It is difficult for one who, like the writer, has a thorough acquaintance with the Independent Socialist publications, to take seriously the statement that they were desired merely for "mental stimulus" by sailors who wished to "educate themselves further." The plain tendency of all these publications, disguised as cleverly as it might be in an attempt to escape confiscation of the issue or prosecution for treason, was revolutionary. A certain degree of venomousness, scurrility and abuse of bourgeois opponents has always characterized all but a few Socialist publications in all lands, and the Independent Socialist press far outdid the organs of the old party in this respect. It preached internationalism and flouted patriotism; it ridiculed all existing authority; it glorified the Russian revolution in a manner calculated to induce imitation by its readers, and, following the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in November, 1917, it published regularly the reports of the Isvestia and other Bolshevik organs, with laudatory editorial comment. The man who "educated himself further" by a reading of the Independent Socialist publications was educating himself for revolution and for nothing else.
Vogtherr set up a straw man in his reply and demolished it to the complete satisfaction of himself and his brother Socialists, including, strangely enough, also the Majority Socialists, who, despite the fact that the Independent Socialist press had classified them with bourgeoisie and attacked them even more bitterly, on this occasion exhibited solidarity of feeling with their more radical colleagues. Vogtherr declared that von Capelle had charged the Independents with having worked out a plan for revolution in the fleet. This alleged charge he denied. He spoke with a certain pathos of the oppressed sailors who recognized in the Independents their real friends and naturally came to them instead of going to deputies in whom they had no confidence. He, too, demanded that the Minister of Marine produce his proof. Vogtherr, like Haase before him, devoted a part of his speech to a general attack on von Capelle and Michaelis, plainly the attempt of a practical politician to confuse the issue.
Dittmann spoke briefly along the lines followed by Haase and Vogtherr. He had, he said, carefully warned his sailor-visitors to keep within safe bounds. He refused to permit either Admiral von Capelle or Chancellor Michaelis to restrict his rights as Reichstag deputy to receive visitors and hear their complaints. Dittmann cleverly enlisted further the sympathy of the Majority Socialists by pointing out that several of their publications had also come under the ban of the Admiralty.
Von Capelle responded to the challenge of the trio to produce his evidence. He read the following testimony, given at the court-martial by one of the lieutenants of the mutineers' ringleader, a man named Sachse. This witness testified:
"I, too, made a personal visit to Deputy Dittmann in the Reichstag after Reichpietsch (the ringleader) had visited him. I introduced myself by saying that I came from Reichpietsch and that I came in the same matter. Dittmann indicated that he knew what I meant. He was glad to see me and said: 'We must go ahead in the same way, but we must use great caution.'
"Regarding his conference with the members of the party Reichpietsch told me the following: He had not been with Dittmann alone, but there had been a kind of a party conference, participated in by Dittmann, Vogtherr and Haase. Reichpietsch communicated to them the plan and the results thus far attained by the organization, which, according to his declaration, was very enthusiastic about the matter.
"After discussion of the details of the organization, the deputies told Reichpietsch that this was a prohibited and punishable undertaking and a very daring one, and he must be very careful. So far as they were concerned, they would support his agitation in every manner, and especially through pamphlets and other literature."
Admiral von Capelle further read from the testimony of the ringleader, Reichpietsch, who, after reading Sachse's testimony, had said under oath:
"Insofar as this testimony concerns me it is correct. That is to say, what I told Sachse was a true report of what had happened in Berlin."
Friedrich (Fritz) Ebert, the Majority Socialist leader who later became the first president of the German Republic, defended the Independent Socialists and declared that the government had offered no evidence to substantiate its accusations against Haase, Dittmann and Vogtherr. Deputy Naumann of the Progressive party also defended them indirectly, and both he and Deputy Trimborn of the Center (Clerical party) protested against any effort to place a Reichstag party outside the pale.
In view of the revolutionary activities of the Independent Socialists even before that date and of the occurrences of the succeeding year, which culminated in the overthrow of the government, this attitude of supposedly loyal and patriotic parties of the Reichstag appears at first sight astonishing and almost inexplicable. There were, however, two reasons (in the case of the Majority Socialists three reasons) for it. Neither the bourgeois parties nor the Majority Socialists had any conception of the extent of the revolutionary propaganda being carried on by the Independents and their more radical accomplices. As we shall see later, even the old party Socialists were completely taken by surprise when the actual revolution came, and revolution was almost an accomplished fact in Berlin, six days after it had begun in Kiel, before they awakened to what was happening. Hence the accusations against their colleagues of another party appeared to the three parties of the anti-annexationist wing of the Reichstag as a blow directed against all opponents of the pan-German program of the parties of the Right.
The second reason was psychological and to be found in the atmosphere of the day's session. It had started, as already reported, with the discussion of an interpellation regarding pan-German propaganda at the front and in the fleet. The anti-Chauvinist majority of the Reichstag had earlier found its way together in a bloc composed of the Progressives, Clericals and Majority Socialists, and had adopted, on July 19, 1917, a resolution, in the main the work of Mathias Erzberger of the Clericals, calling for a peace without annexations or indemnities, and reserving the right of self-determination to all nations. Equally with the Independent Socialists, this bloc had been stirred to indignation by the shameless manner in which the high civil and military authorities not only permitted the advocates of an imperialistic and annexationist peace to carry on their propaganda among the soldiers and sailors, but even encouraged and actively assisted in that work. Not only all Socialist publications, but even many bourgeois papers of the stamp of the Berlin Tageblatt were absolutely forbidden by the commanders of many troop units, and the soldiers were compelled to listen to speeches by members of the pan-German Vaterlandspartei (Fatherland Party) and similar organizations. Ignorant of the extent and nature of the Independent Socialists' efforts to undermine authority, the bloc parties saw in Admiral von Capelle's charges only another manifestation of the spirit against which their own fight was directed. That, in these circumstances, they should defend the Independents was but natural.