In this, the fifteenth, letter Liebknecht looks at the pressure of German academia to conform to war-time patriotism; and their eagerness to comply, the relationship of Prussia to the Russian Empire, and the seeds of future wars sown in the peace of Sedan.

‘Letter from Leipzig, XV’ by Wilhelm Liebknecht from Workingman’s Advocate (Chicago). Vol. 7 No. 39. June 3, 1871.

Leipzig, March 31, 1871

To the Editor of the WORKINGMAN’S ADVOCATE:

The old King of Hanover (he, of whom the London Times at his demise sarcastically remarked: he was the worst of English Princes and made the best of German Kings) once said in his cynical way: Courtesans and singers and professors may always be had for money. The saying is not very polite, but it is true, especially with regard to the third category, against which it was aimed. I have no intention to speak of our German Universities now, they have certainly helped to spread knowledge and partly to them we owe the equal diffusion of mental culture, for which Germany is distinguished before all countries suffering under monarchical centralization; but this advantage is, to a great extent, neutralized by the slavishness systematically bred in the students, because the immense majority of the professors are serving government, instead of science, and considered it their first duty to furnish the princes with obedient subjects and well drilled officials, having no will nor thought of their own. Amongst the papers found in the Tuileries after the revolution of September 4th, there is a quantity of letters written by some of our most eminent professors to Bonaparte, letters which breathe a spirit of sycophancy so mean and fulsome as it is only in the power of a German professor to produce. Mr Reitschl celebrated Mr. Rietschl, Mr. Mommsen, celebrated Mr. Mommsen, two of the proudest scientific pillars of German national-liberalism, two warm friends of Mr. Bancroft, whom they helped inspire with that dull joke of Bismarck’s confederacy being a facsimile of the United States–these two worthies appear to have been most enthusiastic in their admiration of the Emperor, the greatest and wisest monarch of our age, and a classical historian to boot, (by his history of Julius Caesar, which is as much his work as he himself is the nephew of old Napoleon!). Of course, the object of their adulation having got into trouble, their admiration has been changed into contempt, and for the man upon whom they fawned cringingly a few years ago, they can now find no expressions of scorn, scornful enough. These are true types of the species “German professor.” The German professor has always been the zealous supporter of despotism, its maid of all work. Be the work ever so dirty, German professors will be found to do it. Is history to be falsified, treason to be converted into patriotism, German professors are ready to do it. Of all German governments it is the Prussian which has made, and is still making the most ample use of these handy instruments; thanks to the Sybels and Treitschkes all of modern history has become a panegyric of the Hohenzollern. By-the-by in serving Prussia the German professors serve a good master, for he gets double reward: the Prussian government supplying him with money, and the Prussian press bureau with fame.

I could give you thousands of instances of professor-servility displayed during the war; it will be sufficient to mention that a German professor, Tueger is his name, has written a treatise, in which he pretends to prove that according to the Darwinian theory the Teutonic race must conquer (he does not exactly say destroy) the Latin races, and that war is the model state of society, as it brings out man’s best qualities: valor and obedience! A good flogging for that fellow! Having undergone it, he will kiss your hands and say thank you!

And now a word about our relations to the great Northern Bear.

That there is close friendship between Russia and Prussia cannot be denied anymore by the Bismarckians after the publication of the famous telegrams. But they persist in denying the alliance, as if that was not merely a play on words. And what harm can there be in this friendship, they say. In olden times, when Germany was feeble (they mean when it had not been subjected to Prussia yet) we had to fear Russia and the Prussian Kings were more or less vassals of the Muscovite Czar; however all that is changed now, and we are such an immensely gr-r-r-and and powerful nation, that, if there still exists a state of vassalage, it is on the side of Russia, not on ours. To talk of new Germany being dependent, having to fear anything or anybody! Ridiculous idea! And how sinful to call it illiberal that we are on good terms with Russia. Is not the most liberal, yea the most democratic country in the world–is not the United States in the closest friendship with Russia? And we dare say, what is right in the Americans cannot be wrong in us.

Stop! It is not right in the Americans, and the scandalous coquetting with Russia that many American politicians have been and are still indulging in, is a dark blot on the star banner which suffering no slave in its shade should never be lowered before a Despot. But it is the Americans affair to see to that. At all events, wrong done by others does not excuse our wrong; and, not to speak of the moral aspect of the thing, it is obvious from a practical point of view, that the position in which the United States stands to Russia is very different from ours. The United States has neither at land nor at sea interests conflicting with those of Russia, and it is totally out of the might of Russia, to do it the least harm. Germany, on the other hand, is the neighbor of the Russian Empire; she has, through the instrumentality of her princes, especially the Hohenzollerns, been kept under Russian influence for more than a century; Russia is, by means of the Panslavistic propaganda in Bohemia, Moravia and amongst the southern. Slavonians, trying to lay a rope round the neck of Germany; in fact the true national interests of Germany are diametrically opposed to those of Russia, and a collision would have taken place long ago, if our national interests had not been sacrificed to the Russians in the most cowardly manner. But now the moment is reached when further sacrifices are impossible. Bismarckian Prussia has fulfilled her mission in the service of the Czar.

Through the war of 1866 she has divided Germany, depriving the southwestern parts of all independent political life, and placing the southwestern parts, by their separation from the rest of Germany, in such a helpless situation, that they have to struggle for mere existence among the antagonistic nationalities forming with them the Austrian Empire, and that they are totally unable to keep their old watch on the Danube against the Russians. And through the war of 1870-71 Prussia has completely unsettled Europe, destroyed the last remnant of international law, and, by rendering France the deadly enemy of Germany, made Russia the arbiter of the European continent. The peace imposed upon France is in reality war declared permanent, for a few years latent, smouldering in the breasts of thirty-eight millions of Frenchmen, until it burst forth in open flames. Whether France will soon get in a condition to fight Prussia (Germany) single handed, may be doubted: not to be doubted is, that as long as the present state of Europe lasts France will be ready to enter into alliance with any power, that will assist her in wreaking vengeance upon Germany. In a month’s time the French army, which, thanks to the treason of Bonaparte and his gang, was useless during the past war, will have returned home, almost intact; and though a radical reorganization and purification must take place, yet this army with the efficient bodies of troops, formed since the proclamation of the Republic, will before this year is half over, constitute a military force incomparably stronger than that France was disposing of at the beginning of this war; and as soon as Russia, either directly or indirectly, holds out the least prospect of a desire to attack Prussia (Germany), this force will without a moment’s loss rush to the Rhine, lashed on by the maddening remembrance of wrongs suffered and shame, deserved and undeserved. And what chance would Prussia (Germany) have, attacked simultaneously in the East and in the West? It is true the officious braggadocios are rhodomontading of several wars at the same time, which we could easily wage; but no man in his right senses will be misled by such silly phrases, and the pitiless logic of facts will speedily have rendered it clear to the most obtuse intellect, that the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine was practically considered–as gross and fatal a blunder as ever was committed by statesman or diplomatist. The storm has been sown—the hurricane will be reaped–en attendant Russia treats the Prussian government with anything but respect. You have probably heard of the persecutions of the German nationality going on in the Baltic provinces. Urged by the newspapers the Prussian government gave orders to its ambassadors at St. Petersburg, to beg the Russian government to be more lenient towards the Germans in those provinces. And what was the answer? The persecutions have been doubled since. And the Prussian government? Almighty Mr. Bismarck? He does not stir. He knows why.

The Chicago Workingman’s Advocate in 1864 by the Chicago Typographical Union during a strike against the Chicago Times. An essential publication in the history of the U.S. workers’ movement, the Advocate though editor Andrew Cameron became the voice National Labor Union after the Civil War. It’s pages were often the first place the work of Marx, Engels, and the International were printed in English in the U.S. It lasted through 1874 with the demise of the N.L.U.

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