Karl Kautsky

“ In Vienna, as in Berlin, despite the official assurances but recently exchanged between the Tsar and Poincaré concerning the complete equipment of the armies of the Dual Alliance, it was firmly believed that Russia was not in a position to wage a European war and would not dare to involve herself in so terrible an adventure. The disquieting internal situation, revolutionary machinations, inadequate equipment, poor transport facilities—all these grounds would compel Russia to look on impotently at the execution of Serbia. ”

“ It is beyond question that no State in Europe would regard the conflict between Austria and Serbia as other than a subject of general human interest if there were not involved in it the danger of a universal political complication, which now already threatens to unchain a world-war. For over five years Serbia has been the cause of a tension in Europe which weighs upon the political and economic life of the nations with a pressure which is really becoming unbearable. ”

“ The uprise of imperialism at the close of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century is marked by the fact that, far and wide, the Great Powers began to come into conflict with each other. First we had France with Italy, and then with England; America with Spain, and also with England; England with the Boers, with whom all the world sympathized; and, finally, Russia with Japan, behind whom England stood.
During that period Germany was the least affected by these international conflicts, which sometimes broke out in war. ”

“ Marx taught that the course of history is guided not by particular persons or institutions, but in the last resort by economic conditions. Capitalism in its most developed form, that of finance, everywhere creates imperialism—the impulse towards forcible extension of the territory of the State. This law governs all States—all are warlike by nature, and from this condition the world-war proceeded. No individual persons or institutions are guilty, but Capitalism as a whole: this it is that must be combated. ”

“ I felt compelled to bring into relation with each other all the revelations offered by a mass of nearly nine hundred documents, and to bring out their connection with the remaining and already-known material connected with the outbreak of the war. I did this not as a partisan, but as an historian, who is simply anxious to discover how things came about.
I undertook this work in the first instance merely for my own satisfaction. An historian cannot collect materials without inwardly working over them. ”

“ Is it not necessary to send yet another telegram to Vienna, in which we state in sharp language that we consider the way in which Vienna is handling the question of compensation with Rome absolutely unsatisfactory, and the responsibility for the attitude of Italy in the event of war falls on Austria alone? If, on the eve of a possible European conflagration, Vienna threatens to burst the Triple Alliance in this way, the whole alliance will begin to totter. ”

“ Germany had, indeed, in 1871, committed the great mistake of tearing Alsace and Lorraine against their will from France, and thus driving France into the arms of Russia. The French passion for revanche, for reunion with their disruptured and enslaved brethren, began, in the course of time, to take a milder form; all the more as the prospects of the French in a war with Germany grew ever worse; for the population of France remained almost stationary, while that of Germany rapidly increased, and on this account alone the latter gained a constantly growing superiority over France. ”

“ I consider the league that has established itself in the sentimental life of both Empires to be necessary, and with regard to the many Germans living in Austria to be the natural form of their attachment to us. It is for me only a question as to whether it is advisable for us to support our comrades in a policy, or rather to guarantee a policy which I look upon as a wild one, since it will lead neither to a radical solution of the problem nor to the crushing of the Great Serbian movement. ”

“ From the dilemma of fidelity to our alliance with the venerable old Emperor is created the situation which gives England the desired pretext to destroy us, with the hypocritical semblance of right, namely, of helping France to maintain the notorious balance of power, that is to say, the playing of all European states in England's favour against us! ”

“ Besides, it is really a threat, combined with bluff, to break us from Austria and prevent mobilization, and shift the guilt of the war. He knows quite well that if he only speaks a single sharp, serious word in Paris and St. Petersburg, and warns them to remain neutral, both will at once be still. But he refrains from uttering the word, and threatens us instead! The low cur! England alone bears the responsibility for war and peace, not we any longer! This must be made clear to the world. ”

“ The Marxist who contends that imperialism would have brought about a war in any case, whatever policy Germany had pursued, is like one who should defend a pack of silly boys for amusing themselves by throwing matches into a cask of gunpowder. ”

“ Before the war such elements already existed in the German Social Democracy as, no doubt, in almost every Socialistic party. The war, and before that the incipient bellicose temper of the people, gave at one blow an enormous impetus to nationalism among the Socialist ranks—and that not in Germany alone.
The more a Socialist party becomes a party of the masses, the stronger becomes its nationalism; the more rapid its growth before the war, the less opportunity it had to educate its followers. ”

“ The impression is becoming more and more firmly established that we wanted the war in any circumstances. No other interpretation could be placed upon our attitude in a question that did not concern us directly at all. The earnest pleadings and definite declarations of M. Sasonow, later on the positively humble telegrams of the Tsar, Sir Edward Grey's repeated proposals, the warnings of the Marquis San Giuliano and Signor Bollati, my urgent advice—all were useless; Berlin stuck to her resolution: Serbia must be massacred. ”

“ And thus Germany and Austria went into the world-war, loaded before all the world with the reputation of falsehood, forgery, violence, the dictatorship of the sword, the denial of civil rights to the annexed provinces. ”

“ An historian who makes use of archives owes no account to any superior authority of the use he may make of the fruits of his labours.
If, in spite of all this, I kept silence, it was not due to any juristic but rather to political considerations. The whole political advantage which might accrue to the German people in the eyes of its former enemies through the publication of these documents was only to be looked for if they were published by, not against, the Government. No doubt, in the last resort, the publication would have had to take place, even in the latter case. ”

“ Both immediately turned against Austria, as, indeed, did all the world. It was now up to Germany to play the part of the surprised, peaceable neighbour, whom loyalty to her alliance summoned to the side of the friendly Power, whose extremity the iniquitous outrage of Serajevo had revealed, but a neighbour who was ready to mediate and to maintain peace. Should she thus come into conflict with the insatiable Russia—oh, well, everybody knows the best-intentioned person cannot live in peace if it doesn't please the wicked neighbour. ”

“ In this feeble and distorted form, the declaration of the most terrible of all wars, which could only have been justified by the most cogent of motives, was couched. But such could not be raised, although since the beginning of the crisis it had been Bethmann's most urgent care to put Russia in the wrong, and shift to her the whole responsibility for the coming war.
When the Tsar's telegram came, which recognized Germany's right to mobilize, but contested the necessity that mobilization should mean war, their declaration of war must have appeared doubly unjustified ”

“ To my Italian colleague, who has just left me, Sir Edward Grey said he believed if mediation were undertaken Austria would be able to procure every possible satisfaction; there would be no question of a humiliating retreat by Austria, as the Serbs would, in any case, be chastised, and with Russia's approval forced to subordinate themselves to Austria's wishes. Austria could thus obtain guarantees for the future without a war which would put the peace of Europe in danger. ”

“ In the period from July 5th to July 23rd, they created, completely undisturbed by foreign countries and without any impelling reason, that groundwork of mendacity upon which the whole conduct of the war was built up.
One can render no greater service to the German people than to expose the lies that led them astray. By this means they are morally exculpated in every respect in the eyes of all the world. ”

“ Germany intends no hostilities against Belgium. If Belgium is willing to adopt a benevolent neutrality towards Germany in the war which is imminent, the German Government will pledge itself, at the conclusion of peace, not only to guarantee the possessions and independence of the kingdom completely, but is even ready to meet in most benevolent fashion any claims by the kingdom for territorial compensation at the expense of France. ”

“ It spared Germany all wars, at the very period of the uprise of imperialism, and enabled her to enlarge her industry, her commerce, and also her colonial possessions, by exploiting, without taking part in them, the imperialistic conflicts of the other Powers.
Thus we see that even in an epoch of imperialism it was possible for a Great Power to pursue another than a warlike policy. It is true that such a policy demanded statesmen with some stuff in their heads and with sufficient independence to assert themselves against those interested in an imperialistic policy of force. ”

“ It is solely a question of finding a modus operandi that will facilitate the realization of Austria-Hungary's aim, to undermine the foundations of the Great-Serbian propaganda, without at the same time letting loose a world-war; and, if it cannot be finally averted, to improve for us, as far as feasible, the conditions under which it is to be waged."
It maybe acknowledged that it is difficult to decide what the Imperial Chancellor had more at heart on July 28th: whether to avoid the world- war or "to improve for us, as far as feasible, the conditions under which it is to be waged." ”

“ Even if he found a majority in Parliament for a war against Germany, it would have been very doubtful if the mass of the working classes and of the bourgeois pacifists, who, it happens, are particularly numerous and influential in England, had not offered an energetic resistance to war. On the other hand, no one who knew the English to any extent could have the least doubt that the great majority of the nation would enthusiastically throw itself into the war as soon as Germany, with her powerful army and growing fleet, seized Belgium and thus directly threatened England. ”

“ It is more terrible that the General Staff did not, at the very beginning of the war, deduce from the desperate situation to which it had, by its own policy, reduced Germany, the conclusion that any reasonable civilian would have drawn, at least so long as he himself was not infected by the military war fever, viz., that one must strive to rescue the Empire as speedily as possible from this dangerous situation by a policy of conciliation and of explicit renouncement of all manner of conquest. ”

“ He who loves the German people, not only the national German but also the international Socialist and Democrat, to whom every nation is equally dear, must endeavour to deliver it from this terrible ban, to free it from the awful burden laid upon it by the old régime. ”

“ Anyone who knows England and the English must be aware that the German naval programme was alone sufficient to bring round ever increasing sections of the English population to the notion that Germany must at any cost be made to put a stop to her naval preparations, even through a war, if not otherwise—a war which, thanks to Germany's former policy, also threatened to array against her Russia and France. ”

“ One sees William reckoned with the immediate outbreak of the world-war after the delivery of the Ultimatum to Serbia. He therefore steamed home at full speed, in spite of Bethmann-Hollweg. He begins his active intervention in the war policy by snubbing his own Chancellor, "most humbly daring to recommend," as if he were a bootblack, addressing him as a creature who has not yet grasped the general situation. Military superiority thinks it is treating the Chancellor with especial contempt when it addresses him as a "Civilian Chancellor" who has not the slightest influence upon military measures. ”