Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

General Introduction

1 Social Democracy in Government: Measures of Reform in Theory and Practice

Introduction

Documents

1.1 Proclamation of the Council of People’s Representatives, 12 November 1918

1.2 The Agreement for Co-Operation Made on 15 November 1918 Between 21 Employers’ Associations and 7 Trade Unions

1.3 Demobilisation Office Ordinance Establishing a Maximum Working Day of Eight Hours for Industrial Workers, 23 November 1918 (extract)

1.4 ‘Up with Social Democracy!’ The Editorial of 8 December 1918 in the Social Democratic Newspaper Vorwärts (extract)

1.5 Rudolf Hilferding’s Speech at the First Congress of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils Arguing against the Immediate Socialisation of Industry, 18 December 1918 (extracts)

1.6 Friedrich Ebert’s Address to the Opening Session of the Constituent National Assembly, 6 February 1919

1.7 The Government Programme of 13 February 1919, Presented to the National Assembly by the SPD Reich Chancellor, Philipp Scheidemann

1.8 ‘Socialisation is Here!’. Proclamation of 4 March 1919 by the Scheidemann Government

1.9 The ‘Socialisation Law’ of 23 March 1919

1.10 Karl Kautsky’s Speech on ‘The Socialisation of Economic Life’ at the Second Congress of Councils, April 1919

1.11 Rudolf Wissell’s Speech of June 1919 to the SPD Party Congress Criticising the Record of the Government of Which He Was a Member

1.12 Eduard David (SPD) Praises the Weimar Constitution, July 1919

1.13 Rudolf Wissell Argues in Favour of a Planned Economy, October 1919

1.14 The SPD Leadership Calls its Cabinet Ministers to Order in November 1919

1.15 Wilhelm Keil, SPD Minister of Labour, Recalls his Difficulties with the Eight-Hour Day

1.16 The Unreality of Power, 1928–1930: Rudolf Wissell Explains why the SPD Government of 1928–30, of Which he Was a Member, was Unable to Implement the 1927 Measures of Social Legislation

2 The Council Idea: Workers’ Councils and Factory Councils

Introduction

Documents

2.1 Ernst Däumig Advocates the Council System and Argues Against Summoning a Constituent Assembly, 16 November 1918

2.2 Georg Ledebour Defends the Authority of the Berlin Executive Council at a Joint Session with the Council of People’s Representatives, 18 November 1918

2.3 Agreement between the Council of People’s Representatives and the Berlin Executive Council, 22 November 1918

2.4 Heinrich Cunow (SPD) opposes the Council System, 22 November 1918

2.5 Discussion in the Council of People’s Representatives about Relations with the Berlin Executive Council, Afternoon Session, 13 December 1918

2.6 People’s Representative Friedrich Ebert Calls on the Central Council of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils to Establish Democracy and the Rule of Law in Germany, 16 December 1918

2.7 Heinrich Laufenberg’s Resolution Calling on the First Congress of Councils to Take Power, 16 December 1918

2.8 Heinrich Laufenberg Defends His Resolution of 16 December 1918

2.9 Resolution of the First Congress of Councils on the Respective Areas of Competence of the Central Council and the Government, 18 December 1918

2.10 The USPD Members of the Council of People’s Representatives Announce their Resignation in Protest Against the Central Council’s Declaration of 28 December 1918

2.11 Views of Dr. August Müller on the Economic Disadvantages of the Council System at the Cabinet Session of 21 January 1919

2.12 Proclamation by the Central Council of the German Socialist Republic Handing Over its Power to the National Assembly, 4 February 1919

2.13 The USPD Appeals ‘to the Revolutionary Proletariat’ to Defend the Workers’ Councils, 11 February 1919

2.14 Demands of the Berlin Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils, 3 March 1919

2.15 The Proclamation of the Bavarian Council Republic, 7 April 1919

2.16 SPD Resolution on the Question of Councils, Adopted in April 1919 by the Second Congress of Councils

2.17 The Communists and Independents (KPD and USPD) Oppose the Passing of the Factory Council Law, 12 January 1920

2.18 The Factory Council Law of 4 February 1920

2.19 The KPD Puts its View of the Tasks of the Factory Councils

3 Communism and Insurrection

Introduction

Documents

3.1 A Call to Revolt by the Spartacists and the Revolutionary Shop Stewards, 9 January 1919

3.2 ‘Despite Everything’. Karl Liebknecht’s last article, 15 January 1919

3.3 Paul Levi’s Fight against Putschism in June 1919

3.4 Declaration of Communist Principles and Tactics drawn up by Paul Levi and adopted by the Second Congress of the KPD (S), October 1919

3.5 Theses on Parliamentarism, Laid Before the 2nd. Congress of the KPD (S), 23 October 1919

3.6 Theses on Trade Union Questions, Laid Before the 2nd. Congress of the KPD (S), 23 October 1919

3.7 The ‘Vorwärts Revelations’. The Reports of Lemke and Bowitzky to the VKPD Zentrale, 8 April 1921 and 12 April 1921

3.8 Theses on the March Action, Adopted by the KPD Zentrale on 7 April 1921

3.9 The Proceedings of the Chemnitz Conference of 21 October 1923, as Reported by the SPD’s Main Newspaper

3.10 Resolution Issued by the KPD Zentrale on the Impending Clash of Revolution and Counter-Revolution, [28] October 1923

3.11 KPD Resolution on ‘The Victory of Fascism over the November Republic and the Tasks of the KPD’, 3 November 1923

3.12 The ECCI’s Resolution on the Lessons of the German Events, 19 January 1924

3.13 Military Lessons of the October 1923 Struggles in Hamburg

4 In Defence of Democracy

Introduction

Documents

4.1 Joint Call by German Trade Unions for a General Strike against the Kapp Putsch, 13 March 1920

4.2 Proclamation by the KPD Zentrale Opposing the General Strike, Issued on 14 March 1920

4.3 Paul Levi’s Critique of the Line Taken by the KPD Zentrale Towards the Kapp Putsch

4.4 The Nine Point Programme of the ADGB, the AfA and the DBB, 18 March 1920

4.5 Open Letter of 8 January 1921 from the VKPD to Other Workers’ Organisations Calling for United Action

4.6 The KPD’s Theses on the United Front Tactic and the Workers’ Government, February 1923

4.7 Rudolf Hilferding’s 1927 Speech on the Importance of the Defence of Democracy for Socialists

4.8 Siegfried Aufhäuser Replies to Hilferding (1927)

4.9 Rudolf Breitscheid (SPD) Suggests in May 1929 that the Party may have to Withdraw from the Grand Coalition and Defend Democracy from Outside

4.10 Julius Leber Reflects in Prison on the Failure of Social Democracy after 1928

4.11 The KPD Analysis of the September 1930 Elections

4.12 Gustav Radbruch Looks Back on the ‘Excessive Rationalism’ of the SPD

4.13 Discussion between the Leaders of the SPD and the German Chancellor, Heinrich Brüning, on their Conditions for Parliamentary Support, 17 March 1931

4.14 Otto Braun (SPD) Writes from Berlin to Karl Kautsky in Vienna, 19 February 1932 about his Decision to Support Hindenburg as Presidential Candidate

4.15 Otto Wels (SPD) on the Party’s Reaction to Papen’s Coup of 20 July 1932

4.16 Rudolf Hilferding (SPD) on the Need to Preserve Parliament and Fight Against Left and Right Simultaneously, November 1932

5 The Weimar Left Between Opposition and Coalition: Varied Strategies

Introduction

Documents

5.1 Letter of 11 June 1920 from the SPD Chancellor, Hermann Müller, to the Chair of the USPD, Arthur Crispien, with Crispien’s Reply

5.2 Hermann Müller’s Speech to a Joint Session of the Party Executive, the Party Committee and the Parliamentary Party Explaining Why the Social Democrats Are No Longer in the Government, 13 June 1920

5.3 Reasons Given by Leading Social Democrat Otto Wels for the Party’s Unwillingness to Return to Office after the 1920 Elections

5.4 Philipp Scheidemann Defends the Idea of a Coalition with Other Parties (September 1921)

5.5 Franz Krüger  Gives Reasons Why the SPD Should Not Continue to Stay Out of Office (September 1921)

5.6 The Ten Demands of the ADGB and the AfA, November 1921

5.7 Resolution on the Campaign for a Tax on Property, Adopted by the CC of the KPD, 17 November 1921

5.8 Resolution Proposed at the 1922 Congress of the Free Trade Unions (ADGB) Against Collaboration with the Employers and in Favour of Factory and Workers’ Councils

5.9 Robert Schmidt (SPD) Advocates Requisitioning Material Assets as a Step Towards Socialism

5.10 Robert Dissmann’s Resolution of June 1924 on the Need for the SPD to Conduct an Uncompromising Opposition to the Government

5.11 Hermann Müller’s Resolution on the Continuing Need for Coalition Agreements

5.12 Theodore Leipart Advocates a More Political Standpoint for the Trade Unions in 1925

5.13 Resolution Calling on the SPD Parliamentary Group to Pursue a Policy of Determined Opposition to the Bourgeois Parties (September 1925)

5.14 The Joint SPD-KPD Proposal for the Expropriation of the Former German Princes, 28 April 1926

5.15 Paul Levi’s Analysis of the Bourgeois Bloc (Bürgerblock) Government, January 1927

5.16 Siegfried Aufhäuser’s Resolution of 1927 Calling for Opposition Instead of Coalition

5.17 Georg Decker’s 1930 Critique of the Opponents of Coalition Politics

5.18 Franz Petrich on the Fateful Consequences for the SPD of their Decision to Remain in the Coalition of 1928–30

5.19 Rudolf Hilferding’s Criticism of the SPD’s Decision to Withdraw from the Government in 1930

5.20 Carl Mierendorff Analyses the SPD’s Election Defeat of September 1930

5.21 The SPD Proposes Measures to Combat Unemployment in 1931

5.22 The Trade Union Movement Demands a 40-hour Week to Combat Unemployment, 1931

5.23 The Trade Union Movement Calls for Job Creation: The ‘WTB Plan’ of 1931

6 The Moscow Connection: The KPD and theComintern

Introduction

Documents

6.1 Rudolf Hilferding’s Arguments Against Joining the Communist International, at the USPD Congress of October 1920

6.2 Report to the Zentrale of the VKPD from Curt Geyer on His Experiences in Moscow as German Delegate to ECCI, February 1921

6.3 Letters from Karl Radek to the Zentrale of the VKPD Concerning the March Action of 1921

6.4 Ernst Friesland Criticises the Attitude of the Comintern to the KPD, December 1921

6.5 Grigorii Zinoviev’s Letter of 18 July 1922 to the KPD Leadership About the Berlin Agreement for Joint Action

6.6 Heinrich Brandler on his Discussions with the Leaders of the Comintern During the Summer of 1923

6.7 The ECCI’s Confidential Letter to the KPD Zentrale, Sent in Late November or Early December 1923

6.8 Zinoviev’s Letter of 31 March 1924 to Ruth Fischer and Arkady Maslow

6.9 Open Letter from the ECCI to all Organisations and Members of the KPD, August 1925

6.10 The Secret Agreement of 29 February 1928 Made at a Joint Session of KPD and Soviet Communist Party Delegates

6.11 Instructions from the Secretariat to the District Leaderships (15 November 1930)

6.12 Resolution by the Political Secretariat of the ECCI on the Referendum in Germany (Moscow, 16 September 1931, Secret)

6.13 The KPD’s Guidelines for its Anti-Fascist Action (26 May 1932)

7 Socialism and Foreign Policy

Introduction

Documents

7.1 Philipp Scheidemann’s Speech of 12 May 1919 Against the Versailles Treaty

7.2 ‘Guidelines on the Peace’, Issued by the KPD Zentrale, 19 May 1919

7.3 Eduard Bernstein’s Speech on the Need to Accept the Versailles Treaty, June 1919

7.4 Report of the MSPD Party Leadership, Delivered by Otto Wels on 10 June 1919

7.5 Adolf Braun’s 1919 Speech on the Relation between Nationalism and Socialism

7.6 Max Cohen’s Plea for Reconciliation with France, Delivered at the 1920 Congress of the SPD

7.7 Karl Franz in 1921 on the Need to Defend German National Territory in Upper Silesia

7.8 Hermann Müller on the Way to Revise the Versailles Treaty, 1921

7.9 Hermann Müller on the French and Belgian Invasion of the Ruhr, January 1923

7.10 Karl Radek’s ‘Schlageter Speech’, 20 June 1923

7.11 ‘Down with the Government of National Shame and Treachery’. Proclamation of 29 May 1923 by the KPD Zentrale

7.12 International Policy Document Adopted by the SPD in 1925

7.13 Speech by Otto Wels in Favour of the SPD Parliamentary Party’s Motion in the Reichstag Demanding the Cessation of Work on Armoured Cruiser A, 15 November 1928

7.14 Hermann Müller (SPD Chancellor of Germany) Addresses the General Assembly of the League of Nations on 7 September 1928 on Disarmament

7.15 Wilhelm Keil (SPD) Advocates Keeping Contact with ‘Healthy National Consciousness’ in a Speech Made in August 1930

8 The Search for Democracy in the Armed Forces

Introduction

Documents

8.1 Telegram from the Council of People’s Representatives to the German High Command, 12 November 1918

8.2 Proclamation by the Berlin Executive Council, Calling for the Setting Up of a Red Guard, 12 November 1918

8.3 Law Providing for the Establishment of a Voluntary People’s Militia, 12 December 1918

8.4 The Seven Hamburg Points, Adopted 18 December 1918 by the First Congress of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils

8.5 Law for the Establishment of a Provisional Reichswehr, 6 March 1919

8.6 Gustav Noske (SPD Minister of Defence) Defends his Decision to Use Career Officers to Restore Order in Germany after 1918

8.7 A Communist View of Military Questions (Paul Levi’s speech of April 1920)

8.8 Philipp Scheidemann’s Speech of 16 December 1926 Attacking the Role of the Reichswehr as a ‘State within the State’

8.9 SPD Principles of Defence Policy, Adopted in May 1929

8.10 Proposals for a Military Programme Brought Forward by the Left Opposition in the SPD and Rejected at the Magdeburg Congress, 1929

9 Questions of Gender and Sexual Politics

Introduction

Documents

9.1 Women’s Demands Included in the SPD’s 1921 Programme

9.2 Dr. Sophie Schöfer Addresses the SPD Women’s Conference in 1921 on the Role of Women in Social Work

9.3 Helene Grünberg Attacks the Failure of Male Party Comrades to Oppose the Dismissal of Married Women Workers after 1918

9.4 Views of Helene Grünberg on the Reasons for the Lack of Female Support for the Party in the 1920 Elections

9.5 Views of Marie Juchacz on the Same Subject Three Years Later

9.6 Marie Juchacz Complains About the Under-representation of Women in the SPD’s Governing Bodies

9.7 Frau Hörreth-Menge (Munich) Complains about the Failure of the Party to Protest Against the Post-war Mass Dismissals of Women Workers and Explains Why Some Women in Bavaria Support Hitler and the DVFP

9.8 Elise Scheibenhuber (Berlin-Lichtenberg) Proposes Motion 56, Adopted by the SPD Women’s Conference, Calling on the SPD to Give Equal Treatment to Men and Women, as Provided for in the Party’s Programme, and to Ban the Consumption of Alcohol at Party Meetings

9.9 Marie Juchacz Explains Why the SPD Opposes the ‘Open Door Movement’

9.10 Clara Zetkin on the Communist Party and the Woman Question, 1920

9.11 General Principles for Agitation Among Women Adopted in 1920 by the KPD

9.12 The Attitude of the KPD in 1922 Towards Paragraphs 218 and 219 of the Criminal Code

9.13 Aims and Tasks of the League of Red Women and Girls (RFMB), 1926

9.14 Resolution of the Eleventh Party Congress on the Work of the KPD Among Women, March 1927

9.15 Martha Arendsee (KPD) on the Struggle for the Protection of Mothers, 7 July 1927

9.16 The KPD’s Proposed Law to Protect and Give Full Equality of Rights to Working Women, 15 October 1931

10 Long-term Political Objectives: Similarities and Differences

Introduction

Documents

10.1 The Spartacus Programme, 1 January 1919

10.2 The 1920 Agrarian Programme of the KPD

10.3 The SPD’s 1921 Görlitz Programme

10.4 Karl Kautsky’s Arguments Against the Görlitz Programme, 1922

10.5 The KPD’s Action Programme of April 1924

10.6 The KPD View of Trade Unions in 1924

10.7 Heinrich Peus (Dessau) Advocates Turning the SPD into a Labour Party

10.8 The Heidelberg Programme of the SPD, 1925

10.9 The SPD’s Agrarian Programme of 1927

10.10 Rudolf Hilferding’s 1927 Speech on ‘Organised Capitalism’

10.11 Fritz Naphtali on the Consequences of Capitalist Rationalization

10.12 ‘Programme for the National and Social Liberation of the German People’, Issued by the Central Committee of the KPD, 24 August 1930

10.13 Fritz Tarnow Ponders Social Democratic Strategy ‘at the Sickbed of Capitalism’ in 1931

11 The Parties, their Supporters and the ProletarianMilieu

Introduction

Documents

11.1 Statutes of the KPD, 1919

11.2 The SPD’s Organizational Statute of 1924 (Selected Provisions)

11.3 Statutes of the KPD (1925 version)

11.4 Circular from the Red Front Fighters’ League (RFKB), before 25 April 1925, ‘On the Significance, Tasks and Organisation of the RFKB'

11.5 The Statutes of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold (adopted on 26 May 1926)

11.6 The Proletarian Free-Thinkers’ Journal Criticises the Hold of the Church over Education, March 1925

11.7 Peter Maslowski Gives the Communist View of the Freethinkers’ Movement (June 1932)

11.8 A Utilitarian SPD View of the Purpose of Workers’ Education, 1929

11.9 The Party Leadership of The SPD, 1917–1933

11.10 Members of KPD Leadership, 1919–1933

11.11 Membership Figures for the SPD, USPD and KPD, 1919–1932

11.12 Membership Figures for the Free Trade Unions (ADGB)

11.13 Performance of the Weimar Left in National Elections, 1919–1933

12 The Parties and Groups of the Dissident Left

Introduction

Documents

12.1 USPD Programmatic Declaration, adopted 6 March 1919

12.2 USPD Action Programme of December 1919

12.3 Programme of the KAPD (Communist Workers’ Party of Germany), May 1920

12.4 Resolution Passed by the First Conference of the KAG (Communist Labour Association, 20 November 1921)

12.5 Platform of the Left (Korsch) Group, 1926

12.6 Platform of the Left (Fischer-Maslow) Opposition of the KPD, 1927

12.7 Platform of the KPD-O (Communist Party of Germany – Opposition), 1930

12.8 Declaration of Principles Adopted at the First Congress of the SAP (Socialist Workers’ Party) on 25 March 1932

12.9 Proclamation by the International Youth League, November 1925

Bibliography

Index