Eduard Bernstein on the German Revolution: Selected Historical Writings

Marius S. Ostrowski

Springer Nature, Nov 1, 2019 - Political Science - 429 pages

This book presents two major texts and selected shorter writings by the social-democratic thinker and politician Eduard Bernstein, translated into English in full for the first time: The German Revolution: A History of the Emergence and First Working Period of the German Republic; How A Revolution Perished; and articles from Vorwärts and other socialist periodicals. Written in the aftermath of the 1918 German Revolution and the end of WWI, they address the overthrow of autocratic rule in Germany, and provide a live chronicle and retrospective assessment of the Weimar Republic’s foundation. Bernstein gives a detailed chronology of the German Revolution and its intellectual, economic, and political context, and offers a historical analogy in his account of the 1848 French Revolution, which differs in key respects from that of Karl Marx in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon. Drawing on his own experience of the events he describes, he revisits the socialist debate over ‘reform or revolution’ that he himself had provoked at the turn of the 20th century, and consciously seeks to wrest ownership of the Revolution’s legacy away from the Spartacist and communist left. In these works, Bernstein exhorts social democrats to rally behind the nascent Republic and resist the siren-calls of its militant opponents on radical left and right, and he engages with themes of party unity, political violence, democracy, and the role of ideology that have echoed through left theory and strategy ever since.

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• The German Revolution History of the Emergence and First Working Period of the German Republic: 32
• Preface: 33
• Prologue: 39
• The Reich Leadership Before the Revolution: 43
• The Dawning of the Revolution: 49
• Government and Social Democracy from the Start of October to 9 November 1918: 56
• 9 November 1918 in Berlin: 71
• The Initial Form of the German Republic: 85
• The Revolution in the Individual States: 100
• Struggles of Socialists Against Socialists: 119
• The First Congress of Workers and Soldiers Councils in Germany: 141
• The Sailors Uprising in Berlin Christmas 1918: 165
• The Independent Social Democrats Departure from the Rat der Volksbeauftragten: 194
• The Communist Uprising in Berlin January 1919: 203
• The Murder of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg: 251
• The General Situation in the First Months of the Republic: 261
• The Nationalversammlung Elections Conclusion of the First Stage of the Revolution: 291
• How a Revolution Perished: 296
• History and Legend: 299
• Why the Second French Republic Perished: 304
• A Users Guide for the Present: 341
• Selected Articles: 358
• Eduard Bernstein for Unity: 361
• Bernsteins Return to the Party: 366
• The Independents Attempt at Mediation: 369
• On the Question of Unity: 371
• Auf Wiedersehen: 375
• Lassalle and Bolshevism: 381
• The Timescale of the Revolution: 385
• An Easter of Hope: 388
• Eduard Bernstein Against the USPD: 395
• The Bankruptcy of Bolshevism: 397
• The Communists: 401
• The Election Campaign: 405
• The Decision: 407
• 20 February and the Republic: 411
• Four Years On: 415
• Index: 418

About the author

Marius S. Ostrowski is Examination Fellow in Politics at All Souls College, University of Oxford, UK. He has written Eduard Bernstein on Social Democracy and International Politics: Essays and Other Writings (2018) and Left Unity: Manifesto for a Progressive Alliance (2019).

Bibliographic information

• Title: Eduard Bernstein on the German Revolution: Selected Historical Writings
• Author: Marius S. Ostrowski
• Publisher: Springer Nature, 2019
• ISBN: 3030277194, 9783030277192
• Length: 429 pages
• Subjects: History / Social History; Political Science / General; Political Science / History & Theory; Political Science / World / European; Science / History