Karl Liebknecht was the first SPD member to reject war credits.

Burgfriedenspolitik (German: [ˈbʊʁkfʁiːdn̩s.poliˌtiːk], lit. 'castle peace policy') is a German term that refers to the political truce between Germany's political parties during World War I. The trade unions refrained from striking, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) voted for war credits in the Reichstag, and the parties agreed not to criticize the government and its handling of the war.

Kaiser Wilhelm II would announce on August 1st 1914 the beginning of the Burgfriedenspolitik with the words “Should it now come to a battle, then there will be no more political parties. Today we are all German brothers.” He would add on August 4 “I no longer recognize any parties, I recognize only Germans.” [1]

There were several reasons for the Burgfrieden. Some believed that it was their patriotic duty to support the government in war, while others feared government repression if they protested against the war. Yet other supporters of the Burgfrieden were more afraid of living under an autocratic Russian Tsar than the German constitutional monarchy and its Kaiser. Some hoped to achieve political reforms after the war, such as the abrogation of the inequitable three-class voting system, by co-operating with the government.

Opposition to the Burgfriedenspolitik came largely from the left wing of the SPD. The only Reichstag members of any party to vote against war credits in the second session was Karl Liebknecht, in the third session on 20 March 1915 joined by Otto Rühle. SPD founder August Bebel who opposed the Franco Prussian War was opposed to a theoretical world war but he would die before the war started.[2] Over the course of the war, the number of SPD politicians opposed to the war steadily increased. Their resistance against the Burgfrieden politics led to the expulsion of Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin, and others from the SPD. They went on to found the Spartacus League, the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany, and the Communist Party of Germany. The only trade union to refuse the Burgfrieden was the Free Association of German Trade Unions, which would later become the Free Workers' Union of Germany.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Verhey, Jeffrey (2015-11-01), "Burgfrieden (Fortress Truce)", Brill’s Digital Library of World War I, Brill, retrieved 2023-12-08
  2. ↑ Hoffrogge, Ralf; Desai, Radhika (2014). Working class politics in the German Revolution: Richard Müller, the revolutionary shop stewards and the origins of the council movement. Historical Materialism Book Series. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-21921-2.
  3. ↑ Thorpe 2000, p. 195.

Further reading

  • Thorpe, Wayne (2000). "Keeping the Faith: The German Syndicalists in the First World War". Central European History. 33 (2): 195–216. doi:10.1163/156916100746301. S2CID 143836877.
  • Verhey, Jeffrey (2000). The Spirit of 1914: Militarism, Myth and Mobilization in Germany. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-77137-4.
  • Kruse, Wolfgang (1993). Krieg und nationale Integration: Eine Neuinterpretation des sozialdemokratischen Burgfriedensschlusses 1914/15 (in German). Essen: Klartext. ISBN 3-88474-087-3.
  • Miller, Susanne (1974). Burgfrieden und Klassenkampf: Die deutsche Sozialdemokratie im Ersten Weltkrieg (in German). Düsseldorf: Droste.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.