Germany, The Next Republic? Part 8

Dr. Karl Liebknecht, after he had challenged the Chancellor on the 4th of April, became the object of attack by the military authorities. The Chancellor, although he is the real Minister of Foreign Affairs, is, also, a Major General in the Army and for a private like Liebknecht to talk to a Major General as he did in the Reichstag was contrary to all rules and precedents in the Prussian Army. The army was ready to send Liebknecht to the firing squad and it was only a short time until they had an opportunity to arrest him. Liebknecht started riots in some of the ammunition factories and one night at Potsdamer Platz, dressed in civilian clothes, he shouted, "Down with the Government," and started to address the pa.s.sers-by. He was seized immediately by government detectives, who were always following him, and taken to the police station. His home was searched and when the trial began the papers, found there, were placed before the military tribunal as evidence that he was plotting against the Government. The trial was secret, and police blockaded all streets a quarter of a mile away from the court where he was tried. Throughout the proceedings which lasted a week the newspapers were permitted to print only the information distributed by the Wolff Telegraph Bureau. But public sympathy for Liebknecht was so great that mounted police were kept in every part of the city day and night to break up crowds which might a.s.semble. Behind closed doors, without an opportunity to consult his friends, with only an attorney appointed by the Government to defend him, Liebknecht was sentenced to two years' hard labour. His only crime was that he had dared to speak in the Reichstag the opinions of some of the more radical socialists.

Liebknecht's imprisonment was a lesson to other Socialist agitators.

The day after his sentencing was announced there were strikes in nearly every ammunition factory in and around Berlin. Even at Spandau, next to Essen the largest ammunition manufacturing city in Germany, several thousand workmen left their benches as a protest, but the German people have such terrible fear of the police and of their own military organisation that they strike only a day and return the next to forget about previous events.

If there were no other instances in Germany to indicate that there was the nucleus for a democracy this would seem to be one. One might say, too, that if such leaders as Liebknecht could be a.s.sisted, the movement for more freedom might have more success.

It was very difficult for the German public to accept the German reply to President Wilson's _Suss.e.x_ note. The people were bitter against the United States. They hated Wilson. They feared him. And the idea of the German Government bending its knee to a man they hated was enough cause for loud protests. This feeling among the people found plenty of outlets. The submarine advocates, who always had their ears to the ground, saw that they could take advantage of this public feeling at the expense of the Chancellor and the Foreign Office.

Prince von Buelow, the former Chancellor, who had been spending most of his time in Switzerland after his failure to keep Italy out of the war, had written a book ent.i.tled "Deutsche Politik," which was intended to be an indictment of von Bethmann-Hollweg's international policies. Von Buelow returned to Berlin at the psychological moment and began to mobilise the forces against the Chancellor.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Gott strafe England.]

After the _Suss.e.x_ dispute was ended the Socialist organ _Vorwaerts_, supported by Philip Scheidemann, leader of the majority of the Socialists, demanded that the Government take some steps toward peace.

But the General Staff was so busy preparing for the expected Allied offensive that it had no time to think about peace or about internal questions. When von Falkenhayn resigned and von Hindenburg arrived at Great Headquarters to succeed him the two generals met for the first time in many months. (There was bitter feeling between the two.) Von Falkenhayn, as he turned the office over to his successor, said:

"Has Your Excellency the courage to take over this position now?"

"I have always had the courage, Your Excellency," replied von Hindenburg, "but not the soldiers."

In the Reichstag there has been only one real democratic party. That is the Socialist. The National Liberal Party, which has posed as a reform organisation, is in reality nothing more than the party controlled by the ammunition and war industries. When these interests heard that submarine warfare was to be so restricted as to be practically negligible, they began to sow seeds of discontent among the ammunition makers. These interests began to plan for the time when the submarine warfare would again be discussed. Their first scheme was to try to overthrow the Chancellor. If they were not successful then they intended to take advantage of the democratic movement which was spreading in Germany to compel the Government to consent to the creation of a Reichstag Committee on Foreign Affairs to consult with the Foreign Office when all questions of international policy, including submarine warfare, was up for discussion. Their first policy was tried early in July. Seizing that clause in the German note which said that Germany would hold herself free to change her promises in the _Suss.e.x_ case if the United States was not successful against England, the Navy began to threaten the United States with renewed submarine warfare unless President Wilson acted against Great Britain.

Reporting some of these events on June 12th, the _Evening Ledger_ of Philadelphia printed the following despatch which I sent:

"BERLIN, July 12.--The overthrow of Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg, champion of a conciliatory policy toward the United States, and the unloosing of German submarines within three months, was predicted by von Tirpitz supporters here to-day unless President Wilson acts against the British blockade.

"Members of the Conservative party and those favouring annexation of territory conquered by Germany joined in the forecast. They said the opinion of America will be disregarded.

"A private source, close to the Foreign Office, made this statement regarding the attempt to unseat Bethmann-Hollweg at a time when the war is approaching a crisis:

"'Unless America does something against England within the next three months there will be a bitter fight against the Chancellor. One cannot tell whether he will be able to hold his own against such opposition.

The future of German-American relations depends upon America.'

"Despite this political drive against the man who stood out against a break with the United States in the _Lusitania_ crisis, Americans here believe Bethmann-Hollweg will again emerge triumphant. They feel certain that if the Chancellor appealed to the public for a decision he would be supported.

"The fight to oust the Chancellor has now grown to such proportions that it overshadows in interest the Allied offensive. The attacks on the Chancellor have gradually grown bolder since the appearance of Prince Buelow's book 'Deutsche Politik,' because this book is believed to be the opening of Buelow's campaign to oust the Chancellor and step back into the position he occupied until succeeded by Bethmann-Hollweg in 1909.

"The movement has grown more forceful since the German answer to President Wilson's ultimatum was sent. The Conservatives accepted the German note as containing a conditional clause, and they have been waiting to see what steps the United States would take against England.

"Within the past few days I have discussed the situation with leaders of several parties in the Reichstag. A National Liberal member of the Reichstag, who was formerly a supporter of von Tirpitz, and the von Tirpitz submarine policies, said he thought Buelow's success showed that opposition to America was not dead.

"'Who is going to be your next President--Wilson or Hughes?' he asked, and then, without waiting for an answer, continued:

"'If it is Hughes he can be no worse than Wilson. The worst he can do is to declare war on Germany and certainly that would be preferable to the present American neutrality.

"'If this should happen every one in our navy would shout and throw up his hat, for it would mean unlimited sea war against England. Our present navy is held in a net of notes.

"'What do you think the United States could do? You could not raise an army to help the Allies. You could confiscate our s.h.i.+ps in American ports, but if you tried to use them to carry supplies and munitions to the Allies we would sink them.

"'Carrying on an unlimited submarine war, we could sink 600,000 tons of s.h.i.+pping monthly, destroy the entire merchant fleets of the leading powers, paralyse England and win the war. Then we would start all over, build merchantmen faster than any nation, and regain our position as a leading commercial power.'

"Friends of the Chancellor still hope that President Wilson will take a strong stand against England, thereby greatly strengthening Bethmann-Hollweg's position. At present the campaign against the Chancellor is closely connected with internal policies of the Conservatives and the big land owners. The latter are fighting Bethmann-Hollweg because he promised the people, on behalf of the Kaiser, the enactment of franchise reforms after the war."

Commenting on this despatch, the New York _World_ said:

"Not long ago it was the fas.h.i.+on among the opponents of the Administration to jeer loudly at the impotent writing of notes. And even among the supporters of the Administration there grew an uneasy feeling that we had had notes _ad nauseam_.

"Yet these plodding and undramatic notes arouse in Germany a feeling very different from one of ridicule. The resentful respect for our notes is there admirably summed up by a member of the Reichstag who to the correspondent of the United Press exclaimed bitterly: 'Our present navy is held in a net of notes.'

"Nets may not be so spectacular as knuckle-dusters, but they are slightly more civilised and generally more efficient."

The National Liberal Reichstag member who was quoted was Dr. Gustav Stressemann. Stressemann is one of the worst reactionaries in Germany but he likes to pose as a progressive. He was one of the first men to suggest that the Reichstag form a committee on foreign relations to consult with and have equal power of decision with the Foreign Office.

For a great many months the Socialist deputies of the Prussian Diet have been demanding election reforms. Their demands were so insistent that over a year ago the Chancellor, when he read the Kaiser's address from the throne room in the residence palace in Berlin to the deputies, promised election reforms in Prussia--after the war. But during last summer the Socialists began to demand immediate election reforms. To further embarra.s.s the Chancellor and the Government, the National Liberals made the same demands, knowing all the time that if the Government ever attempted it, they could swing the Reichstag majority against the proposal by technicalities.

Throughout the summer months the Government could not hush up the incessant discussion of war aims. More than one newspaper was suppressed for demanding peace or for demanding a statement of the Government's position in regard to Belgium and Northern France. The peace movement within Germany grew by leaps and bounds. The Socialists demanded immediate action by the Government. The Conservatives, the National Liberals and the Catholic party wanted peace but only the kind of a peace which Germany could force upon the Entente. The Chancellor and other German leaders tried again throughout the summer and fall to get the outside world interested in peace but at this time the English and French attacks on the Somme were engaging the attention and the resources of the whole world.

Before these conflicting movements within Germany can be understood one must know something of the organisation of Germany in war time.

When the military leaders of Germany saw that the possibility of capturing Paris or of destroying London was small and that a German victory, which would fasten Teutonic peace terms on the rest of the world, was almost impossible, they turned their eyes to Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, the Balkans and Turkey. Friederich Naumann, member of the Progressive Party of the Reichstag, wrote a book on "Central Europe," describing a great nation stretching from the North Sea to Bagdad, including Germany, all of Austria-Hungary, parts of Serbia and Roumania and Turkey, with Berlin as the Capital. It was toward this goal which the Kaiser turned the forces of Germany at his command. If Germany could not rule the world, if Germany could not conquer the nine nations which the Director of the Post and Telegraph had lined up on the 2nd of August, 1914, then Germany could at least conquer the Dual Monarchy, the Balkans and, Turkey, and even under these circ.u.mstances come out of the war a greater nation than she entered it. But to accomplish this purpose one thing had to be a.s.sured. That was the control of the armies and navies and the foreign policies of these governments. The old Kaiser Franz Josef was a man who guarded everything he had as jealously as a baby guards his toys.

At one time when it was suggested to the aged monarch that Germany and Austria-Hungary could establish a great kingdom of Poland as a buffer nation, if he would only give up Galicia as one of the states of this kingdom, he replied in his childish fas.h.i.+on:

"What, those Prussians want to take another pearl out of my crown?"

In June the Austro-Hungarian General Staff conducted an offensive against Italy in the Trentino with more success than the Germans had antic.i.p.ated. But the Austrians had not calculated upon Russia. In July General Brusiloff attacked the Austrian forces in the neighbourhood of Lusk, succeeded in persuading or bribing a Bohemian army corps to desert and started through the Austrian positions like a flood over sloping land. Brusiloff not only took several hundred thousand prisoners. He not only broke clear through the Austrian lines but he thoroughly demoralised and destroyed the Austrian army as a unit in the world war. Von Hindenburg, who had been made Chief of the German General Staff, was compelled to send thousands of troops to the Wohlynian battlefields to stop the Russian invasion. But von Hindenburg did not look with any degree of satisfaction upon the possibility of such a thing happening again and informed the Kaiser that he would continue as Chief of the General Staff only upon condition that he be made chief of all armies allied to Germany. At a Conference at Great Headquarters at Pless, in Silicia, where offices were moved from France as soon as the Field Marshal took charge, Hindenburg was made the leader of all the armed forces in Central Europe. Thus by one stroke, really by the aid of Russia, Germany succeeded in conquering Austria-Hungary and in taking away from her command all of the forces, naval and military, which she had. At the same time the Bulgarian and Turkish armies were placed at the disposal of von Hindenburg. So far so good for the Prussians.

But there were still some independent forces left within the Central Powers. Hungary was not content to do the bidding of Prussia.

Hungarians were not ready to live under orders from Berlin. Even as late as a few months ago when the German Minister of the Interior called a conference in Berlin to mobilise all the food within the Central Powers, the Hungarians refused to join a scheme which would rob them of food they had jealously guarded and saved since the beginning of the war.

In the Dual Monarchy there are many freedom loving people who are longing for a deliverer. Hungary at one time feared Russia but only because of the Czar. The real and most powerful democratic force among the Teutonic allies is located there in Budapest. I know of no city outside of the United States where the people have such love of freedom and where public opinion plays such a big role. Budapest, even in war times, is one of the most delightful cities in Europe and Hungary, even as late as last December, was not contaminated by Prussian ideas. I saw Russian prisoners of war walking through the streets and mingling with the Hungarian soldiers and people. American Consul General Coffin informed me that there were seven thousand Allied subjects in Budapest who were undisturbed. English and French are much more popular than Germans. One day on my first visit in Budapest I asked a policeman in front of the Hotel Ritz in German, "Where is the Reichstag?" He shook his head and went on about his business regulating the traffic at the street corner. Then I asked him half in English and half in French where the Parliament was.

With a broad smile he said: "Ah, Monsieur, voila, this street your right, vis a vis." Not a word of German would he speak.

After the Allied offensive began on the Somme the old friends of von Tirpitz, a.s.sisted by Prince von Buelow, started an offensive against the Chancellor, with renewed vigour. This time they were determined to oust him at all costs. They sent emissaries to the Rhine Valley, which is dominated by the Krupp ammunition factories. These emissaries began by attacking the Chancellor's att.i.tude towards the United States. They pointed out that Germany could not possibly win the war unless she defeated England, and it was easy for any German to see that the only way England could be attacked was from the seas; that as long as England had her fleet or her merchant s.h.i.+ps she could continue the war and continue to supply the Allies. It was pointed out to the ammunition makers, also, that they were already fighting the United States; that the United States was sending such enormous supplies to the Entente, that unless the submarines were used to stop these supplies Germany would most certainly be defeated on land. And, it was explained that a defeat on land meant not only the defeat of the German army but the defeat of the ammunition interests.

From April to December, 1916, was also the period of pamphleteering.

Every one who could write a pamphlet, or could publish one, did so.

The censors.h.i.+p had prohibited so many people and so many organisations from expressing their views publicly that they chose this method of circulating their ideas privately. The pamphlets could be printed secretly and distributed through the mails so as to avoid both the censors and the Government. So every one in Germany began to receive doc.u.ments and pamphlets about all the ails and complaints within Germany. About the only people who did not do this were the Socialists. The "Alt-Deutsch Verband," which was an organisation of the great industrial leaders of Germany, had been bitterly attacked by the Berlin _Tageblatt_ but when the directors wanted to publish their reply the censors prohibited it. So, the Alt-Deutsch Verband issued a pamphlet and sent it broadcast throughout Germany. In the meantime the Chancellor and the Government realised that unless something was done to combat these secret forces which were undermining the Government's influence, that there would be an eruption in Germany which might produce serious results.

Throughout this time the Socialist party was having troubles of its own. Liebknecht was in prison but there was a little group of radicals who had not forgotten it. They wanted the Socialist party as a whole to do something to free Liebknecht. The party had been split before the advance of last summer so efforts were made to unite the two factions. At a well attended conference in the Reichstag building they agreed to forget old differences and join forces in support of the Government until winter, when it was hoped peace could be made.

The Socialist party at various times during the war has had a difficult time in agreeing on government measures. While the Socialists voted unanimously for war credits at the beginning, a year afterward many of them had changed their minds and had begun to wonder whether, after all, they had not made a mistake. This was the issue which brought about the first split in the Socialists' ranks. When it came time in 1916 to vote further credits to the Government the Socialists held a caucus. After three days of bitter wrangling the ranks split. One group headed by Scheidemann decided to support the Government and another group with Herr Wolfgang Heine as the leader, decided to vote against the war loans.

Scheidemann, who is the most capable and most powerful Socialist in Germany, carried with him the majority of the delegates and was supported by the greater part of public opinion. Heine, however, had the support of men like Dr. Haase and Eduard Bernstein who had considerable influence with the public but who were not organisers or men capable of aggressive action, like Scheidemann. As far as affecting the Government's plans were concerned the Socialist split did not amount to much. In Germany there is such a widespread fear of the Government and the police that even the most radical Socialists hesitate to oppose the Government. In war time Germany is under complete control of the military authorities and even the Reichstag, which is supposed to be a legislative body, is in reality during war times only a closed corporation which does the bidding of the Government. The att.i.tude of the Reichstag on any question is not determined at the party caucuses nor during sessions. Important decisions are always arrived at at Great Headquarters between the Chancellor and the military leaders. Then the Chancellor returns to Berlin, summons the party leaders to his palace, explains what the Government desires and, without asking the leaders for their support, tells them _that_ is what _von Hindenburg_ expects. They know there is no choice left to them. Scheidemann always attends these conferences as the Socialist representative because the Chancellor has never recognised the so-called Socialist Labour Party which is made up of Socialist radicals who want peace and who have reached the point when they can no longer support the Government.

One night at the invitation of an editor of one of Berlin's leading newspapers, who is a Socialist radical, I attended a secret session of the Socialist Labour Party. At this meeting there were present three members of the Reichstag, the President of one of Germany's leading business organisations, two newspaper editors, one labour agitator who had been travelling to industrial centres to mobilise the forces which were opposed to a continuation of the war, and a rather well known Socialist writer who had been inspiring some anti-Government pamphlets which were printed in Switzerland and sent by mail to Germany. One of the business men present had had an audience of the Kaiser and he reported what the monarch told him about the possibilities of peace.

The report was rather encouraging to the Socialists because the Kaiser said he would make peace as soon as there was an opportunity. But these Socialists did not have much faith in the Kaiser's promises and jokingly asked the business man if the Kaiser did not decorate him as a result of the audience!