CHAPTER XVII.

The Spartacans Rise Again.

Article xxvi of the armistice of November 11th declared:

"The Allies and the United States have in view the provisioning of Germany during the armistice to the extent deemed necessary."[65]

[65] Les Allies et les Etats-Unis envisagent le ravitaillement de l'Allemagne, pendant l'armistice, dans la mesure reconnue necessaire.

Even by the end of November it had become apparent to all intelligent observers on the ground and to many outside Germany that such provisioning was urgently necessary, and that if it did not come at once the result would be a spread of Bolshevism which would endanger all Europe. Allied journalists in Germany were almost a unit in recognizing the dangers and demands of the situation, but they were greatly hampered in their efforts to picture the situation truthfully by the sentiments prevailing in their respective countries as a result of the passions engendered by the conflict so lately ended. This was in the highest degree true as to the Americans, which was especially regrettable and unfortunate in view of the fact that America was the only power possessing a surplus of immediately available foodstuffs. American correspondents, venturing to report actual conditions in Germany, found themselves denounced as "pro-Germans" and traitors by the readers of their papers. More than this: they became the objects of unfavorable reports by officers of the American Military Intelligence, although many of these men themselves were convinced that empty stomachs were breeding Bolshevism with every passing day. One correspondent, who had been so bitterly anti-German from the very beginning of the war that he had had to leave Germany long before America entered the struggle, was denounced in a report to the Military Intelligence at Washington on March 3d as "having shown pro-German leanings throughout the war." An American correspondent with a long and honorable record, who had taken a prominent part in carrying on American propaganda abroad and upon whose reports high diplomatic officials of three of the Allied countries had relied, was astounded to learn that the Military Intelligence, in a report of January 11, 1919, had denounced him as "having gone to Berlin to create sentiment in the United States favorable to furnishing Germany food-supply."

There was less of this sort of thing in England, and many prominent Englishmen were early awake to the dangers that lay in starvation. Early in January Lord Henry Bentinck, writing to the London _Daily News_, declared there was no sense in maintaining the blockade. It was hindering the development of industry and the employment of the idle in England, and in Middle Europe it was killing children and keeping millions hungry and unemployed. The blockade, said Lord Henry, was the Bolshevists' best friend and had no purpose except to enable England to cut off her own nose in order to spite Germany's face. Many other leaders of thought in England took the same stand.

Despite the (at least inferential) promise in the armistice that Germany should be revictualled, not a step had been taken toward doing this when, on January 13th, more than two months after the signing of the armistice, President Wilson sent a message to administration leaders in Congress urging the appropriation of one hundred million dollars for food-relief in Europe.

"Food-relief is now the key to the whole European situation and to the solution of peace," said the President. "Bolshevism is steadily advancing westward; is poisoning Germany. It cannot be stopped by force, but it can be stopped by food, and all the leaders with whom I am in conference agree that concerted action in this matter is of immediate and vital importance."

So far, so good. This was a step in the right direction. But it had to be qualified. This was done in the next paragraph:

"The money will not be spent for food for Germany itself, because Germany can buy its food, but it will be spent for financing the movement of food to our real friends in Poland and to the people of the liberated units of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and to our associates in the Balkans.

Former Ambassador Henry White, a member of the American peace delegation, supported the President's appeal with a message stating that "the startling westward advance of Bolshevism now dominates the entire European situation. * * * The only effective barrier against it is food-relief."

The House adopted the President's recommendation without question, but the Senate insisted on adding a stipulation that no part of the money should be spent for food for Germany and no food bought with these funds should be permitted to reach that country.

Just how an ulcer in Germany was to be cured by poulticing similar ulcers in other countries is doubtless a statesmen's secret. It is not apparent to non-official minds. Germany, despite her poverty and the depreciation of her currency, might have been able to buy food, but she was not permitted to buy any food. At least one of "the liberated units of the Austro-Hungarian Empire" was in equally bad case. Count Michael Karolyi, addressing the People's Assembly at Budapest, declared that the Allies were not carrying out their part of the armistice agreement in the matter of food-supplies for Hungary, and that it was impossible to maintain order in such conditions. Whether the armistice actually promised to supply food is a matter of interpretation; that no food had been supplied is, however, a matter of history.

On January 17th a supplementary agreement was entered into between the Allies and Germany, in which the former undertook to permit the importation of two hundred thousand tons of breadstuffs and seventy thousand tons of pork products to Germany "in such manner and from such places as the Associated Governments may prescribe." This was but a part of the actual requirements of Germany for a single month, but if it had been supplied quickly it would have gone far toward simplifying the tremendous problem of maintaining a semblance of order in Germany.

Weeks passed, however, and no food came. With the Bolshevik conflagration spreading from city to city, long debates were carried on as to what fire department should be summoned and what kind of uniforms the firemen should wear. More districts of East Prussia and Posen, the chief granaries of Northeastern Germany and Berlin, were lost to Germany. There was a serious shortage of coal and gas in the cities.

Strikes became epidemic. Work was no longer occasionally interrupted by strikes; strikes were occasionally interrupted by work. Berlin's electric power-plant workers threw the city into darkness, and the example was followed in other cities. The proletarians were apparently quite as ready to exploit their brother proletarians as the capitalists were. Coal miners either quit work entirely or insisted on a seven-hour day which included an hour and a half spent in coming to and going from work, making the net result a day of five and a half hours. Street-car employees struck, and for days the undernourished people of the capital walked miles to work and home again. The shops were closed by strikes, stenographers and typewriters walked out; drivers of garbage wagons, already receiving the pay of cabinet ministers, demanded more pay and got it. From every corner of the country came reports of labor troubles, often accompanied by rioting and sabotage.

In most of these strikes the hand of Spartacus and the Independent Socialists could be discerned. The working people, hungry and miserable, waiting vainly week after week for the food which they believed had been promised them, were tinder for the Bolshevist spark. The government's unwise method of handling the problem of the unemployed further greatly aggravated the situation. The support granted the unemployed often or perhaps generally was greater than their pay in their usual callings. A man with a wife and four children in Greater Berlin received more than fourteen marks daily. The average wage for unskilled labor was from ten to twelve marks, and the result was that none but the most conscientious endeavored to secure employment, and thousands deliberately left their work and lived on their unemployment-allowances. Two hundred thousand residents of Greater Berlin were receiving daily support from the city by the middle of February, and this proportion was generally maintained throughout the country. This vast army of unemployed further crippled industry, imposed serious financial burdens upon an already bankrupt state, and--inevitable result of idleness--made the task of Bolshevist agitators easier.

The Spartacans, who since their defeat in Berlin in January had been more carefully watched, began to assemble their forces elsewhere. Essen became their chief stronghold, and the whole Ruhr district, including Duesseldorf, was virtually in their hands. Other Spartacan centers were Leipsic, Halle, Merseburg, Munich, Nuremberg, Mannheim and Augsburg. All this time, however, they were also feverishly active in Berlin. A general strike, called by the Spartacans and Independent Socialists for the middle of February, collapsed. A secret sitting of the leaders of the Red Soldiers' League on February 15th was surprised by the authorities, who arrested all men present and thus nipped in the bud for a time further preparations for a new revolt. The Independents made common cause with the Spartacans in demanding the liberation of all "political prisoners," chief among whom were Ledebour, who helped organize the revolt of January 5th, and Radek, "this international criminal," as Deputy Heinrich Heine termed him in a speech before the Prussian Diet.

The respite, however, was short. On Monday, March 3d, the Workmen's Council now completely in the hands of the enemies of the government called a general strike. Street cars, omnibuses and interurban trains stopped running, all business was suspended and nightfall plunged the city into complete darkness. This was the signal for the first disturbances. There was considerable rioting, with some loss of blood, in the eastern part of the city beyond Alexander Platz, a section always noted as the home of a large criminal element. Spartacans, reinforced by the hooligan and criminal element--or let it rather be said that these consisted and had from the beginning consisted mainly of hooligans and criminals--began a systematic attack on police-stations everywhere. Thirty-three stations were occupied by them during the night, the police officials were disarmed and their weapons distributed to the rabble that was constantly swelling the ranks of the rebels.

The first serious clash of this second Bolshevik week came at the Police-Presidency, which the Spartacans, as in January, planned to make their headquarters. This time, however, the building was occupied by loyal government troops, and the incipient attack dissolved before a few volleys. The night was marked by extensive looting. Jewelers in the eastern part of the city suffered losses aggregating many million marks.

The situation grew rapidly worse on Tuesday. Nearly thirty thousand government troops marched into the city, bringing light and heavy artillery, mine-throwers and machine-guns. Berlin was converted into an armed camp. The revolt would have been quickly put down but for an occurrence made possible by the government's weakness at Christmas time. The People's Marine Division, looters of the Royal Palace, parasites on the city's payroll and "guardians of the public safety," threw off the mask and went over to the Spartacans in a body. A considerable number of the Republican Soldier Guards, Eichhorn's legacy to Berlin, followed suit. The government's failure to disarm these forces six weeks earlier, when their Bolshevist sentiments had become manifest, now had to be paid for in blood. The defection was serious not only because it added to the numbers of the Bolsheviki, but also because it greatly increased the supplies of weapons and munitions at the disposal of the enemies of the government.

The defection, too, came as a surprise and at a most unfortunate time. The Marine Division, upon which the commanders of the government troops had naively depended, had been ordered to clear the Alexander Platz, a large open place in front of the Police-Presidency. They began ostensibly to carry out the order, but had hardly reached the place when they declared that they had been fired on by government troops. Thereupon they attacked the Police-Presidency, but were beaten off with some twenty-five killed. They withdrew to the Marine House at the Jannowitz Bridge, which they had been occupying since their expulsion from the Royal Stables, and set about fortifying it.

The following day--Ash Wednesday--was marked by irregular but severe fighting in various parts of the city. The government proclaimed a state of siege. More loyal troops were brought to the city. From captured Spartacans it was learned that a massed attack on the Police-Presidency was to be made at eleven o'clock at night by the People's Marine Division, the Red Soldiers' League and civilian Spartacans. The assault did not begin until nearly three o'clock Thursday morning. Despite the government troops' disposition, the Spartacans succeeded, after heavy bombardment of the building, in occupying two courts in the southern wing. The battle was carried on throughout the night and until Thursday afternoon. Few cities have witnessed such civil warfare. Every instrument known to military science was used, with the exception of poison-gases. Late on Thursday afternoon the attackers were dispersed and the Spartacans in the Police-Presidency, about fifty men, were arrested.

The Marine House was also captured on the same afternoon. The defenders hoisted the white flag after a few mines had been thrown into the building, but had disappeared when the government troops occupied it. What their defection to the Spartacans had meant was illustrated by the finding in the building of several thousand rifles, more than a hundred machine guns, two armored automobiles and great quantities of ammunition and provisions. The Republican Soldiers' Guard, barricaded in the Royal Stables, surrendered after a few shells had been fired.

The fighting so completely took on the aspects of a real war that the wildest atrocity stories began to circulate. They were, like all atrocity stories, greatly exaggerated, but it was established that Spartacans had killed unarmed prisoners, including several policemen, had stopped and wrecked ambulances and killed wounded, and had systematically fired on first-aid stations and hospitals. Noske rose to the occasion like a mere _bourgeois_ minister. He decreed:

"All persons found with arms in their hands, resisting government troops, will be summarily executed."

Despite this decree, the Spartacans, who had erected street-barricades in that part of Berlin eastward and northward from Alexander Platz, put up a show of resistance for some days. They were, however, seriously shaken by their heavy losses and weakened by the wholesale defections of supporters who had joined them chiefly for the sake of looting and who had a wholesale respect for Noske as a man of his word. They had good reason to entertain this respect for the grim man in charge of the government's military measures. The government never made public the number of summary executions under Noske's decree, but there is little doubt that these went well above one hundred. A group of members of the mutinous People's Marine Division had the splendid effrontery to call at the office of the city commandant to demand the pay due them as protectors of the public safety. Government troops arrested the callers, a part of whom resisted arrest. Twenty-four of these men, found to have weapons in their possession, were summarily executed.

_Die Freiheit_ and _Die Republik_ denounced the members of the government as murderers. The office of the Spartacans' _Die rote Fahne_ had been occupied by government troops on the day of the outbreak of the Bolshevik uprising. The _bourgeois_ and Majority Socialist press supported the government whole-heartedly, and the law-abiding citizens were encouraged by their new rulers' energy and by the loyalty and bravery of the government troops. There was a general recognition of the fact that matters had reached a stage where a minority, in part deluded and in part criminal, could not longer be permitted to terrorize the country.

The uprising collapsed rapidly after the Spartacans had been driven from their main strongholds. They maintained themselves for a few days in Lichtenberg, a suburb of Berlin, and--as in the January uprisings--sniping from housetops continued for a week. No list of casualties was ever issued, but estimates ran as high as one thousand, of which probably three-quarters were suffered by the Spartacans. They were further badly weakened by the loss of a great part of their weapons, both during the fighting and in a general clean-up of the city which was made after the uprising had been definitely put down.

As we have seen, the efforts of the German Bolsheviki, aided by the left wing of the Independent Socialists, to overthrow the government by force had failed wherever the attempt had been made. Not only in Berlin, but in a dozen other cities and districts as well, the enemies of democracy had been decisively defeated. In Munich and Brunswick alone they were still strong and defiant, but they were to be defeated even there later. In these circumstances it might have been expected that they would not again be able to cause serious trouble to the government. But a new aspect was put on circumstances by an occurrence whose inevitability had long been recognized by close observers.

The Independent Social-Democratic Party went over to the Spartacans officially, bag and baggage.

In theory, to be sure, it did nothing of the kind. It maintained its own organization, "rejected planless violence," declared its adherence to "the fundamental portion of the Erfurt program," and asserted its readiness to use "all political and economic means" to attain its aims, "including parliaments," which were rejected by the Spartacans. Apart from this, however, there was little difference in theory and none in practice between the platforms of the two parties, for the Independents declared themselves for Soviet government and for the dictatorship of the proletariat, and their rejection of violent methods existed only on paper.

The party congress convened at Berlin on March 2d and lasted four days. Haase and Dittmann, the former cabinet members, were again in control, and it could not be observed in their attitude that there had been a time when they risked a loss of influence in the party by standing too far to the right. The "revolution-program" adopted by the party declared that the revolutionary soldiers and workingmen of Germany, who had seized the power of the state in November, "have not fortified their power nor overcome the capitalistic class-domination." It continued:

"The leaders of the Socialists of the Right (Majority) have renewed their pact with the _bourgeois_ classes and deserted the interests of the proletariat. They are carrying on a befogging policy with the words 'democracy' and 'Socialism.'

"In a capitalistic social order democratic forms are a deceit. So long as economic liberation and independence do not follow upon political liberation there is no true democracy. Socialization, as the Socialists of the Right are carrying it out, is a comedy."

The program declared a new proletarian battling organization necessary, and continued:

"The proletarian revolution has created such an organization in the Soviet system. This unites for revolutionary activities the laboring masses in the industries. It gives the proletariat the right of self-government in industries, in municipalities and in the state. It carries through the change of the capitalistic economic order to a socialistic order.

"In all capitalistic lands the Soviet system is growing out of the same economic conditions and becoming the bearer of the proletarian world-revolution.

"It is the historic mission of the Independent Social-Democratic Party to become the standard bearer of the class-conscious proletariat in its revolutionary war of emancipation.

"The Independent Social-Democratic Party places itself upon the foundation of the Soviet system. It supports the Soviets in their struggle for economic and political power.

"It strives for the dictatorship of the proletariat, the representatives of the great majority of the people, as a necessary condition precedent for the effectuation of Socialism.

"In order to attain this end the party will employ all political and economic means of battle, including parliaments." With this preface, these "immediate demands" of the party were set forth:

"1. Inclusion of the Soviet system in the constitution: the Soviets to have a deciding voice in municipal, state and industrial legislation.

"2. Complete disbandment of the old army. Immediate disbandment of the mercenary army formed from volunteer corps. Organization of a national guard from the ranks of the class-conscious proletariat. Self-administration of the national guard and election of leaders by the men. Abolishment of courts-martial.

"3. The nationalization of capitalistic undertakings shall be begun immediately. It shall be carried through without delay in the mining industry and production of energy (coal, water, electricity), iron and steel production as well as other highly developed industries, and in the banking and insurance business. Large estates and forests shall immediately be converted into the property of society, whose task it shall be to raise all economic undertakings to the highest point of productivity by the employment of all technical and economic means, as well as to further comradeship. Privately owned real estate in the cities shall become municipal property, and the municipalities shall build an adequate number of dwellings on their own account.

"4. Election of officials and judges by the people. Immediate constitution of a state court which shall determine the responsibility of those persons guilty of bringing on the war and of hindering the earlier conclusion of peace.

"5. War profits shall be taxed entirely out of existence. A portion of all large fortunes shall be handed over to the state. Public expenditures shall be covered by a graduated tax on incomes, fortunes and inheritances. The war loans shall be annulled, but necessitous individuals, associations serving the common welfare, institutions and municipalities shall be indemnified.

"6. Extension of social legislation. Protection and care of mother and child. A care-free existence shall be assured to war widows and orphans and the wounded. Superfluous rooms of the possessing class shall be placed at the disposition of the homeless. Fundamental reform of public-health systems.

"7. Separation of church from state and of church from school. Uniform public schools of secular character, which shall be erected on socialistic-pedagogic principles. Every child shall have a right to an education corresponding to his capacities, and to the furnishing of means toward that end.

"8. A public monopoly of newspaper advertisements shall be created for the benefit of municipalities.

"9. Establishment of friendly relations with all nations. Immediate resumption of diplomatic relations with the Russian Soviet Republic and Poland. Reestablishment of the Workmen's _Internationale_ on the basis of revolutionary social policy in the spirit of the international conferences of Zimmerwald and Kienthal."

It will be observed that the difference between these demands and those of the Bolsheviki (Spartacans) is precisely the difference between tweedledum and tweedledee--one of terminology. Some even of these principles were materially extended by interpretation three weeks later. On March 24th the Independent Socialists in the new Prussian Diet, replying to a query from the Majority Socialists as to their willingness to participate in the coming Prussian Constituent Assembly, stated conditions which contained the following elaboration of point 3 in the program given above:

"The most important means of production in agriculture, industry, trade and commerce shall be nationalized immediately; the land and its natural resources shall be declared to be the property of the whole people and shall be placed under the control of society."

The answer, by the way, was signed by Adolph Hoffmann, whose acquaintance we have already made, and Kurt Rosenfeld, the millionaire son-in-law of a wealthy leather dealer.

The essential kinship of the Independents and Spartacans will be more clearly apparent from a comparison of the latters' demands, as published on April 14th in _Die rote Fahne_, then appearing in Leipsic. They follow:

"Ruthless elimination of all Majority Socialist leaders and of such Independents as have betrayed the Soviet system and the revolution by their cooperation with Majority Socialists.

"Unconditional acceptance of the demands of the Spartacus Party's program.[66]

[66] _Vide_ chapter xi.

"Immediate introduction of the following measures: (a) Liberation of all political prisoners; (b) dissolution of all parliamentary gatherings; (c) dissolution of all counter-revolutionary troop detachments, disarming of the _bourgeoisie_ and the internment of all officers; (d) arming of the proletariat and the immediate organization of revolutionary corps; (e) abolition of all courts and the erection of revolutionary tribunals, together with the trial by these tribunals of all persons involved in bringing on the war, of counter-revolutionaries and traitors; (f) elimination of all state administrative officials and boards (mayors, provincial councillors, etc.), and the substitution of delegates chosen by the people; (g) adoption of a law providing for the taking over by the state without indemnification of all larger undertakings (mines, etc.), together with the larger landed estates, and the immediate taking over of the administration of these estates by workmen's councils; (h) adoption of a law annulling war-loans exceeding twenty thousand marks; (i) suppression of the whole _bourgeois_ press, including particularly the Majority Socialist press."

Some of the members of the former right wing of the Independent Socialists left the party and went over to the Majority Socialists following the party congress of the first week in March. They included the venerable Eduard Bernstein, who declared that the Independents had demonstrated that they "lacked utterly any constructive program." The dictates of party discipline, however, together with the desperation of suffering, were too much for the great mass of those who had at first rejected Bolshevist methods, and the German Bolsheviki received material reinforcements at a time when they would have been powerless without them.

The Spartacans had lost their armed battle against the government, but they had won a more important bloodless conflict.