French and German Socialism in Modern Times

by Richard T. Ely

After the withdrawal of the countess the “Universal Laborers’ Union” showed good sense enough to elect their ablest man president. This was Jean Baptista von Schweitzer, a dramatic writer of some note, whose comedies are considered among the best which have appeared recently. Perhaps the best known are “Die Darwinianer,” “Epidemisch,” and “Grosstädtisch.”

Von Schweitzer belonged to an old and wealthy patrician family of Frankfort-on-the-Main. He had led a dissipated life, been involved in a scandalous affair in Mannheim, and become a noted roué. When society in Frankfort could tolerate him no longer he took up his abode in another city, but here again became suspected of improper acts. It is surprising that a man of such character should join the laborers and declaim about their hardships. While it is possible that he was so thoroughly blasé that he could find needed excitement in no other way, I should prefer to regard this move on his part as the first step in a better path. He was a man of talent, and was never entirely absorbed in sensual pleasures. When he took up the cause of the social democrats he began to think about other things than his own selfish and immoral gratifications. For four years he held the post of president of the “Universal German Laborers’ Union;” and in this position not only displayed administrative ability of a high order, but manifested an unwearied devotion in his leadership. He found the Union weak and about to fall to pieces; he left it a strong, compact body. The Social Democrat, one of the most prominent organs of the party, was founded by him, and in this paper he defended the doctrines of Lassalle with vigor and understanding.

Von Schweitzer withdrew from the social democrats in 1871, and led thenceforth an unexceptionable life. The love of woman had finally conquered his wild nature. He was happily married, and passed the last years of his life in literary pursuits. He died in 1875,[198] having already gained an honorable position as an author.

The Union elected another president, who continued to hold the position as long as the association existed. Its importance soon began to decline, however, and it was finally absorbed by the organization formally known as the “Social Democratic Labor Party” (“Social-demokratische Arbeiterpartei”). This grew out of the alliance of “German Laborers’ Unions” (“Verband deutscher Arbeitervereine”), whose members were gradually led over into the social democratic camp, as I described in the first chapter of this work. The two leading spirits in this party, which swallowed up all other social democratic organizations, were Liebknecht and Bebel.

Liebknecht, unlike some of the other social democrats, is, as generally admitted, personally an honorable man. Nothing can be said against his private life. He differed from Marx, Lassalle, and Von Schweitzer in family and fortune. He was born poor, and has always remained so. While in party matters Liebknecht is unscrupulous as to means, he would sacrifice no principle for the sake of personal gain or advancement. If he had been less conscientious his life might have been a prosperous one. I have it directly from a friend, who associated with him considerably in Leipsic, that Bismarck offered him an excellent position as editor of the Kreuzzeitung, which I have already mentioned as the leading organ of the conservatives. Liebknecht declined promptly, and without hesitation, what was intended as a bribe. He is satisfied with the merest necessities of life, so long as he can serve his cause. Mehring, who is far from being a social democrat, says that in this respect he is irreproachable. “No one can accuse him of improper motives in the lower sense of the term.” It is only when the cause of the social democrats is concerned that he shows himself unscrupulous, exciting envy and discontent, and arousing class against class. His ideas have taken such hold of him that he cannot see the deeds of opponents in their true light. He ascribes the worst of motives to what government does with the best intention.

Although he must be called a demagogue, Liebknecht is a highly educated man. He comes of what the Germans call a Beamtenfamilie—i.e., of a family whose members have for a long time devoted themselves to the civil service. This implies, at least, education and social respectability. Liebknecht was only sixteen years of age when he graduated from a German gymnasium—what we would call a college—but he had already decided that a career as a civil-service officer placed one in a position of such dependence that it was unworthy of a freeman. At the university he took no regular professional course, as he despised bread-and-butter studies, but devoted himself to various branches of science according to his inclination, or as he fancied they might contribute to the free development of his mind. At twenty he thought he had freed himself from bondage to the antiquated institutions of a corrupt world.

Liebknecht took part in the revolutionary movement of 1848 in Germany, and threw himself into the contest with admirable personal bravery. Regardless of danger, he was ever to be found in the thick of the fight. When the rebellion was put down, he found it necessary to flee to Switzerland, whence he emigrated to London, where he lived in exile for thirteen years. His life in London was a hard struggle for existence, and this may have embittered him. His associates, while there, were the old rebels, Engels, Wolff, and Marx, and they must have confirmed him in his views. Amnesty was granted him when the present Emperor William was crowned King of Prussia, and he returned full of hatred for Germany. He has devoted his entire life to the purpose of making propaganda for social democracy, and has never for a moment forgotten his end and aim. Mehring says that in the years since he again set foot on German soil there has been, perhaps, no day, no hour, no minute in which he has not been conscious of the object of his existence. It is this indomitable will, this inflexible purpose, this devotion on the part of men of learning and intelligence, which has filled the world with German socialism. Anything like it has never been known in history.

Liebknecht is not original, but is able to interpret Marx to the common people, since he is not too much ahead of them, but only far enough to take the lead, to express thoughts struggling in their minds for utterance. He takes, however, extreme positions, and injures himself and his party thereby. While he can excite those already won over to his side, he cannot gain adherents from those as yet undecided, still less from those opposed. He cannot persuade such, because he is unable, even for a moment, to place himself in their position so as to understand their thoughts and feelings.

Bebel is a disciple of Liebknecht, and his most important one. He is a turner by profession, and his only education was received in common schools, in Sunday schools, and in travelling about from place to place in the practice of his trade. He has never left his trade, and has never made any pretensions to being anything more than an ordinary artisan. He is sincere, simple, and of sound understanding. Bebel has been called the incorporated ideal of a modern laborer in the best sense of the word. This was, however, before he had been embittered by Liebknecht. He is unassuming, but has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. His influence on the people has been very great. He has a homely sort of eloquence which appeals strongly to them. In the Imperial Parliament he has been able to hold his own with men like Lasker and Simson, the Chief-justice of the Supreme Court of Germany. Bebel’s historical importance lies in the fact that he is the first and, up to the present time, the only German artisan who has pushed himself into the foreground of political life and shown himself an equal of other leaders.

He has become prosperous, and employs two or three hundred laborers. He owns, also, a valuable house in Leipsic. Some have objected that he was inconsistent in paying his employees just as other masters do and in living well himself. Those who do so cannot understand the social democrats. The very corner-stone of their belief is that the individual is not responsible for the present condition of things; that harmony can be secured only by the combined action of society—by a social, and not by an individual, regeneration. All that the individual can do, they hold, is to labor for the overthrow of existing society and the establishment of the people’s state, and in the meanwhile to live like other people.