'Reform or Revolution', redux: Eduard Bernstein on the 1918-19 German Revolution (original) (raw)
Related papers
Eduard Bernstein on Socialism Past and Present
2021
This book presents six major texts and selected shorter writings by the social-democratic thinker and politician Eduard Bernstein, translated into English for the first time: Socialism Past and Present; The Social Doctrine of Anarchism; Social Liberalism or Collectivism?; How is Scientific Socialism Possible?; What is Socialism?; The Socialisation of Enterprises; and articles from the periodicals Neue Zeit and Sozialistische Monatshefte alongside several unpublished manuscripts. Written over the period 1893 to 1931, these works focus on socialism as an ideology, and trace debates about ethics, social science, and class struggle that preoccupied the early-20th-century socialist movement. Bernstein carefully demarcates the boundaries between socialism and its ideological rivals, contrasting its communitarian aspirations with individualistic liberalism and anarchism, and its adherence to democratic methods with the totalitarian violence of communism and fascism. He revisits the intellectual canon of socialist thought, recentring contributions by Ferdinand Lassalle, Karl Rodbertus, and other neglected figures alongside those of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Urging socialists to seize the opportunities afforded by their growing political representation, Bernstein addresses the strategies needed to achieve progressive policy reforms, including the prospects for realising socialism with the foundation of the Weimar Republic.
The German Revolution and Political Theory (introduction)
Palgrave, 2019
This book is the first collection within political theory to examine the ideas and debates of the German Revolution of 1918/19. It discusses the political theorists and actors of the revolution and uncovers an incredibly fertile body of political thought. Revolutionary events led to the proliferation of new political strategies, theoretical insights and institutional proposals. Key questions included the debate between a national assembly and a council system, the socialisation of the economy, the development of new forms of political representation and the proper role of parliaments, political parties and trade unions. This book offers novel perspectives on the history of the revolution, a thorough engagement with its main thinkers and an analysis of its relevance for contemporary political thought.
Global Intellectual History, 2022
Book review of: Eduard Bernstein on Social Democracy and International Politics. Essays and Other Writings, by Marius S. Ostrowski, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, 442 pp., 109(Hardcover),ISBN:9783319707808and9783319707815(eBook);EduardBernsteinontheGermanRevolution.SelectedHistoricalWritings.,byMariusS.Ostrowski,PalgraveMacmillan,SpringerInternationalPublishingAG,Switzerland,2020,429pp.,109 (Hardcover), ISBN: 9783319707808 and 9783319707815 (eBook); Eduard Bernstein on the German Revolution. Selected Historical Writings., by Marius S. Ostrowski, Palgrave Macmillan, Springer International Publishing AG, Switzerland, 2020, 429 pp., 109(Hardcover),ISBN:9783319707808and9783319707815(eBook);EduardBernsteinontheGermanRevolution.SelectedHistoricalWritings.,byMariusS.Ostrowski,PalgraveMacmillan,SpringerInternationalPublishingAG,Switzerland,2020,429pp.,97, ISBN: 9783030277185 and 9783030277192 (eBook); Eduard Bernstein on Socialism Past and Present. Essays and Lectures on Ideology., by Marius S. Ostrowski, Palgrave Macmillan, Springer International Publishing AG, Switzerland, 2021, 722 pp., $84,99, ISBN: 9783030504830 and 9783030504847 (eBook)
Introduction In Search of the German Revolution
2015
nouncement, Rosa Luxemburg published an article in Die Rote Fahne under the heading: 'The Beginning' in which she called for the broadening and deepening of the revolution. 'The revolution has begun', she wrote, 'Not jubilation for that achieved; not triumph over the defeated enemy are appropriate [at this time], but the toughest self-criticism and iron discipline over the energy needed to continue the work started.' 2 There were other radical voices, not least those of the Independent Socialist Emil Barth and Richard Müller, the leader of the revolutionary Greater Berlin Workers' and Soldiers' Council. These radicals had a fundamentally different vision for Germany than that of the Social Democrats and their liberal allies. They sought a thorough-going transformation of Germany's political and economic institutions that would spell the end of the capitalist era and the inauguration of the 'dictatorship of the proletariat'. That a revolution of sorts had occurred was nonetheless acknowledged by contemporaries. Hermann Müller, who would twice serve as chancellor at the head of coalition governments, recounted in his memoirs published little more than a dozen years later, how on 5 November when Admiral Souchon gave up command of Kiel, a sailor's mutiny transformed into a revolution. 3 Ernst Troeltsch noted that 'revolution hung in the air' already since the winter of 1917. He was unambiguous in his verdict that in November 'the long feared and expected revolution had broken out'. But he also noted that it was over as soon as it had taken place. Writing barely three weeks after the 9 November, Troeltsch used the past tense: 'Germany had its victorious revolution as once England, America and France had'; but unlike these revolutions, Germany's had been a quiet affair, with hardly any bloodshed spilled. 4 His well-known contemporary, Harry Graf Kessler, the 'red count', also noted the brevity and muteness of the revolution. 5 By mid-November, Kessler observed what he believed to be the unrevolutionary character of the revolution: 'The first Sunday after the revolution. Late in the afternoon large crowds of walkers crossed [Unten den] Linden to the Marstall to look at the marks on the buildings left by gunfire. All were very peaceful in their petty-bourgeois curiosity […].' 6 And when he returned from Poland in mid
2019
In 1865, the International expanded in Europe and established its !rst important nuclei in Belgium and French-speaking Switzerland. The Prussian Combination Laws, which prevented German political associa- tions from having regular contacts with organizations in other countries, meant that the International was unable to open sections in what was then the German Confederation. The General Association of German Workers—the !rst workers’ party in history,1 founded in 1863 and led by Lassalle’s disciple Johann Baptist von Schweitzer—followed a line of ambivalent dialogue with Otto von Bismarck and showed little or no interest in the International during the early years of its existence. It was an indifference shared by Wilhelm Liebknecht, despite his political prox- imity to Marx. Johann Philipp Becker tried to !nd a way around these dif!culties through the Geneva-based “Group of German-speaking Sections”. While Liebknecht did not understand the centrality of the international dimension for the struggle of the workers’ movement, Marx also had deep theoretical and political differences with von Schweitzer. In February 1865 he wrote to the latter that “the aid of the Royal Prussian govern-ment for co-operative societies”, which the Lassalleans welcomed, was “worthless as an economic measure, whilst, at the same time, it serve[d] to extend the system of tutelage, corrupt part of the working class and emasculate the movement”. Marx went on to reject any possibility of an alliance between the workers and the monarchy...