MIA > Archive > Wilhelm Liebknecht > Voices of Revolt
Written: As a speech in German, delivered October 5th, 1895.
Published in English: 1928.
Translated by: Unknown (name not provided).
Source: Voices of Revolt: Speeches of Wilhelm Liebknecht. International Publishers, first edition, 1928, New York, USA. 96 pages.
Transcription and Markup: Bill Wright for marxists.org, November, 2022
This speech was delivered by Wilhelm Liebknecht as the opening address of the Congress of the Social-Democratic Party of Germany, which began at Breslau on October 5, 1895. Liebknecht was tried for lèse majéste (insult to majesty) because of this speech. He was accused of having insulted William II in the words, or rather in the pause after the words: “Very well then, as for any insult to our party, we are far above being insulted by—”
Liebknecht declared in the court transactions:
“I know of no other country in which the struggle between the parties is carried on with such base weapons as is now the case in Germany with the struggle against us. We are denied any personal honorableness; we are declared to be people of a lower class, subordinate creatures, who should be excluded from the social community as well as that of the body politic of the civilized world, deprived of all social and political rights, if possible banished from the country, and preferably to be destroyed root and branch.
“Under these circumstances we cannot be expected to remain silent and to suffer without making a reply. We should be honorless wretches and deserve to be treated as dogs if we consented to accept these attacks in silence. Never; we shall strike back — we are not dogs who lie down as soon as a blow is directed against them.
“I have always been willing to risk my personal safety for the good cause. I have never spared my person. And I have served more than five years in prison and spent twenty-three years in exile or banishment under the Socialist Law[a] by reason of my convictions.
“I demand that the Court acknowledge my right to make the answer I have made to attacks of such base nature.
“I will not beg for my acquittal. You have no right to condemn me!”
The Court condemned the prisoner, then sixty-nine years old, to imprisonment for four months. Liebknecht wrote, concerning the judgment:
“The sentence aroused general astonishment and met with condemnation far beyond the limits of our party. I may be perfectly content with the result of this Breslau trial. If Paris is worth a mass,[b] this trial is worth four months of imprisonment. The gains it brings us have been purchased very cheaply.”
When I opened the Party Congress in Frankfort a year ago, I pointed out the fact that we were meeting on historical ground. But, as far as the history of our country is concerned, Breslau is even more memorable a place for us than Frankfort. We are meeting to-day in the place in which Ferdinand Lassalle[c] was born, the man from whom the modern organized German labor movement takes its beginning. We are meeting in the city which harbors the last remains of Ferdinand Lassalle as well as the remains of many other champions of our party, and we are meeting in the capital of that province of Germany which passed through the first class struggle, the province in which the opposition between classes clearly expressed itself earlier than in any other part of Germany, in which, more than half a century ago, there was fought a struggle similar to the struggle that had taken place ten years before in Lyons, the struggle of the poor against the rich.
It is now a few months more than fifty-one years — it was in the summer of 1844 — since the insurrection of the weavers broke out in Silesia, the insurrection that met with such bloody repression. This weavers’ insurrection confronted modern society with its sins, and to this day this confrontation produces such striking effects on the conscience of this capitalist society, in view of its unatoned offenses, that this society hardly dares anywhere in Germany to permit the pale reflection of the conditions of this insurrection which a dramatist has prepared for the stage, to be publicly performed.[5] This was the tragedy of famine, of misery, that had inspired Heinrich Heine[d] to write what is perhaps the greatest revolutionary song of the German people — his Weavers’ Song.
And the heart-rending distress in this province, the frightful poverty existing by the side of the greatest wealth, also inspired Ferdinand Freiligrath[e] to write his immortal poem, Rübezahl.[f] Rübezahl — the spirit invoked by the poor proletarian child, was a spirit of the past; this genius could not save the child from death by hunger.
But a new spirit has come, a spirit which is capable of offering salvation and redemption: I mean socialism. It was in connection with this movement that socialism gained a foothold in Silesia, a country which attained the stage of capitalistic development and the consciousness of class oppositions even before the Rhine country. It was in Silesia that we have the first development of the communist idea, its first striking root, on German soil, without having to be imported from France or England, and by reason of the collision of social oppositions. As early as in the Forties of the Nineteenth Century, there were communist movements in Silesia, reminiscent of modern socialism. It was here that the notorious Stieber was practicing his nefarious work of unmasking communist conspiracies, in the disguise of painter Schmidt. It was here that the trials of Schlöffel, of the teacher Wander, and others, took place. And since then the source of socialist ideas has never run dry in Silesia.
It was here in Breslau, on July 19, 1848, that a popular gathering passed a resolution to demand the establishment of a chair of socialism at the University of Breslau and the man who was most active in his work for socialism in this city, Nees von Esenbeck,[g] a man of learning, was the chairman of the first German Social-Democratic Congress, which met in Breslau, in the autumn of 1848. The germ of socialism was never stifled in this city. And it is no accident that Ferdinand Lassalle, living in this historical city of socialism, became the man he did become, a pathfinder of socialism.
I need not point out what Lassalle means to us; we are not a party that worships persons. Lassalle made mistakes; he deceived himself in his political calculations; but he retains the merit of having set in motion the German organized workers’ movement. He was a disciple of Marx and Engels, whose pictures I behold now by the side of his own. These three men, Marx, Engels, Lassalle, are the men who deserve the gratitude of the proletariat more than any of the others.
When Lassalle, thinker and warrior, died, the German Social-Democratic movement was weak; it counted barely more thousands than it now has millions. If we look back on the history of the party, we shall rightly observe that the Social-Democratic Party is not based on individual persons of talent, of genius, but that its roots are in the conditions. None of our present-day agitators will dare compare his talent with that of Lassalle as a speaker and an orator, yet, we have gained millions of adherents, while Lassalle had but a handful. Why is this? Because the economic conditions had in his day not reached a sufficiently advanced stage and, as a consequence, it was possible for the masses still to believe in the gospel of a Schultze-Delitzsch,[h] which declared: “Any diligent and economical person can attain economic independence.”
No one believes this stuff any more. It is not only the Social-Democratic agitation, but it is the conditions, it is the logic of the facts of the law of evolution of society, which has forced capitalism to destroy private property in the work turned out, in the production of labor, to annihilate the middle classes and petty proprietors, and thus to proletarianize the masses of the population. The Social-Democratic Party has sown its seed in the furrows plowed in human society by capitalism. Those in power have made every effort to strike down the movement. In spite of all their persecutions, from the time of Lassalle to the present day, the Social-Democratic movement has grown. The party has taken even firmer root by reason of the storms it has faced.
When we met at Frankfort a year ago, we were informed that a coup d’état threatened us. We then said: Let such a law be passed; no doubt it will subvert many things, but it will never kill the Social-Democracy. And what has come of this subversive movement? The man who gave his aid for the purpose of introducing the law into the Reichstag, Caprivi,[i] has been overthrown, and his successor, Herr von Hohenlohe,[j] who took up this task and attempted to put through the law, has since learned that in order to destroy the Social-Democracy, it will be necessary to overthrow science and art and with them the foundations of civilization.
This is tantamount to recognition of the fact that the Social-Democracy, which is proud to stand on the basis of science, is the party which has the duty of defending and preserving the accomplishments of our civilization in these days of collapse of capitalist society, which, if its rule is not broken, would lead us back to barbarism. For capitalist society cannot endure together with civilization; it finds itself forced to outlaw the most powerful party in Germany, namely, the working class; it is obliged to apply its own laws by a double standard; in one way against the Social-Democrats, in another way against the capitalist parties; it must admit that the fundamental laws of the present state are not compatible with its interests, although it has made these laws itself. . . .
This subversive movement has suffered a lamentable shipwreck. A new movement is again being inaugurated against us. Under the protection of the highest power in the state, the Social-Democracy is being maligned, and under the protection of the highest power in the state and with the aid of the state power, the gauntlet has been thrown before socialism, challenging it to a life and death struggle. Very well then, as for any insult to our party, we are far above being insulted by . . . And if we are offered battle, well, we shall fight. We shall fight on the basis of our ancient tactics, which have always defeated our enemies, and we shall not permit ourselves to be enticed beyond the bounds of these tactics. As Friedrich Engels[k] has shown, things have now reached a point where capitalism can no longer maintain its rule by its own laws, where these laws must be defended by the Social-Democratic Party, at least in part, against their own originators.
I conclude with an expression of the wish that this Congress may strengthen our party within and without as all the preceding congresses have done, and aid it in facing the new struggles before us. The logic of events, which far surpass the power of any individual, though he be supported by millions of bayonets, is in our favor. The struggle does not frighten us. The wilder, the more violently the battle rages, the shorter it will be; the more quickly it will pass. We know we shall be victorious, victory is in our hands unless we shamefully relinquish it!
[5.] The drama Die Weber (1892), by Gerhart Hauptmann, deals with the conditions that gave rise to the weavers' insurrection in 1844.
[a.] Socialist Law: A series of measures adopted by the German Government in 1878 to put down the Socialists, and continued in force until 1890. Sponsored by Bismarck, these measures resulted in much hardship to the workers, but strengthened the movement in general. See Franz Mehring: Social Forces in German History, 1928.
[b.] Paris is well worth a mass (in the original French: Paris vaut bien une messe): famous saying attributed to Henry IV of France.
[c.] Lassalle, Ferdinand (1825-1864): One of the founders and leaders of the organized German labor movement; a volume of this series is devoted to selections from his speeches and writings.
[d.] Heine, Heinrich (1797-1856): German lyricist, also the most fluent prose writer of Germany. While not a member of any revolutionary movement, Heine was impelled by his ardent hatred of tyranny to favor many manifestations of discontent.
[e.] Freiligrath, Ferdinand (1810-1876): German poet and radical publicist, in many ways resembling the French Victor Hugo. See Franz Mehring: Social Forces in German History, 1928.
[f.] Rübezahl: A giant in the legends of the Erzgebirge somewhat resembling Santa Claus.
[g.] Nees von Esenbeck (1776-1858): German botanist, entomologist, and liberal leader.
[h.] Schultze-Delitzsch, Hermann (1808-1883): Reactionary German statesman and economist; see Franz Mehring: Social Forces in German History, 1928.
[i.] Caprivi, Count Leo von (1831-1899): Chancellor of the German Empire (1890-1894), succeeding Bismarck; secured a renewal of the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria, Italy).
[j.] Hohenlohe, Prince Chlodwig (1819-1901): Succeeded Caprivi as Chancellor of the German Empire (1894-1900).
[k.] Engels, Friedrich (1820-1895): Co-founder with Karl Marx of Scientific Socialism. See Marx, Karl.
Last updated on 08 July 2023