Karl Liebknecht — The New Burgfrieden

In this ruthless article, the famous German revolutionary lambastes the faux concept of “unity” with the counterrevolution and delivers a scathing critique of Burgfriedenspolitik.

Introduction

“The New Burgfrieden” was written by the prominent German Communist Karl Liebknecht at the dawn of the German [political] revolution, which was already in full motion during the first days of November 1918. Liebknecht convincingly preaches against the false notion of “unity” and exposes its negative aspects, demanding utmost concentration on mass activity and clarity of action, which can only be refined by ruthless critique and experience.

Originally titled “Der neue Burgfrieden,” this article was published by Karl Liebknecht in Die Rote Fahne, no. 4, November 19, 1918.

The New Burgfrieden

By Karl Liebknecht

“I no longer know any parties, I only know Germans.” This lie stood at the beginning of the world war. Deceptive phrases suggesting the holy unity of all classes misted the minds of the people and even turned workers into passionate warmongering patriots bursting with murderous madness. It was as if a flood had swept away all proletarian class-consciousness — and this at a moment when nothing but the proletarian class struggle against imperialism would have been able to save the world from the atrocities and the slaughter that followed. The “holy unity” delivered the masses unconditionally into the claws of the war profiteers;

The “holy unity” meant mass murder, the misery of millions, cultural devastation, hell. Its most effective and most unscrupulous propagandists were the politicians of the SPD defending the Burgfrieden: [1] everyone who dared raise a warning voice against the betrayers of the proletariat was persecuted as an obstructionist, troublemaker, traitor, and saboteur.

“We no longer know different socialist parties, we only know socialists.” This lie stands at the end of the world war. The flag of a new Burgfrieden has been hoisted. Fanatical hatred is sown against everyone who rejects the new delirium of “unity.” Once again, the loudest voices are those of Scheidemann and his allies.

These voices find strong support among the soldiers. This is hardly surprising. Far from all soldiers are proletarians, and sieges, censorship, state propaganda, and indoctrination have left their mark. Nonetheless, most soldiers have revolutionary sentiments and reject militarism, war, and the representatives of imperialism; with respect to socialism, however, they are still divided, uncertain, and immature.

Many of the proletarian soldiers have been subjected to the same deadening social-imperialist blabber as the workers. This means that they believe the claims about a revolution that has already been won. All they are worried about now is a peace agreement and demobilization. They long after some quiet years after years of torture. However, they ignore that the “revolution” — tolerated by practically all state officials — has so far meant hardly more than the collapse of the autocratic remnants of the “mad year” of 1848; [2] in other words, what we have witnessed has mainly been the completion of the bourgeois revolution. The proletariat might have seized political power. This step, however, can only be justified if it actually leads to toppling economic class rule, which is the proletariat’s historical task. The soldiers ignore that the problems of peace, demobilization, and economic development can only be solved if the proletariat pursues this task.

Unity. No one can long for it more than we do. Unity means to make the proletariat strong enough to fulfill its historical mission. But not all kinds of unity make strong. Unity between fire and water extinguishes the fire and makes the water evaporate. Unity between the wolf and the lamb turns the lamb into the wolf ’s dinner. Unity between the proletariat and the ruling classes sacrifices the workers. Unity with betrayers means defeat. Only forces with the same goals grow stronger from unity. To chain opposite forces together means to paralyze them. Forces with the same goals connect. That is our ambition. The ambition of the current apostles of unity is to tie opposite forces together to constrain and divert the revolution. It is the same ambition that the preachers of unity had during the war.

Politics is action. To act together requires agreeing on goals and tactics. Those who share our goals and tactics are welcome as comrades in the struggle.

True unity means unity in spirit, in conviction, in desire, and in action. Mere rhetorical unity is trickery, self-deception, and betrayal. Today’s advocates of unity want to end a “revolution” that has hardly begun. They want to steer the movement into “quiet waters” in order to save the capitalist order. They want to take power out of the workers’ hands by reestablishing a political order based on class and by defending an economic order based on class. All the while they hypnotize the proletariat with their blabber about unity.

The Spartacists are attacked because we pose a threat to their plans and because we are honest and serious about the liberation of the working class and the socialist world revolution.

Can we agree with those who are nothing but the placeholders of capitalist exploiters while pretending to be socialists? Can — may — we unite with them without becoming accomplices in their vicious acts? Unity with these people means the demise of the proletariat, the surrender of socialism, the betrayal of the International. These people do not deserve a brotherly handshake. They do not deserve unity — only struggle.

The working masses are the makers of the social revolution. Clear class consciousness, a clear understanding of their historical task, a clear will to fulfill it, and determined action are the qualities that are required. This implies that the diffusion of the rhetorical mist of “unity,” the denouncement of all half-heartedness and tepidness, the disclosure of all the false friends of the working class becomes their first duty — today more than ever.

Only merciless critique can bring clarity. Only clarity can bring unity. Only unity in conviction, purpose, and will can give us the power we need to create the new socialist world. [3]

Footnotes

[1] Burgfrieden, literally “Castle Peace,” was the term used to describe the support of World War I by all German parties.

[2] In German, the revolutionary year of 1848 is often referred to as the tolle Jahr.

[3] This translation comes from “From All Power to the Councils! A Documentary History of the German Revolution of 1918–1919” by Gabriel Kuhn — Ed.