Socialism in Germany
IT is one of the tragedies of history that the great Social Democracy of Germany, in which liberal thinkers of all lands reposed so much faith, proved, when the testing time came, to be utterly devoid of intellectual and moral integrity, a base betrayer of international Socialist ideals and a subservient tool of Prussian autocracy.
The great majority of the German Socialists, led by such men as Scheidemann, Sudekum, David and Legien, upheld the Imperial German Government and thus became the accomplices of the assassins of Potsdam. These so-called “Socialists” even stooped so low as to attempt to bribe the Socialists of other countries in the interests of the Kaiser and his cowardly crew. In Italy and in Russia in particular, and in other countries less effectively, they used their Socialist connections to assist the military schemes of Germany, notwithstanding the fact that these were designed to destroy every essential Socialist principle.
Herr David, perhaps the ablest of the leaders of the Majority Socialists, declared in the Reichstag that “The German armies must continue to fight vigorously whilst the German Socialists encourage and stimulate pacifism among Germany’s enemies.” The whole policy of the Majority Socialists has been based upon that sinister principle.
The small and uninfluential but heroic minority, led by Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg and George Ledebour alone have exemplified the ideals of Socialism. They deserve our lasting honor as fully as the others deserve our lasting contempt.
Socialism is not dead in Germany: only the great political party of Socialism is shattered. In the hearts of the brave men and women of the Minority Socialists the sacred flame still burns. In that lies the only hope for German Socialism.
History will record this bitter judgment of the German Social Democracy: It was an active partner in the crimes of the Hohenzollern dynasty against civilization; it infamously betrayed the Russian Revolution and prostituted itself to the most malefic despotism of a thousand years.
JOHN SPARGO.