DOCSLIB.ORG

Landauer-POC.Pdf

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Landauer-POC.Pdf Prophet of Community Gustav Landauer (1870-1919) Prophet of Community The Romantic Socialism of Gustav Landauer by EUGENE LUNN UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS BERKELEY LOS ANGELES LONDON I973 University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England Copyright © 1973 by The Regents of the University of California ISBN : 0-520-02207-6 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 70-186105 Designed by Dave Pauly Printed in the United States of America Acknowledgments I should like to acknowledge the help I have received in the preparation of this book. I owe a debt to the excellent staff of the International Institute of Social History, Am­ sterdam, especially to Mr. Rudolf de Jong, for assistance in locating materials and for permission to read the manu­ scripts contained in the Landauer Archives. I would also like to thank Professor Gerald Feldman of the University of California, Berkeley, for the thoughtful advice he offered while this study was in thesis form. At a later stage my work benefited from readings by Professors Robert A. Kann of Rutgers University and Peter Loewenberg of the Univer­ sity of California, Los Angeles. It it a particular pleasure to acknowledge the invaluable guidance I have received from Professor Carl E. Schorske, teacher and friend, currently of the History Department at Princeton University, whose searching and thorough critique of my work included nu­ merous helpful suggestions, especially with regard to ques­ tions of method. Finally, my wife Myra provided the moral support that again and again renewed the energies needed to complete, and twice revise, the manuscript. With her help I managed to sustain a lively interest in my subject over a number of years by preventing it from taking over our lives. ' r 1 M 'j :ŕ : !¡ i‘ Contents INTRODUCTION 3 1. THE MAKING OF AN ANARCHIST 17 Adolescent Romanticism: Völkisch and Nietzschean Elements 18 Berlin and Socialism 35 The Berliner Jungen: The Education of an Anarchist 49 2. CHANGING PERSPECTIVES 75 The Appeal of Anarchism 75 Resistance to Social Democracy and Anarchist Terrorism 81 A New Theory and a New Tactic 89 Idealist, Romantic, and Völkisch Perspectives 101 Isolation and Withdrawal 118 3. THE CONSOLATIONS OF MYSTICISM 124 Sources of Mystical Belief: Philosophic and Personal Experience 127 The Emergence of a Völkisch Socialist 138 Isolation and Mystical Belief: Landauer’s Skepsis und, Mystik 150 4. THE ROMANTIC AS SOCIALIST 172 A Philosophy of History 173 The Socialist Bund 190 Landauer and Marxism 200 CONTENTS Anarchosocialist Society 213 The Origins of the State and the Question of Tactics 223 5. THE SOCIALIST AS ROMANTIC 232 World War I: The Response of a Libertarian Romantic 233 Community, Nation, and Humanity 257 The Literature of the Volk 280 6. REVO LU TIO N IN BA V A R IA 291 Landauer and Munich’s November: A Democracy of Councils? 292 The Advance of Parliamentarism and the Response of the Radicals 305 Thermidor Deferred: Eisner’s Assassination and the Council Republics 317 Thermidor with a Vengeance: Landauer’s Failure and Martyrdom 336 c o n c l u s i o n 343 APPENDIX 349 NOTES 3 5 I BIBLIOGRAPHY 405 INDEX 4 27 -X- Prophet of Community This passion for bureaucratization, such as we have heard expressed here, is enough to drive one to despair. It is . as though we knowingly and willingly were supposed to become men who need “ order” and nothing but order, who become nervous and cowardly if this order shakes for a moment and helpless when they are torn from their exclusive adaptation to this order. That the world knows nothing more than such men of order—we are in any case caught up in this development, and the central question is not how we further and accelerate it but what we have to set against this machinery, in order to preserve a remnant of humanity from this parcelling-out of the soul, from this exclusive rule of bureaucratic life ideals. — m a x w e b e r , Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Soziologie und Sozialpolitik It is the fate of our time, with its characteristic rationalization, intellectualization, and above all, disenchantment of the world, that precisely the ultimate and most sublime values have disappeared from public life, either into the shadow realm of mysdcal life or into the brotherliness of direct relationships between individuals. It is not accidental that our highest art is intimate rather than monumental, nor is it chance that today, only within the smallest circles of community, from man to man, in pianissimo does that Something pulsate which earlier, as prophetic pneuma, went through the great communities like a fire storm and fused them together. — m a x w e b e r , Wissenschaft als Beruf Introduction In May 1919—in the brutal aftermath of the postwar Ger­ man Revolution—a tall, thin, bearded intellectual was beaten to death outside Munich by White troops of the Reichswehr and the Freikorps. The man, Gustav Landauer, was one of three well-known German-Jewish libertarian socialists who had participated in the revolution and been murdered in the reaction to it; Rosa Luxemburg and Kurt Eisner were the others. Each of them was a powerful critic of capitalism, militarism, and bureaucratic authority. All three were impassioned prophets who fought for an ethi­ cally and socially liberated humanity.1 None of them achieved even an approximation of their goals. Instead, their murders seem in retrospect to have ominously foreshad­ owed the string of political assassinations in the 1920s and the still heavier darkness of Auschwitz. Of the three figures, Landauer was the least known in 1919, and this is even more true today. German political historians are acquainted with him as a minor leader of the Bavarian Revolution of 1918-19, and some literary his­ torians know of his critical works on poetry and drama. He is best known, however, to students of the history and theory of anarchism. Landauer was, in fact, the most im­ portant German anarchist publicist and intellectual since Max Stirner. It is partly for this reason that he has begun to attract scholarly attention in the past decade.2 As one German reviewer noted in 1969, “ The reemergence of anarchism has coincided with the shaking of all authorities in the West and the East. The rise of an antiauthori- - 3 “ INTRODUCTION tarian student movement and the oppressive growth of the state have lent color once again to the faded writings of Landauer.” 8 The anarchist issue suggests, however, only one side of a much richer activity. Landauer was a man of many talents and interests. To grasp his historical importance, which is a central aim of this book, one must begin by noting the fascinating range of his intellectual and political life in Wil- helmian Germany. A highly regarded literary critic, Lan­ dauer published incisive studies of Hölderlin, Whitman, and Shakespeare, as well as of many other figures of world literature. During and after World War I he was in close contact with a number of major writers of the expressionist movement, particularly the dramatists Ernst Toller and Georg Kaiser, upon whom he exerted considerable influ­ ence. Yet Landauer’s literary work was closely allied with his philosophical studies and his political activity. With his close friend, the great Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, he developed a species of philosophic mysticism which drew upon the German idealist tradition going back to Meister Eckhart. As a socialist Landauer had begun his political career in the 1890s by doing battle with the official Marxist movement in Germany, the Social Democratic Party (SPD). As editor of a Berlin anarchist paper Der Sozialist, Landauer developed an antiauthoritarian and idealist cri­ tique of Marxism whose positive aspect was the call for a replacement of the state with a decentralized society or­ ganized from below. Later, before World War I, he was to utilize the libertarian socialist theories of Proudhon, Kropotkin, and Tolstoi in working out his anarchist no­ tions. Yet from the beginning of his political life in the 1890s he attacked private ownership of the means of pro­ duction, together with a rejection of all centralized and - 4 - INTRODUCTION bureaucratic authority. Unlike the more visible anarchists of his day, however, he totally opposed both violent revo­ lution and individual acts of terrorism, suggesting instead that the state would be destroyed only by building liber­ tarian communities that would gradually release men and women from their childlike dependence upon authority. The heart of Landauer’s social thought, as well as the central thread running through much of his lifework, was the attempt to render authority superfluous and unneces­ sary through the building of radically democratic, partici­ patory communities. The full force of his passionate, some­ times frantic, ethical idealism was directed toward this goal. Landauer was a prophet of Gemeinschaft, the German con­ cept whose heavily emotive, almost libidinal, content is in­ adequately rendered by “ community,” the closest English equivalent. In his notion of community, libertarian social­ ism imperceptibly fused with one of the most influential and historically important strains of modern German social thought. Landauer turned not only against bureaucratic authority but also against industrial urbanism. By 1900, and coinciding with a surge of neoromantic sentiment among German middle-class youth, he had begun to argue for communitarian colonies on the land in which the entire German Volk would reconstitute itself as a nation of peasants and craftsmen. Following from this, Landauer’s mystical philosophy revealed in the depths of each seem­ ingly isolated individual a rich and thriving participation in Gemeinschaft and Volk. For him the libertarian issue was conceived in terms of the famous romantic distinction of “organic” community against atomized, urban society, of Gemeinschaft against Gesellschaft.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Syndicalism and Anarcho-Syndicalism in Germany: an Introduc- Tion
    Syndicalism and Anarcho-Syndicalism in Germany: An Introduc- tion By Helge Döhring Published in 2004 Topics: IWA, Germany, SPD, history, World War I, unemployed workers, FAUD, FVdG Foreword The following text comprises an introduction to the development of German syndicalism from its beginnings in 1890 until the end of its organized form in the early 1960s. The emphasis of this introduction, however, centers on the period before and leading up to 1933, when the National Socialists under Adolf Hitler ascended to power. Syndicalism, and more specifically anarcho-syndicalism, are movements that have been largely forgotten. This albeit superficial outline should, at its conclusion, show that this movement was not always so obscure and unknown. This piece aims not to comprehensively examine all the varied aspects of German anarcho-syndicalism, but rather to pique the curiosity and interest of its readers. 1. What Does “Workers’ Movement” Mean? The first thing that one learns in studying the history of the workers’ movement, in Germany and elsewhere, is that the workers were organized primarily into the so-called “Workers’ Parties.” In Germany these took the form of the SPD [Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, Social Democratic Party of Germany] and the KPD [Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, Communist Party of Germany]. Upon further examination a number of other parties fall into view, for example Rosa Luxemburg’s Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD), or the CP’s other incarnations, the KAPD [Kommunistische Arbeiter-Partei Deutschlands, Communist Workers’ Party of Germany] and the SAPD [Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, Socialist Workers’ Party of Germany]. And naturally the definition of the term “workers’ movement” places these political parties firmly in the foreground.
    [Show full text]
  • Anarchism's Appeal to German Workers, 1878
    The centers of anarchist activity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries included Italy, Spain, France, and the United States. The German anarchist movement was small, even in comparison to other nations that were not major anarchist centers. Contemporaries and scholars had until recently mostly agreed on the cause: anarchism was simply unable to compete with German Social Democracy, whose explosive growth beginning in the 1870s reflected the organization and self-awareness of an advanced industrial proletariat. For Social Democrats and many scholars, even those of a non-Marxist stripe, this situation represented the inevitable triumph of mature, class-conscious socialism over the undisciplined and utopian impulses of prepolitical workers.1 Once socialism had developed into a mass movement, only the detritus of the lumpenproletariat, petit bourgeois reactionaries, and decadent elites embraced anarchism. In the late 1960s and 1970s German anarchism finally began to receive a modicum of scholarly attention.2 The small body of scholarship produced since has shown that a German anarchist movement (really, movements) did in fact exist throughout the era of the German Empire (1871- 1918) among the handful of anarchists committed to "propaganda of the deed" active in the 1880s, within a circle of cultural and intellectual anarchists in the following decade, and in the form of anarcho-syndicalism after the turn of the century. Several German anarchist leaders, intellectuals, and artists also received scholarly attention as individual thinkers.3 This scholarship did much to illuminate the social and intellectual history of German anarchism, but did not significantly alter the conventional understanding of German anarchism as an atavistic expression of protest destined to be eclipsed by Social Democracy.
    [Show full text]
  • The United States and German Demilitarization, 1942- 1947
    FROM ENMITY TOWARDS ALLIANCE: THE UNITED STATES AND GERMAN DEMILITARIZATION, 1942- 1947 Oliver Haller B.A., Wilfrid Laurier University, 199 1 M.A. Thesis Submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree Wilfrid MerUniversity 1996 @ Oliver Haller 1996 National Library Bibliothèque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Seivices seMces bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON KIA ON4 canada Canada YovrW voarrréfefmce Our Ne NonerrlHhena, The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, districbute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microforni, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/fïh, de reproduction sur papier ou sur fomat électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts from it Ni la thése ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorkation. Table of Contents Abstract ............................................... iii Introduction........................................... I Notes: Introduction .................................... 13 Chapter One: The Versailles Precedent and Initial Arnerican Perceptions of Civil-Military Government...... 18 Notes: Chapter One ..................................... 40 Chapter Two: The Formulation of an Amencan Civil-Military Direcive and the Ascendendcy of Demilitarimion through Deindustrialization.......
    [Show full text]
  • 'Localist' Trade Unionism in the German Building Industry, 1868-1893 JOHN
    Lokalisten and Sozialdemokraten: ‘localist’ trade unionism in the German building industry, 1868-1893 JOHN GODDARD UCL Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1 I, John Goddard, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. ...................................................................... 2 ‘Lokalisten and Sozialdemokraten: ‘localist’ trade unionism in the German building industry, 1868-1893’ This study looks at the first part of what for want of a better term could be described as the ‘pre-history’ of German syndicalism, that is, at its earliest roots among building worker supporters of the ‘localist’ conception of trade union organization before 1893. Its aim is not to ‘uncover’ the localist movement’s history for the benefit of English- speaking readers unfamiliar with it but, rather, to seek to find in the earlier history of this movement an explanation as to why a branch of trade unionism which initially defined itself as a tactical response to restrictive state legislation (above all, the Prussian Law of Association of 11th March 1850) continued to exist after the ban which most local laws of association placed on political association was over-written by national legislation which guaranteed the right to such (for men) in December 1899. How did a ‘tactical response’ come to assume a longevity none of its earlier advocates had foreseen? This begs a second question: how significant, then, was the legal framework? It is my belief that the answers to these questions can already be found in the localist building worker movement’s earlier history.
    [Show full text]
  • Karl-Ulrich Gelberg, Die Protokolle Des
    Umschlag.qxd 09.03.2004 21:54 Seite 1 QbG Zur Reihe 3 DIE PROTOKOLLE DES VORBEREITENDEN Von den Quellen zur bayerischen Geschichte sind viele zentrale Doku- mente entweder überhaupt noch nicht gedruckt oder nur in veralteten, ERFASSUNGSAUSSCHUSSES IN AYERN schwer zugänglichen, oft unvollständigen und fehlerhaften Ausgaben. V B Diesem Mangel, der sowohl die Forschung als auch die universitäre Lehre betrifft, soll durch die Publikation bedeutsamer Quellenstücke in (8. MÄRZ – 24. JUNI 1946) einer praktikablen, preisgünstigen Form begegnet werden. Angestrebt ist ein verläßlicher Text als Grundlage für wissenschaftliche Arbeiten. Zum Inhalt dieses Bandes Die Bayerische Verfassung vom 8. Dezember 1946 entstand in mehre- ren Phasen. Den Auftakt bildeten die Beratungen des Vorbereitenden Verfassungsausschusses, der unter Vorsitz von Ministerpräsident Wil- helm Hoegner in 15 Sitzungen vom 8. März bis 24. Juni 1946 in der Münchner Staatskanzlei tagte. Im Unterschied zu den Protokollen des Verfassungsausschusses und des Plenums der Bayerischen Verfas- sunggebenden Landesversammlung lagen sie bisher nicht gedruckt vor. Die durch Einleitung, Sachkommentar und Personenregister erschlosse- ne Edition der Protokolle des Vorbereitenden Verfassungsausschusses komplettiert die Quellengrundlage zur bayerischen Verfassungsge- schichte der Nachkriegszeit. In dem neunköpfigen Ausschuß, dem Vertreter von CSU, SPD und KPD angehörten, wurden bereits wesentliche Grundzüge der späteren Ver- fassung festgelegt: so der Verzicht auf ein konstruktives Mißtrauens- votum
    [Show full text]
  • Raphael Friedeberg: Arzt Und Anarchist in Ascona
    In: Monte Verita, Berg der Wahrheit. Milano : Electa Ed., 1978. S. 38-53 HANS MANFRED BOCK/ RAPHAEL FRIEDEBERG: ARZT UND ANARCHIST IN FLORIAN TENNSTEDT ASCONA Als eine »der legendär gewordenen Gestalten von Ascona« galt Insbesondere die Forderung Friedebergs, die Krankenkassenbe­ Raphael Friedeberg seinen Zeitgenossen 1. Dort, in Ascona, wegung dürfe ihr organisatorisches Potential von 8,5 Millionen »lebte zeitweise eine ganze anarchistische Kolonie bei ihm« 2, al­ Mitgliedern nicht nur auf sozialpolitische Forderungen be­ les, »was sich Anarchist nennt, schart sich gern um seine sympa­ schränken, sondern müsse darüber hinaus »für kulturelle und thische Persönlichkeit« 3. Die in diesen Zeugnissen angespro­ ideelle Zwecke« den arbeitenden Massen dienstbar gemacht wer­ chene Rolle Friedebergs als Mittelpunkt anarchistischer Diskus­ den 10, ist ein Hinweis auf sein Vertrauen in die Möglichkeit, mit sion und anarchistischen Besucher-Verkehrs wird durch die er­ Hilfe der organisatorischen Macht der Arbeiterbewegung das 4 halten gebliebenen Teile seiner Korrespondenz bestätigt • Daß Elend der Lohnabhängigen beseitigen zu können, das sich ihm in Friedeberg während der mehr als drei Jahrzehnte seines zuerst seiner Praxis als Pulmologe am Beispiel der »Proletarier-Krank­ zeitweiligen, dann ständigen Aufenthaltes in Ascona aber nicht heit«, der Tuberkulose, drastisch dokumentierte. Diese über• nur dem Theoretiker des kommunistischen Anarchismus, Pjotr zeugung wurde jedoch erschüttert durch die taktische Entwick­ Kropotkin, und dem bedeutendsten
    [Show full text]
  • Witness to History
    WITNESS TO HISTORY A book by Michael Walsh This book will not break your heart, it will crush your heart in sorrow and compassion for all mankind. This one book, ABOVE ALL OTHERS I've read, puts together information using statements from historical figures in a way that, I believe, will erase doubts from any doubting Thomas that one of the biggest lies -- or mass of massive lies -- we've ever been told involve WWII, German National Socialism; its Chancellor, Adolf Hitler; and in fact WHO made that war happen. As I was reading this book to the listeners of our Sweet Liberty radio broadcast, we discovered the REAL hot-button. I received a phone call from WWCR questioning my 'motives' for presenting this information. THAT was a first, and reinforced my desire to share the information with as many as will listen/read/hear/see through the biggest lie. I continued to read until finally it became nearly impossible for listeners to hear the broadcast on a once-crystal clear frequency; on two occasions we were actually knocked off the air-waves. When the subject matter changed, the reception cleared up. From this I've realized that the lie must be maintained at all costs; we MUST hate Adolf Hitler with all the venom a serpent can muster or the perpetrators of the lie begin frothing at the mouth. Although the material presented on the broadcast is always controversial, and although the quality of our short-wave reception seems to be manipulated depending upon the topic at hand, this one subject is taboo, period.
    [Show full text]
  • In the Steps of Rosa Luxemburg Historical Materialism Book Series
    In the Steps of Rosa Luxemburg Historical Materialism Book Series Editorial Board Sébastien Budgen, Paris Steve Edwards, London Marcel van der Linden, Amsterdam Peter Thomas, London VOLUME 31 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/hm. In the Steps of Rosa Luxemburg Selected Writings of Paul Levi Edited and introduced by David Fernbach LEIDEN • BOSTON 2011 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Translations of ‘The Munich Experience: An Opposing View’ and ‘The Lessons of the Hungarian Revolution’ are taken from International Communism in the Era of Lenin by Helmut Gruber, copyright © 1972 by Helmut Gruber: used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. All other translations are by David Fernbach, copyright © 2011 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data In the steps of Rosa Luxemburg : selected writings of Paul Levi / edited and introduced by David Fernbach. p. cm. — (Historical materialism book series ; v. 31) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-19607-0 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Levi, Paul, 1883–1930. 2. Luxemburg, Rosa, 1871–1919. 3. Communists—Germany. 4. Communism— Germany—History—20th century. I. Fernbach, David. II. Title. III. Series. HX274.7.L48I5 2011 335.4092—dc22 2011012271 ISSN 1570-1522 ISBN 978 90 04 19607 0 Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.
    [Show full text]
  • 1904: Raphael Friedeberg - Die Anarchisten-Kolonie Ascona
    1904: Raphael Friedeberg - Die Anarchisten-Kolonie Ascona «Lag der organisatorische Mittelpunkt des deutschen Arbeiter-Anarchismus in Berlin, so gab es sozusagen einen gehei¬ men Treffpunkt der (anarchistischen) In¬ telligenz in Ascona am Lago Maggiore», diese Unterscheidung trifft Ulrich Linse in seiner Dissertation «Organisierter An¬ archismus im deutschen Kaiserreich» (Berlin 1969). Und die Ascona-Dossiers im Bundesarchiv zu Bern und dem Kan¬ tonalen Archiv in Bellinzona sind die Be¬ lege für die Massierung syndikalistischer und individueller Anarchisten in Ascona. Dr. Raphael Friedeberg machte mit sei¬ ner Kur bei den «Pflanzenfressern» den Anfang, und durch ihn kamen in der Blüte ihrer Boheme-Zeit Erich Mühsam, Johannes Nohl, aber auch der Grazer Psychiater Otto Gross, der Zürcher An¬ archist Ernst Frick, Dr. Fritz Brupbacher, der Schriftsteller Leonhard Frank, um nur die wichtigsten zu nennen. Mühsam widmete Ascona eine Broschüre glei¬ chen Namens (Locamo 1905), in der er zuerst mit der vegetarischen Kolonie ab¬ rechnete («ethische Wegelagerer mit ih¬ ren spiritistischen, theosophischen, ok¬ kultistischen und potenziert vegetari¬ schen Sparren»), um dann seine Vision darzulegen: «Daher wünsche ich in tief¬ ster Seele, Ascona möchte einmal ein Zufluchtsort werden für entlassene und entwichene Strafgefangene, für ver¬ folgte Heimatlose, für alle diejenigen, die als Opfer der bestehenden Zustände ge¬ hetzt, gemartert, steuerlos treiben und die doch die Sehnsucht noch nicht einge- büsst haben, unter Menschen, die sie als Mitmenschen
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    179 Dieter Nelles/ Hartmut Rübner links: Dieter Nelles/ Hartmut Rübner rechts: Anarchosyndikalisten in Deutschland in der Avantgarde einer egalitären Bewegung ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts Anarchosyndikalisten in Deutschland in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts Abstract The historic impact of anarcho-syndicalism as an autonomous current within the Ger- man workers’ movement lasted approximately 40 years. On a national scale, the Free Workers’ Union of Germany (FAUD), as the most influential organisation of this kind, appears as a marginalised association on the periphery of the labour movement. Only during the years 1919 to 1922/23 the FAUD asserted itself temporarily as an influential factor at shop floor levels in some regions of Germany. Once reaching a membership of more than 120,000 in the first years of the Weimar Republic, its membership substan- tially declined to only 4,307 in 1932, compared to 3.5 million Social Democrats in the All- gemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund. However, a more differentiated picture emerges locally. Anarcho-syndicalists frequently played an important role in the fight against the rise of the Nazi Party as well as in the inter-group culture and the self-help initiatives of the labour movement. Thereby, inter-generational social cohesion was gained not nec- essarily by acting as a trade union primarily committed to class conflict, but through diverse cultural engagements. In this respect, the formative influence of anarcho-syn- dicalist culture in everyday life functioned as an integrative agency of socialisation. The quasi-familial group structure at the base included all generations and therefore ensured continuity. In general, the organisation integrated children and attracted young people from socialist family backgrounds.
    [Show full text]
  • This Article Is a Close Reading of Representative Examples of Sickness Metaphors in Political Discourse in Interwar Germany
    76 “VACCINATE WITH CRISIS SERUM“– METAPHORS OF SICKNESS IN THE POLITICAL DISCOURSE OF WEIMAR GERMANY KNUT LANGEWAND UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK This article is a close reading of representative examples of sickness metaphors in political discourse in interwar Germany. After relating the issue to the theoretical assumptions of the history of concepts and discourse analysis with regard to the term “crisis”, it shows that even though the authors had different political views, they shared imageries of illness in order to engage with the contemporary crisis of German politics and society. n the recent occasion of a state visit in the course of the current Euro-zone debates, the German Chancellor was assured by her Italian counterpart that his country was no O longer “a possible source of infection” for Europe (Washington Post, “Italy’s Monti”). Whereas the characterization of current economic affairs as “critical” seems to be ubiquitous and unquestioned, it seems odd that a medical metaphor has obviously been chosen to function as an interpretative approach to this crisis. Contemporaries of interwar Germany with its manifold economic, social and political problems culminating in the “total crisis” of 1930- 1933 (Peukert 247) have framed their views on these overlapping crises in similar forms. But what purpose did metaphors of sickness serve within the Weimar discourse of crisis? Can they be connected to certain political currents? And why did (and do) authors resort to these metaphors in the context of “crisis”? 1. CRISIS AND SICKNESS The ubiquity of the term “crisis” in political discourse, its past and present use and the impression that there is a core substance to it which needs no further explanation (however vague its use) serves to illustrate the importance of how critical the engagement with such a central FOCUS ON GERMAN STUDIES 19 77 concept is.
    [Show full text]
  • Political Parties, 4
    Kitchener 2001 Batoche Books 52 Eby Street South Kitchener, Ontario N2G 3L1 Canada email: [email protected] Table of Contents Author's Preface. .................................................................................................... 5 Chapter 1. Democratic Aristocracy and Aristocratic Democracy .............. 7 Chapter 2. The Ethical Embellishment of Social Struggles. .................... 13 Part One / Leadership in Democratic Organizations. ........................................... 19 A. Technical and Administrative Causes of Leadership. ..................................... 19 Chapter 1. Introductory — The Need for Organization. .......................... 19 Chapter 2: Mechanical and Technical Impossibility of Direct Government by the Masses. .............................................................................. 20 Chapter 3: The Modern Democratic Party as a Fighting Party, Dominated by Militarist Ideas and Methods. .................................................. 31 B. Psychological Causes of Leadership. .............................................................. 33 Chapter 1. The Establishment of a Customary Right to the Office of Delegate. ...................................................................................... 33 Chapter 2. The Need for Leadership Felt by the Mass. ............................ 35 Chapter 3. The Political Gratitude of the Masses. ................................... 41 Chapter 4. The Cult of Veneration Among the Masses. .......................... 42 Chapter
    [Show full text]