ERICH MÜHSAM LIBERATING SOCIETY FROM THE STATE AND OTHER WRITINGS A POLITICAL READER Edited and Translated by Gabriel Kuhn Liberating Society from the State and Other Writings: A Political Reader Erich Mühsam Edited and translated by Gabriel Kuhn ISBN: 978-1-60486-055-9 LCCN: 2010927794 This edition copyright ©2011 PM Press All Rights Reserved PM Press PO Box 23912 Oakland, CA 94623 www.pmpress.org Cover by John Yates/stealworks.com Layout based on design by Daniel Meltzer Printed by the Employee Owners of Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan. www.thomsonshore.com Published in the EU by The Merlin Press Ltd. 6 Crane Street Chambers, Crane Street, Pontypool NP4 6ND, Wales www.merlinpress.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-85036-683-9 TABLE OF CONTENTS Editor’s Note ...........................................................................................................v Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 Childhood and Youth Autobiography .....................................................................................................25 “Father’s 72nd Birthday” .....................................................................................27 1900–1904: Literary and Anarchist Awakening The “Homosexuality” Pamphlet .........................................................................33 1904–1909: Traveling Years “Johannes Nohl” ...................................................................................................39 Excerpts from “Ascona” ........................................................................................43 Bohemia ................................................................................................................55 1909–1914: Munich I, Socialist Bund and Kain New Friends .........................................................................................................61 The Fifth Estate ...................................................................................................65 My Secret Society ................................................................................................69 “Riot in Berlin” .....................................................................................................74 Women’s Rights ...................................................................................................76 The Moroccan War..............................................................................................80 Anarchy.................................................................................................................84 The Suffragette Amazons ...................................................................................86 Culture and the Women’s Movement ................................................................88 The Blessing of Children ....................................................................................92 Ritual Murder ......................................................................................................95 1914–1918: Munich II, The War The Great Slaughter ............................................................................................99 Kain Letter .........................................................................................................104 “The Typical German” .......................................................................................105 “Discharged” .......................................................................................................106 “Plans for Anti-War Protests” ..........................................................................108 “Riot in Munich” ................................................................................................109 “Bernhard Köhler” .............................................................................................113 1918–1919: Munich III, Revolution and Council Republic Karl Liebknecht–Rosa Luxemburg .................................................................117 Excerpts from “From Eisner to Leviné” ...........................................................120 “Gustav Landauer’s Death” ...............................................................................127 “Zenzl” ................................................................................................................129 Final Court Statement ......................................................................................131 “Sentenced” .........................................................................................................134 1919–1924: Imprisonment “The Ebrach Prison Commune” .......................................................................137 On the Jewish Question ....................................................................................139 The Intellectuals .................................................................................................145 “Max Hoelz” .......................................................................................................150 “Hitler and the Fledgling Nazi Movement” ....................................................152 “Free!” ..................................................................................................................157 1924–1933: Berlin Germany Needs Colonies .................................................................................161 Bismarxism .........................................................................................................162 The Anarchists ...................................................................................................167 Sacco and Vanzetti ............................................................................................174 Leaving the Rote Hilfe ......................................................................................182 Liberating Society from the State: What Is Communist Anarchism? Preface .................................................................................................................187 I. The Worldview of Anarchism .......................................................................188 II. The Way of Anarchism ................................................................................220 Appendix I Additional Diary Entries ..................................................................................247 Additional Letters .............................................................................................256 Appendix II The Fate of Zenzl Mühsam ..............................................................................267 Bibliography German ...............................................................................................................287 English ................................................................................................................293 Index....................................................................................................................295 EDITOR’S NOTE ext to Gustav Landauer, Erich Mühsam has been Germany’s most influential anarchist. Johann Most and NRudolf Rocker had a bigger international impact, but Landauer and Mühsam have left the biggest mark on anarchist his- tory in the country itself. Mühsam’s Die Befreiung der Gesellschaft vom Staat. Was ist kommunistischer Anarchismus?, included in this volume as Liberating Society from State: What Is Communist Anarchism?, is arguably the most widely read anarchist text in Germany. Die Befreiung der Gesellschaft vom Staat was the programmatic sum- mary of Mühsam’s political beliefs, penned one year before his death. It is presented in this book alongside numerous essays, letters, and diary entries, documenting the life of a unique personality straddling the lines between bohemia and proletarian organizing. The volume’s selection contains Mühsam’s best-known and most frequently reprinted essays, such as “Bohemia” and “Bismarxism,” as well as texts chosen particularly with an English readership in mind, such as his articles on Sacco and Vanzetti. With few exceptions, the texts appear in chronological order, hopefully providing a comprehensive overview of the intersections of Mühsam’s life, thought, and politics. The order of the chapters follows the structure of the Introduction. Two appendixes provide additional material: the first contains supplementary diary entries and letters; the second documents the fate of Erich’s wife, Kreszentia “Zenzl” Mühsam, who spent twenty years imprisoned and exiled in the Soviet Union after her husband’s death–a horrendous tale of Stalinist persecution. Apart from political essays and articles, Mühsam wrote plays and hundreds of poems. Both his work as a playwright and as a poet de- serve detailed study, which has been conducted by some scholars, even in English.1 This volume, however, focuses on Mühsam as a political v Liberating Society from the State and Other Writings Editor’s Note thinker and activist, reflecting both the editor’s and the publisher’s main interest and providing an addition to the Gustav Landauer reader, Revolution and Other Writings, published by PM Press in 2010. All of the texts in this volume are published in print in English for the first time and have been translated by Gabriel Kuhn, with the translation of Die Befreiung der Gesellschaft vom Staat borrowing elements from the online translation made available by Chris Edmonston on erichinenglish.org in 2008.2 Translating Erich Mühsam Translating texts that are