Part 18 (2/2)
The impression was profound. The _Deutsche Tageszeitung_, while deploring lynch law and summary justice, declared that the deaths of the two agitators must be regarded as ”almost a Divine judgment.” This was the tenor of all _bourgeois_ comment, and even _Vorwarts_ admitted that the dead man and woman had fallen as victims of the base pa.s.sions which they themselves had aroused. They had summoned up spirits which they could not exorcise. There was nevertheless much apprehension regarding the form which the vengeance of the victims' followers might take, but this confined itself in the main to verbal attacks on the _bourgeoisie_ and Majority Socialists, and denunciation of Noske's ”White Guard,” as the loyal soldiers who protected the law-abiding part of the population were termed. Disorders were feared on the day of Liebknecht's funeral, but none came.
The government gained a much needed breathing spell through these events. With Liebknecht and Luxemburg dead, Radek in hiding, Ledebour locked up and Eichhorn--as it transpired later--fled to Brunswick, the Spartacans, deprived of their most energetic leaders and shaken by their b.l.o.o.d.y losses of Bolshevik week, could not so quickly rally their forces for another _coup_. Their losses are not definitely known, but they were estimated at approximately two hundred dead and nearly a thousand wounded. The losses of the government troops were negligible.
Noske, who had taken over from Ebert the administration of military affairs, announced that there would be no further temporizing with persons endeavoring to overthrow the government by force. He issued a decree setting forth the duty of the soldiers to preserve order, protect property and defend themselves in all circ.u.mstances.
The decree said further:
”No soldier can be excused for failure to perform his duty if he have not, in the cases specified above, made timely and adequate use of his weapons to attain the purpose set forth.”
Some six years earlier Police-President von Jagow had brought a flood of Socialist abuse on his head because, in a general order to the police, he referred to the fact that there had been an unusual number of escapes of criminals and attacks on policemen and added: ”Henceforth I shall punish any policeman who in such case has failed to make timely use of his weapons.” And now a Socialist issued an order of much the same tenor. The _Genossen_ had learned by bitter experience that there is a difference between criticizing and governing, and that moral suasion occasionally fails with the lowest elements of a great city.
Defeated in Berlin, the Bolsheviki turned their attention to the coast cities. The ”Republic of Cuxhaven” was proclaimed, with a school-teacher as president. It collapsed in five days as a result of the government's decisive action. An attempted _coup_ in Bremen also failed, but both these uprisings left the Spartacans and Independents of these cities in possession of large supplies of arms and ammunition.
January 18th, the forty-seventh anniversary of the founding of the German Empire, brought melancholy reflections for all Germans. The Bolshevist-hued Socialists were impotently raging in defeat; the _bourgeoisie_ lamented past glories; the Majority Socialists were under a crossfire from both sides. The Conservative _Kreuz-Zeitung_ wrote:
”January 18th: What feelings are awakened on this day under prevailing conditions! In other times we celebrated today the Empire's glory, its resurrection from impotence and dissension to unity and strength. We believed its existence and power a.s.sured for centuries. And today? After less than half a century the old misery has come upon us and has cast us down lower than ever. This time, too, Germany could be conquered only because it was disunited. In the last a.n.a.lysis it was from the Social-Democratic poison of Internationalism and negation of state that the Empire became infected and defenseless. How painfully wrong were those who, in smiling optimism, ever made light of all warnings against the Social-Democratic danger. It will be our real danger in the future also. If we do not overcome the Social-Democratic spirit among our people we cannot recover our health.”
The _Kreuz-Zeitung's_ diagnosis was correct, but it had required a national post-mortem to establish it.
CHAPTER XVI.
The National a.s.sembly.
In preparation for the National a.s.sembly, the various existing political parties effected generally a sweeping reorganization, which included, for the most part, changes of designations as well. The Conservatives and Free Conservatives coalesced as The German National People's Party (_Deutsch-nationale Volkspartei_). The right wing of the National-Liberals, under the leaders.h.i.+p of Dr. Stresemann, became the German People's Party (_Deutsche Volkspartei_). The left wing of the old party, under the leaders.h.i.+p of Baron von Richthofen joined with the former Progressives (_Fortschrittliche Volkspartei_) to form the German Democratic Party (_Deutsch-demokratische Partei_). The Clericals retained their party solidarity but christened themselves German Christian Party (_Deutsch-Christliche Partei_). The Majority and Independent Socialists retained their old organizations and party designations. The Spartacans, as outspoken enemies of any national a.s.sembly, could not consistently have anything to do with it and placed no ticket in the field. Most of the Independent Socialists were also opponents of a const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, but the party organization was still trying to blow both hot and cold and had not yet gone on record officially as favoring a soviet government and the dictators.h.i.+p of the proletariat.
Of the parties as reorganized, the National People's and the People's parties were monarchic. The Christian Party (Clericals) contained many men who believed a limited monarchy to be the best form of government for Germany, but as a whole the party was democratically inclined and out of sympathy with any attempt at that time to restore the monarchy.
The two Socialist parties were, of course, advocates of a republic and bitter opponents of monarchs and monarchies.
The Democratic Party came into existence mainly through the efforts of Theodor Wolff, the brilliant editor of the Berlin _Tageblatt_. No other non-Socialist editor realized so early or so completely as Wolff whither the policy of the old government was taking Germany. He had opposed the submarine warfare, condemned the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, attacked the methods and influence of the pan-Germans and constantly advocated drastic democratic reforms. Probably no other _bourgeois_ newspaper had been so often suppressed as the _Tageblatt_, and it shared with Socialist organs the distinction of being prohibited in many army units and in some military departments at home. Although Wolff held no political office, his influence in the Progressive Party and with the left wing of the National-Liberals was great, and even many Socialists regularly read his leading articles, which were more often cabled to America than were the editorials of any other German publicist, not excepting even the _poseur_ Maximilian Harden-Witkowski.
The revolution was hardly an accomplished fact before Wolff saw the necessity for a democratic, non-Socialist political party which must be free of elements compromised in any manner by partic.i.p.ation in the old government or by support of its militaristic and imperialistic policies.
He took it upon himself to issue the summons for the formation of such a party. The response was immediate and gratifying. Help came even from unexpected quarters. Prince Lichnowsky, former Amba.s.sador to Great Britain; Count Brockdorff-Rantzau, who had succeeded Dr. Solf as Foreign Minister; Baron von Richthofen of the National-Liberals, Count Johannes Bernstorff, former Amba.s.sador to the United States, and many other prominent members of the higher German n.o.bility[62] joined with _bourgeois_ political leaders to organize the new party. Not all compromised elements could be kept out of the party, but they were excluded from any active partic.i.p.ation in the conduct of its affairs or the shaping of its policies.
[62] A surprisingly large number of Americans cannot or will not believe that a prince or a count can be a real democrat. This is plainly due to a too prevalent confusion of the words democratic with republican. All republics are, Footnote: in theory at least, democratic, but a monarchist can consistently be a democrat. The two most democratic countries in the world are Denmark and Norway, yet both are kingdoms.
The democratic sentiments of the men named above, with the possible exception of one, were of no recent growth; they long antedated the revolution.
Taken as a whole, the party stood far to the left. Wolff, at the extreme left of his organization, might be described either as a _bourgeois_ Socialist or a Socialistic _bourgeois_ politician. The recruits from the former National-Liberal Party were less radical, but even they subscribed to a platform which called for the nationalization (socialization) of a long list of essential industries, notably mines and water and electrical power, and, in general, for sweeping economic reforms and the most direct partic.i.p.ation of the people in the government. The fact that the new party was chiefly financed by big Jewish capitalists caused it to be attacked by anti-Semites and proletarians alike, but this detracted little from its strength at the polls, since Germany's anti-Semites were never found in any considerable numbers among the _bourgeois_ parties of the Left, and the proletarians were already for the most part adherents of one of the Socialist factions.
The campaign for the elections to the National a.s.sembly was conducted with great energy and equally great bitterness by all parties. Despite an alleged shortage of paper which had for months made it impossible for the newspapers to print more than a small part of the advertis.e.m.e.nts submitted to them, tons of paper were used for handbills and placards.
The streets, already filthy enough, were strewn ankle-deep in places with appeals for this or that party and vilifications of opponents.
Aeroplanes dropped thousands of dodgers over the chief cities. New daily papers, most of them unlovely excrescences on the body of the press, made their appearance and secured paper grants for their consumption.
One feature of the campaign ill.u.s.trated strikingly what had already been clear to dispa.s.sionate observers: Germany's new government was unashamedly a party government first and a general government second.
Majority Socialist election posters were placed in public buildings, railway stations, etc., to the exclusion of all other parties. Its handbills were distributed by government employees and from government automobiles and aeroplanes. The _bourgeois Hallesche Zeitung's_ paper supply was cut in half in order that the new Socialist _Volkszeitung_ might be established, and its protest was dismissed by the Soldiers'
Council with the statement that the _Volkszeitung_ was ”more important.”
Not even the most reactionary of the old German governments would have dared abuse its power in this manner. It may be doubted whether the revolutionary government was at all conscious of the impropriety of its course, but even if it had been it would have made no difference. One of the great sources of strength of Socialism is its conviction that all means are sacred for the furtherance of the cla.s.s struggle.
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