While, of course, not without struggles and missteps, Karl Liebknecht’s parliamentary career is exemplary of what a revolutionary can do in an enemy institution. Here, as he goes to war with the war-makers, he shows why he was the best known and most respected anti-war figure of the international workers’ movement.
‘Liebknecht Continues Brave Struggle Against Militarists’ from American Socialist. Vol. 2 No. 38. April 1, 1916.
KARL LIEBKNECHT is again the storm center in the attack on capitalist-militarism in Germany. Detailed reports of his recent speech in the Prussian diet, where he charged that the German munition kings were furnishing the enemy powers with the munitions used to kill German soldiers, are just beginning to arrive in this country. Liebknecht’s brave protest in the Prussian diet occurred during the course of a debate on the estimates for the ministry of justice. He sharply criticized the censorship, particularly as regards the Vorwaerts, which, he said, was not allowed to publish any news that might cause any public excitement.
For this reason he supposed the Socialist paper was forbidden to write a word concerning the impending release of Frau Rosa Luxemburg, official circles being apparently afraid that the news of her release, if published beforehand, would bring great masses of people in front of the prison building in order to express their sympathy with the distinguished Socialist woman leader.
Moreover, continued Dr. Liebknecht, it had become a principle with the Censorship Office to prohibit the mention of trials arising cut of peace demonstrations and food riots, the result being that the population had no idea how greatly these trials had increased in number. Dr. Liebknecht further said that the publication of statistics of prosecutions of persons for supplying enemy Powers with war material would also be very valuable.
“As everybody knows,” he proceeded, “a semi-official warning was issued in the course of the war against the tendency of the Capitalist classes to sell war materials to the enemy through the channel of neutral countries. This official communication emphasized that the neutral countries disguise was so transparent that the Capitalist classes were well aware of the meaning of their actions. A very esteemed member of the Luebeck Senate, for instance, has long been languishing in prison for having placed his Swedish copper mines at the disposal of the Russians. These cases must have increased, otherwise this official warning would be incomprehensible. You all know how the Capitalists are internationally related to each other. These relations still exist, though in an altered form. You know that these relations, especially as regards the armament industry–(Here the President rang the bell, and the Socialist, Adolf Hofmann, shouted, “Now it is the turn of the holy of holies.”)
Vice-President Krause–I do not see what this has to do with the administration of justice or its responsibility.
Dr. Liebknecht–I demand statistics of how many people stand indicted for such crimes. If in this connection I point out the international relations of the Capitalist Classes and the supply of war materials and German guns to foreign countries, I believe that I am keeping within the limits of the questions under discussion. German soldiers have been killed by guns supplied by Krupps.
Atrocities in Occupied Countries.
After Dr. Liebknecht had been once more called to order he continued his speech. He pointed out that at present there were some 5000 military prisoners in prisons under the Prussian Administration of Justice, and that the prisons under the Ministry of the Interior were also largely populated by soldiers. Other soldiers, he continued, had had their sentences postponed in order that they might return to barracks or to the trenches, or had been released for the same purpose.
“My experience of war,” he added, “has taught me that it is just those who have been in jail and who are treated as pariahs in civil life who have shown in war the human qualities of splendid comradeship, but the danger must not be overlooked that there are in the army great masses of men of criminal tendencies and hideous lubricity.
“Our great responsibility towards the defenceless population of the occupied territories ought to make us very cautious. German newspapers were particularly censorious when in enemy countries the prisons were opened in order that convicts might join the army, but to a certain extent the same thing has taken place in Germany.
“I will not say that the majority of the excesses against the defenceless population in the occupied countries and the atrocities which bear a peculiarly personal stamp and surpass the ordinary cruelties of war have been solely committed by such released jailbirds.”
After pointing out that the prevailing scarcity and dearth of food-stuffs were two of the social causes of crime, Dr. Liebknecht dwelt on the criminal tendencies of the young. He said: The degeneration of the young is the natural consequence of the degeneration of all mankind in this war, of the degeneration of our whole Kultur. (“Quite right,” from the Socialist Benches.) Now they place non-commissioned officers at the head of schools in order to teach morality to the youngsters. Outside the schools a stronger militarization of the young is also to take place. All the imaginable demands of the most extreme reaction are flourishing.
Dr. Liebknecht was called to order, but he protested against the President’s attempts to gag him.
Socialist shouted–“Even in Parliament that is almost impossible.” The President rang his bell. Herr Liebknecht, once more protesting, pointed out that political prosecution also did not cease during the war. He reminded the House of how preventive arrest was now managed without any guarantees to those arrested. He said that the latter had no means of protecting themselves, and they were even unable to have the assistance of lawyers. “Several hundreds are or have been under arrest, some for months, others since the beginning of the war.”
Terror in Austria.
After quoting several such cases, Dr. Liebknecht said: “Now look at the Prussia which went to war in order to liberate the Russian people from Czarism. The opening of political trials under the reign of the party of peace usually is that the military authorities seize some manuscript or book and send it to the public prosecutor, asking him to take steps. A rather enviable situation for our justice. Justitia fundamentum regnorum? No. Militarismus fundamentum regnorum.” The speaker quoted some more cases of the arbitrariness of military justice in regard to civilians, and disclosed the fact that in Berlin a new department had been opened at the police headquarters to deal with peace propagandists. “To-day,” he continued, “high treason has got the right of admission to Court. It has become almost a noble crime. There are in Germany certain quarters where high treason is bred, especially in the camps of the war prisoners. High treason of all kinds is to-day breeding revolutionists, and foreigners are committing acts of treason. It is done systematically.” Dr. Liebknecht was again called to order for this expression. He then mentioned a case in which a person, had been sentenced to death for a poem, but the sentence had later been commuted to five year’s imprisonment. “There is,” he remarked, “one country where the situation is still worse than Germany. This is not Russia, but Austria, but only now and then the cry of distress penetrates abroad.”
The Minister of Justice, Dr. Beseler, after pointing out that Dr. Liebknecht had repeated his usual accusations, declined to reply in detail. After short complaints from Herr Nissen (Danish Party) and Herr Trampozynski (Polish Party) Dr. Liebknecht again spoke. He said:–“As regards one point I must add something concerning Austrian conditions. Their field Court Martials are in fact a regime of terror. I have proofs in my hand. In Austria there is no possibility of discussing these things in Parliament. In a few months hundreds of years of penal servitude have been pronounced by! these Court Martials, and also 9 death sentence for a poem. One of my Austrian comrades has been sentenced to death for a speech which he made in December, 1914, which it I was alleged was hostile towards the State. One of my Austrian—”
Here the discussion closed and the Budget was adopted.
The American Socialist, edited by J. Louis Engdahl, was the official Party newspaper of the Socialist Party of America in the years before World War One. Published in Chicago starting in 1914, the Appeal continued the semi-internal Socialist Party Official Bulletin founded in 1904 which became Party Builder in1913. The American Socialist closely followed the SP’s electoral challenges, Engdahl was often an SP candidate in Chicago as he edited the paper, and took an early and prominent anti-war position. With a circulation of around 60,000 the paper was one of the leading anti-war voices in the run up to US entry into World War One. The paper was suppressed by Federal authorities, along with much of the anti-war left, in 1917.
PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/american-socialist/v2n38-apr-01-1916-TAS.pdf
