally ran high. The appearance of the soldiers guarding the two was the signal for a wild rush. The Luxemburg woman was struck repeatedly and Liebknecht received a blow on the head which caused a b.l.o.o.d.y wound.

Neither the man nor woman ever reached prison. Soldiers brought to the morgue late that night the body of ”an unidentified man,” alleged to have been shot while running away from his guards. One bullet had struck him between the shoulders and another in the middle of the back of the neck. The woman disappeared utterly.

On the following day (January 16th) it became known that both Liebknecht and Luxemburg had been killed. Exactly who fired the fatal shots was never clearly established, but an investigation did establish that the officers in charge of the men guarding the two prisoners were guilty of a negligence which was undoubtedly deliberate, and intended to make the killings possible.