Evening star., 1933-08-13
Hitler's Conquest of Socialism


political liberties. The rights of man
faded into the abstraction of ''princi-
Piles" all the more sacred that they were
the less touched upon. 1t soon came
about that all serious struggles in the
field of abstract politics were dreaded.
Did not one thereby run the risk of
diverting the energies of the people
from the constructive" work and of
endangering the magnificent material
results so painstakingly achieved?
Such was the prudent reason the lead
ers gave to less prudent followers; and
they were sincere; sincere even If it
was a certain fear of the violent meth
DDS of the imperial government that
confirmed them in their prudent die
trinal attitude.
effective Liberty"
The dogma of historic materialism
furthermore, justified a certain con-
tempt for constitutional questions. u
The doctrine soothed the consciences;
one kneW-had Marx not said it?-
that the triumph of the proletariat was
an automatic fatality; effective lib
erty'' would set in without effort on
the day the 'proletariat" had acquired
a predominant situation in the play
of productive forces Glad to have
succeeded. proud Of the parliamentary
reSpectability they had won for them
selves, their conSciences set at rest by
the development of state insurance
why should the German Socialist lead
erS have desired radical change?
Whence, and for motives even more
mediocre than Bismarck s-with Bis
marck it was contempt, with them
mistrust-came inverted selection for
all the posts Of the party: all ardent
personality was excluded for fear he
or she might not always bow to the
powers; promotions, including election
to the Reichstag, became merely re-
ward for discipline, for the qualities re-
qulred of a good petit-bourgeois clerk
The petty suspicion with which the
Socialist party kept Franz Mehring in
the backerOund-th only brilliant pen
German Socialism could bOast-stands
as proof of the real fear the Socialist
leaders had of intelligence and of icono-
clasts. Had not Mehring dared to write
crltlcism-unjust and cruel, perhaps
but pOWerful-of the work of His Ma
jestv Frederick II?
When defeat came with Hitler's tri-
umph-a defeat without struggle and
therefore without hOnOr-Some French
Socialists and British Laborites tried to
find excuses for the incredible weak
ness Of their German colleagues: but
none-except the Belgian leader Van
dervelde-dared to say the simple truth
that the German Socialists had been
so easily destroyed because they had
believed too much in material sue
cesses and too little in the supreme ne
cesSity of freedom-freedom for all ard
not for one class alone.
But the terrible trials of Nazi vio-
lence and racial intolerance now going
on in Germany will not have been in
vain if our sons-beyond all frontiers
learn that liberty is P right which
must be won anew each day and which
must be deserved by constant struggle
for moral elevation even more than b.
materialistic victories Mazzini warned
the Italians. about 1910: You viii not
have things better until you are better
yourselves" What the prophet of the
Italian Risorgimento said in q world
where the ideals Of the American and
French revolutions were still strong and
living forces is even truer today in a
world which seems in danger of laps
ing once more into a catastrophe of
barbariSm such as came about at the
fall Of the Roman civilization.