A Soldier of the Revolution

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From May 11 to May 26, 1872, Wilhelm Liebknecht, August Bebel and [Adolf] Hepner had an opportunity to justify, in speeches directed against the bourgeoisie, their attitude in the Franco-German War of 1870-71. This trial, before the Leipzig Imperial Jury, is one of the culminating points in the German workers’ movement. Liebknecht was given two years of fortress imprisonment. It was in the course of the sessions of the court that Liebknecht made the above proud confession of faith of a soldier of the revolution.

I am what I always have been. In many ways I have continued to develop, but essentially I hold the views I held twenty-two years ago. In my emotions, in my judgment of individual men and things, I have often been mistaken; in my end, my goal, my general view of life, I have become firmer and firmer. I am not the degraded adventurer that my calumniator would make of me. Very early in my life I burned my ships behind me and have since then worked uninterruptedly for my principles. I have never sought my own personal advantage; wherever I have had to choose between my own interests and my principles, I have never hesitated to sacrifice my interests.

If I am now a poor man, after my monstrous persecutions, it is not my disgrace — I am proud of the fact; it is the most eloquent certificate of my political honor. And again I say: I am not a professional conspirator: I am not a knight-errant of subversion. But I should have no objection to your terming me a soldier of the revolution.

A twofold ideal has inspired me from my earliest years: a free, united Germany, and the emancipation of the working class, i.e., the abolition of class rule, which is equivalent to the liberation of mankind. This dual goal has been the inspiration of all my energies, and I shall fight for both these goals as long as a breath remains within me. My duty requires it.

The president of the court also takes offense at the final admonition of my speech: “Proletarians of all lands, unite!” What is the meaning of these words? They mean: you workers in the south and in the east, in the north and in the west, everywhere on the earth’s surface, all you that are weary and heavy laden, you outcasts and unfortunates for whom there is no place at the banquet board of society, you who create in the sweat of your brow the riches enjoyed by others, I ask you to acknowledge the fact that in spite of the national barriers that separate you, your cause is everywhere the same, your distress everywhere the result of the same causes, and that everywhere, therefore, the same means will be necessary to terminate your misery; therefore cast aside the national prejudices that have hitherto kept you apart, to the advantage of your common foes, and to your own great harm, in hostile camps, and often engaged in fraternal murder; unite under the banner of a love for mankind and work, filled with noble zeal, in the consciousness of a sublime common goal, as various divisions of one and the same army, as individual links of a single great human family, in the work of the general liberation!

Who will have the impudence to condemn so magnificent and world-redeeming an ambition? We live in a country in which Christianity is the state religion; we face judges and jurors who accept Christianity; did not Christ himself, according to tradition, address himself chiefly to the impoverished? Is it not the principal merit of Christianity, in so far as it has not been degraded to the service of unholy national and class purposes, that it burst asunder the narrow-hearted nationalism of the Hebrews and substituted for it the idea of a universal humanity, i.e., in modern words, the principle of internationalism?

I do not want any one to think that I am a Christian — but a state, a society, which calls itself “Christian” has in truth no right to cast a stone at aspirations which are in harmony with the fundamental teachings of Christianity and have as their goal the realization of all these teachings, their translation from empty words into real life. And — to drop the subject of Christianity — is not the entire drift of human development international in its evolution? Commerce, industry, art, science, are international, cosmopolitan. Every progressive step in trade, industry, art, science, means a defeat for the national principle, victory for the international principle. Only he who has an interest in the preservation of the existing evils, only he who is an opponent of human progress, can be hostile to the principle of internationalism, can feel himself threatened by that principle.

It is a completely hopeless enterprise to attempt to oppose internationalism. The international principle is as immortal as mankind, and though it be calumniated, incarcerated and tried by military tribunals, it will step forth from each fiery baptism, purified and strengthened, and will continue its victorious course around the world. But those who oppose this principle are pronouncing their own condemnation; and any one who would declare our aspirations to be high treason against the State of the present day, would be thus merely deposing testimony in favor of the correctness of our view, namely, that humanity can not fulfill its destiny except in a universal republic, and that the happiness and peace of nations are incompatible with the continued existence of monarchies.

I pass over with contempt the attacks and calumnies of our enemies. I consider them an honor to me and I regard the fact that the entire feudal, clerical, and bourgeois press is now slinging mud upon us as a proof that we are on the right path, that our blows have struck home. . . .

In the days of revolution, dictatorship is a necessity, but not the dictatorship of a single individual; we are then under the dictatorship of the club, of the people, of the workers, as was the case in France in 1793. He who would make himself an individual dictator may be greeted by laughter alone, in peaceful times, as once was Lassalle’s way of putting it; but in revolutionary days, you take him out and shoot him.