A Powerful Machine

chapter 7 A Powerful Machine Neither the party educational apparatus nor the social-democratic libraries could have functioned if they had not been backed up by a mighty organisation. The workings of this educational machine cannot be understood in terms of a simple counterposition between the politicians and theorists that formed the party’s ruling élite and then the vast mass of grassroots militants. First of all, it is important to differentiate a politician like August Bebel from a theorist like Karl Kautsky, and the MP Wilhelm Blos from a journal editor like the Die Neue Zeit director, who held neither a post in the party nor any elected office. Franz Mehring and Heinrich Cunow’s works got to grips with historiography and historical sources; their writing on historical questions was very different from that of a figure like Wilhelm Blos, whose works addressed a far broader readership. What they did have in common, however, was the fact that they were well-known figures in the SPD whose works were published and circu- lated at the national – in some cases, even international – scale. In between prominent leaders like these and the thousands of militants who comprised the base of the social-democratic parties, there existed a whole series of inter- mediaries – the thousands of cadres whose role included the elaboration of a vulgate that militants would find accessible, either through teaching or simply by writing articles aimed at a wide readership. ‘Intermediate Cadres’: the Heart of the Party The Intermediate Cadres’ Role in Social Democracy Paul Pasteur has studied the ‘intermediate cadres’ in the Austrian social- democratic party; its so-called ‘shop stewards’ [Vertrauensmann], the full- timers, or active militants. For Pasteur ‘only their degree of commitment distin- guished them from the mass of militants or supporters, with the fact of taking on responsibilities’.1 An ‘essential link in the chain within the party apparatus’,2 these intermediate cadres have left traces of their activity, and in this differ greatly from the wider mass of militants, whose exact thinking or reading pat- 1 Pasteur 2003, p. 229. 2 Ibid. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004384798_011 178 chapter 7 terns are by definition difficult to reconstruct. A study of these intermediate cadres allows us to understand the real circulation of history in the ranks of a party most of whose members did not read journals like Die Neue Zeit or soph- isticated books. The all-encompassing term ‘intermediate cadres’ may create problems, here, in the sense that only some of them were actually able to write about the French Revolution – or even teach its history. Nonetheless, even at the risk of being rather schematic, it does seem possible to establish a classific- ation of several different levels of cadres, thus allowing us better to understand how a certain number of mediators and ‘smugglers’ could transmit a historical reference point through SPD ranks. Building on our study of the social- democratic schools, we can discern at least three different levels. The first is that consisting of local figures who sometimes had a certain national profile (but who were hardly comparable to the likes of Karl Kautsky, for example). These were the authors of pamphlets, of detailed guides, of handbooks and even books on specific themes linked to revolutionary history. The second level consists of those social-democrats who were limited to certain tasks, like writing popularising articles in a newspaper or teaching in a training school (and sometimes they travelled around for this purpose, as in the case of the Wander- lehrer). They wrote articles in local papers or even in Die Neue Welt; however, their contributions were often anonymous and it is very difficult to reconstruct their biographies beyond the lists of articles they published. Such militants were assiduous readers of the daily press and, from time to time, of certain reviews like Bildungsarbeit or Der Bibliothekar, and contributed to the choice of books in a library or the organisation of a particular training programme or course. Lastly – those whose activity is most difficult to ascertain – were the hundreds of militants who took on modest responsibilities in local structures, and considered themselves the bearers of a knowledge that they could transmit, perhaps having followed a course.3 We can detail the first category on the basis of some of the examples that we have encountered already. Leopold Winarsky and Gustav Eckstein both occu- pied important positions, and looked like national SPD figures. But they had no major works that were discussed at the national scale, and their essential role was to teach in party schools; they were the authors of detailed guides or short handbooks on the history of the French Revolution. Eckstein was a ‘smuggler’ between Austria and Germany; of Austrian origins, he then worked at the Berlin party school. Other less-known examples may in fact be even more indicative: 3 This typology applies to the period between the turn of the century and 1914; such patterns were profoundly reordered after the war, with the place assumed by academics and the social- democratic parties’ new relationship with the state apparatus..

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