Communist Party of Germany

“ On behalf of the Executive I made the following concluding remarks: Logically, there are only two ways out of this dilemma. It is impossible to have two affiliating Communist parties in a country for any length of time. The K.A.P.D. will either become, in the course of time, an integral part of the Communist Party of Germany, or it will cease to be a sympathising adherent of the Communist International. Such is the position to-day, and the Congress will have to come to a decision on this dilemma. ”

“ The "social questions" which have been "discussed in our time" increase in importance in the degree that we emerge from the realm of absolute monarchy. Socialism and communism did not originate in Germany, but in England, France and North America. The first appearance of a really active communist party may be placed within the period of the middle-class revolution, the moment when constitutional monarchy was abolished. ”

“ The Left Independents, together with the German Communist Party and the best element of the German Communist Labour Party, will now form a great proletarian Communist Party. The bourgeoisie and its hirelings will, of course, not be passive spectators. The counter-revolutionary camp, from the "Orgesch" organisation to the Central Committee of the Right Independents, is perfectly aware of the enormous danger which the Communist Party presents to the bourgeois order, considering that 500–600 thousand men will immediately join it. ”

“ If the Communists come to power in France or Italy, it will have serious consequences first in Germany. It will strengthen the Left wing of the Social Democratic Party, which is very much influenced by East Germany. ”

“ The rise and rapid growth of the Social Democratic movement is perhaps the most striking fact in the recent history of Germany. The same may be said, of course, of the growth of Socialism everywhere during the same period. But in Germany it has for a generation past, or even more, occupied an exceptional position, alike as regards the rapidity of its increase, its direct influence on the masses, and its party organization. Modern Socialism, as a party doctrine, is, moreover, a product of the best period of nineteenth-century German thought and literature. ”

“ All these statements indicate quite clearly that no matter how often or how quickly we repeat the claim that the Communist Party is not a political party, we cannot outlaw it, as a group, without endangering the liberty of all of us. The reason is not hard to find, for mixed among those aims of communism which are illegal are perfectly normal political and social goals. And muddled with its revolutionary tenets is a drive to achieve power through the ballot, if it can be done. ”

“ Universal suffrage for the Reichstag elections was written into the Constitution of the new empire, not because the Chancellor and his Prince loved democracy, but because the smaller states insisted upon this safeguard against Prussian omnipotence.
Democracy and Liberalism have never been strong enough to break the fetters of national habit; and nearly all the democracy, certainly all the [147] workingman's democracy, in Germany to-day is found in the Social Democratic Party. ”

“ In all these movements they bring, to the front, as the leading question in each, the property question, no matter what its degree of development at the time.
Finally, they labor everywhere for the union and agreement of the democratic parties of all countries.
The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. ”

“ Alone among these would-be agents of violent change one broadly based movement was proceeding systematically and with ruthless clarity of purpose towards the goal of world revolution. The Communist Party, deriving both its intellectual thrust and an unshakeable confidence in its ultimate triumph from the writings of the nineteenth century ideologue Karl Marx, had succeeded in establishing groups of committed supporters throughout Europe and various other countries. ”

“ More or less important as is the socialist movement in those countries already referred to, it is in Germany that we find it developed to a commanding political position. It is, perhaps, hardly fair to call the Social-Democratic party of Germany as it now exists strictly a party of Socialists, for there are many members of it who elsewhere would be known as Liberals. ”

“ This program is that of Fascism the world over, and it reached such a degree of misery to millions and millions of workers in Germany that the Social-Democratic Parties there appealed to the Communist International to cease its attacks on the Social Democrats and join in a struggle against Fascism. ”

“ As the struggle sharpens, however, with the Communists driving on irresistibly, there is a strong tendency for the Majority Socialists and Independents to combine their forces, politically and industrially, against them. Eventually the German Socialist movement will probably resolve itself into two clearly defined currents, one distinctly conservative and the other sharply revolutionary.
At first the Communists thought that the best way to fight the conservatives on the industrial field would be to withdraw from the old trade unions and to start new ones based upon purely Communist lines. ”

“ Yet at the same time I am doubtful whether there is much of a future for the Communist Party. I doubt whether in twenty-five years’ time there will be many Communists, under that name, below middle-age. A few nice, fierce old gentlemen will survive in smoking-rooms and cafés. The Communist movement is a part of the present world, it is a shadow cast by existing economic absurdities, it is a current reaction. ”

“ The German Volk has known the National Socialist regime for twenty years now as a party, for eight years as the leader of the state. And I believe that there has never been an era in German history in which such gigantic things have been achieved as within the eight years the German Reich has been led by the National Socialist movement. The best witnesses for the work of our movement will be the men who return from the front and who have been able to compare the effects of twenty-three years of Communist rule to ours. ”

“ The Social Democrat in Germany is almost an outcast. Although one third of the members of the Reichstag belong to this party, its members are never called to hold office in the government; and the attitude of the whole of the governing class, of all the professors, school-teachers, priests of both Protestant and Roman Catholic religions of the prosperous middle classes, is that of violent opposition to the doctrines of Social Democracy. The world must entertain no illusion that the Social Democratic leaders speak for Germany. ”

“ The Communists fight for the attainment of the immediate aims, for the enforcement of the momentary interests of the working class; but in the movement of the present, they also represent and take care of the future of that movement. In France the Communists ally themselves with the Social-Democrats (a) , against the conservative and radical bourgeoisie, reserving, however, the right to take up a critical position in regard to phrases and illusions traditionally handed down from the great Revolution. ”

“ VON RIBBENTROP: Adolf Hitler at that time considered the ideological difference between Germany, that is, National Socialism and communism actually one of the decisive factors of his policy. Therefore, the question arose as to how a way could be found at all to win over other countries to counter communistic tendencies. ”

“ Communism and semi-communism are rife; there is a tendency to them even at the Universities, and in other high places. Perhaps the loss of faith in the Church leads some to see an indemnity for it in a communistic polity. If there is not in England, as there is in Germany, a strong Socialistic party, there appears to be a growing disposition to make a Socialistic use of the suffrage. ”

“ We have, I think, to count it among the possibilities of the present situation that a Communist Government may presently be fighting for German integrity against foreign domination in Berlin, and that great masses of the German people, like the Russians, may prefer even Communism to the certain shames and indignities of separatism. ”

“ In order that the Soviets may fulfil their historic mission, the existence of a Communist Party, strong enough not to 'adapt' itself to the Soviets but to exercise on them a decisive influence, to force them not to adapt themselves to the bourgeoisie and official social democracy, ... ”

“ Since then there have been changes in organisation, there have been ups and downs, there have been internal controversies—particularly as regards parliamentary policy and the relation of the Socialist parties in the legislatures to other parties, but the history of Social Democracy in Germany has been a steady advance onwards. ”

“ Even the German Social Democratic Party cannot be shown to be other than of the same stripe, and its success in point of numbers has lain in the political sagacity of its leaders, which has effected the assembly of liberal elements on a large scale under the apparently revolutionary banner of socialism. ”

“ The party became the germ cell for the realization of our world of thought. Long before 1933, the National Socialist state possessed millions of followers in the Volksgemeinschaft of our party. Alas, what would have become of Europe and, above all, our German Reich and our beloved homeland, had there not been the faith and the willingness of the individual to risk everything for the movement? Germany would still be what it was at the time: the democratic and impotent state of Weimarian origin. To ask this question makes every thinking man today shudder. ”

“ In view of the loyalty and devotion of the working men, it is all the more incumbent on the leaders of the German Social Democratic party that they should now guide it along paths which will be wise, practical, and fruitful. It has too long been their evil fortune or their own deliberate choice to stand apart from the main movement of German life. They have had little part in the work of State, municipality, or country commune. The party began in opposition to the great co-operative movement of Germany. ”

“ I quote a brief excerpt from Document 2715-PS; and I introduce it as Exhibit USA-331:
“National Socialism has given the German people that leadership which as Party not only mobilizes the nation but also organizes it, so that on the basis of the natural principle of selection, the continuance of a stable political leadership is safeguarded forever. . . . National Socialism . . . possesses Germany entirely and completely since the day when, 5 years ago, I left the house in Wilhelmsplatz as Reich Chancellor. There is no institution in this State which is not National Socialist. ”

“ It would be easy for those who had been Communists before Hitler came to power to return to the Communist cause after Hitler fell. A Communist program promising immediate peace for the German people and vengeance on the Nazi leaders would appeal more and more to the masses of German workingmen as the war lengthens and shows no signs of ending. We should not forget that the Soviet government, or rather Joseph Stalin, unless he capitulates, will have something to say when the time comes to think about the kind of government Germany is to have. ”

“ The goal of the Communist Party is to seize powers of government by and for a minority rather than to acquire power through the vote of a free electorate. It seeks not merely a change of administration, or of Congress, or reform legislation within the constitutional framework. Its program is not merely so socialize property more rapidly and extensively than the other parties are doing. While the difference between other parties in these matters is largely as to pace, the Communist Party's difference is one of direction. ”

“ Consequently, state activity has always been assumed—even by the most anti-Socialist chancellors and municipal authorities—as legitimate. We inherited from our Liberalism a suspicion of the state: the inheritance of modern Germany was a trust in the state. Thus German Socialism has been an intellectual power, even when politically it has appeared to be impotent. ”

“ The Independent Socialists and Communists form a group to the extreme left, with more or less Bolshevist ideals. But, broadly speaking, there are two main sections, the democratically minded people who desire the evolution of a peaceful and constitutional republic, and the reactionaries who, while paying a certain lip-service to democratic principles, at heart detest the whole business.
It will be the eternal reproach to Allied policy that it has done nothing whatever to help the better elements in Germany to consolidate their position. ”

“ The political party now in power is called the Communist Party. Its aim is to introduce State Communism, not at all an easy task in a country of at least a hundred million people, the majority of whom are still illiterate. For this reason the Government first aimed at establishing model communist organisations, and gave these favourable opportunities for developing, with the aim of attracting the people towards them. ”