Bertrand Russell


Russell Society Home Page

About Bertrand Russell

About the Russell Society

The BRS Library

Society Publications

Russell Texts Online

Russell Resources

JOIN the Russell Society!

Officers and Organization

Contact Us



 German Social Democracy  (1896)

By Bertrand Russell, B.A.
Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge


WITH AN APPENDIX
On Social Democracy and
the Woman Question in Germany
By Alys Russell, B.A.


Longmans, Green, and Co.
London, New York, and Bombay. 1896



 List of Principal Works Consulted


Adler, Dr. Georg. Die Grundlagen der Karl Marx’schen Kritik der bestehenden Volkswrithschaft. Tübingen, 1887.

Anonymous. Nach Zehn Jahren: Material und Glossen zur Geschichte des Sozialistengesetzes. 2 vols. London, 1889 and 1890.

Anonymous. Das Vereins und Versammlungsrecht in Deutschland. Berlin, Verlag der Expedition des Vorwärts, 1892.

Arbeiter-Bibliothek, Berliner. Three Series of Short Pamphlets. Berlin, Verlag der Expedition des Vorwäl;rts, 1891-

Bebel, August. Die Frau und der Sozialismus. 25th edition. Stuttgart, 1895. Eng. trans., Woman: Her Position in the Past, Present, and Future. London: William Reeves.

Bebel, August. Unsere Ziele. 10th edition. Berlin, 1893. (First edition, 1871.)

Bericht, Stenographischer. Zwei Tage Etatsdebatte. Berlin, 1895.

Bliss, W. D. P. Handbook of Socialism. London, 1895.

Bracke, W., Junior. Der Lassalle’sche Vorschlag. Brunswick, 1873.

Brandes, G. Ferdinand Lassalle: Ein litterarisches Charakterbild. 3rd edition. Leipzig, 1894.

Braun, Dr. Adolph. Die Parteien des deutschen Reichstages. Stuttgart, 1893.

Bray. Labor’s Wrongs and Labour’s Remedy. Leeds, 1839.

Dawson, W. H. German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassalle. 2nd edition. London, 1891.

Dawson, W. H. Bismarck and State-Socialism. London, 1891

Ely, Professor. French and German Socialism. London: Kegan Paul, 1886.

Engels, Friedrich. Die Entwicklung des Sozialismus von der Utopie zur Wissenschaft. 4th edition. Berlin, 1891.

Engels, Friedrich. Ludwig Feuerbach und der Ausgang der klassischen deutschen Philosophie. 2nd edition. Stuttgart, 1895.

Göhre, Paul. Drei Monate Fabrikarbeiter. Leipzig, 1891. Translated as Three Months in a Workshop. London: Sonnenschein, 1895.

Herkner, Dr. Heinrich. Die Arbeiterfrage. Berlin, 1894.

Hochverraths-Prozess, Der, wider Liebknecht, Bebel, Hepner vor dem Schwurgericht zu Leipzig vom 11 bis 26 März 1872. Berlin, Verlag der Expedition des Vorwärts, 1895.

Hodgkin. Labour Defended Against the Claims of Capital. London, 1825.

Kautsky, Karl, und Bruno Schoenlank. Grundsätze und Forderungen der Sozialdemokratie. Berlin, 1894.

Lafargue, Paul. Die Religion des Kapitals. London, 1890.

Lassalle, Ferdinand. Reden und Schriften, mit einer biographischen Einleitung. Edited by Eduard Bernstein. Berlin, 1893.

Marx, Karl. Misére de la Philosophie. Paris, 1847.

Marx, Karl. Das Kapital. 3 volumes. Hamburg: vol. 1, 1867; vol. 2, 1885; vol. 3, 1894. English translation of vol. 1, London, 1891.

Marx, Karl, und Friedrich Engels. Das kommunistische Manifest. London, 1848. Authorised English translation, Manifesto of the Communist Party. London: William Reeves, 1888.

Mehring, Franz. Die deutsche Sozialdemokratie. Ihre Geschichte und ihre Lehre. 3rd edition. Bremen, 1879.

Mehring, Franz. Herrn Eugen Richter’s Bilder aus der Gegenwart. Nürnberg, 1892.

Menger, Anton. Das Recht auf den vollen Arbeitsertrag. Stuttgart, 1892.

Protokolle (Reports) über die Verhanglungen der Parteitage der Sozialdemokratischen Partei Deutschlands. Berlin, Verlag der Expedition des Vorwärts.

Reports of International Workmen’s Congresses.

Richter, Eugen. Die Irrlehren der Sozialdemokratie. 87th thousand. Berlin, 1893.

Rodbertus-Jagetzow. Soziale Briefe an von Kirchmann. Berlin, 1851.

Schäffle, Dr. A. The Quintessence of Socialism. English translation edited by Bernard Bosanquet. 5th edition. London, 1894.

Schäffle, Dr. A. Impossibility of Social Democracy. Authorised translation. London, 1892.

Sombart, Werner. Friedrich Engels: Ein Blatt zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Sozialismus. Berlin, 1895.

Thompson, William. Inquiry into the Principles of the Distribution of Wealth. London, 1824.

Thompson, William. Appeal of One Half of the Human Race, Women, Against the Pretensions of the Other Half, Men, to Retain Them in Political, and Thence in Civil and Domestic, Slavery. London, 1825.

Wagner, Dr. Adolph. Die akademische Nationalökonomie und der Sozialismus. Berlin, 1895.

Wolf, Dr. Julius. Sozialismus und kapitalistische Gesellschaftsordnung. Stuttgart, 1892.

Note. All Socialistic literature can be obtained from the Verlag der Expedition des Vorwärts. Berlin, S. W. Beuthstrasse.




 Index


Agitators, professional, 89
Agrarian population, the, 90; conservatism of, 61
Agrarian programme, the, 152
Agrarian question, the, 142, 151, 152-163;

and Conservatives, 147; Socialist commission on, 156, 157, 158
Agriculture, 142;
and concentration of capital, 32 ff.; in Prussia, 56; representation of, 145, 152; state schools of, 157
Alsace-Lorraine, annexation of, 75, 81,82
Alsatians, 145
American Presidency, 86
Anarchists, 73, 107, no; policy of, 99
Anti-Corn Law League, 58
Anti-Semites, 145
Antisemitism, 146
Appeal, right of, in criminal cases, 140
Arbeiterprogramm, the, 53, 56, 64
Arbitration, international, 140
Arkwright’s spinning-machine, 55,98
Army and navy estimates in Germany, 85
Association, definition of, 119; universal, 58, 59, 60, 69,70, 71, 75. 79
Associations and the Exceptional Law, 100;
electoral, 103, 122, 125, 130; for workmen’s education, 74; local, 59; of women, 188; political, 118
Atheism and social democracy, 93.94

Baboeuf, 72, 168
Baden, 77
Bagehot, 33, 83
Bakunin, 73
Bavaria, 85, 117, 118; peasants of, 154
Bebel, 71, 74, 75, 79, 81, 82, 88. 134, 146, 154, 155, 159;

his Die Frau und der Sozialismus, 178 ff.
Becker, Bemhard, 69, 70
Beesley, Professor, 73
Berlin, 60, 124, 128, 160;
electoral associations of, 125, 130; Lassalle in, 51; Liberals in, 51, 52; Progressives in, 56, 70; representation of, 145; rise of new party in, 134; Socialist meetings in, 129; Socialist organisation, 127; state of siege in, 104; women’s associations, 188
Bismarck, 56, 60, 62, 67, 70, 78, 79, 82, 84, 92. 100, 133, 154, 162; his
insurance laws, 108; interviews with Lassalle, 60, 61; his ministry, 70; his social reform, 107, 114, 135; State Socialism, 107, 148, 151; sans phrase, 147
Black Book, the, 72
Bons 123, 125
Bosanquet, 4
Bracke, W., 136
Brandes, 42, 48, 68
Brass, August, 78
Bray, 10, 166
Brunswick, 118
Brussels, congress at, 188; Marx at, 44
Bunderrath, the, 84, 85, 88

Capital, law of concentration of, 15 ff., 28 ff., 80;

relation of, to agriculture, 32 ff.; relation of, to industry, ibid.
Capital punishment, abolition of, 140
Caprivi, 84
Catholic districts, 152
Catholic party, the, 144, 160; see also Centrumspartei
Catholic Rhinelanders, 93
Centrumspartei, the, 146, 147, 149; see also Catholic party
Chemnitz, 127, 132
Children, employment of, 141
Christianity and social democracy, 93
Civil law, new code of, 190
Class-war, or Klassenkampf, principle of, 90, 92, 131, 175, 190
Coalition, right of, 87, 134, 140, 141, 148
Coalition laws, 59, 73, 91, 117, 121, 130, 149, 151, 188
Collectivism, 40, 80, 89, 95, 165, 169
Commerce, Prussian Minister of.
Commercial crises, 66, 89
Communist League, 44, 71, 72, 75,77
Communist manifesto, 10 ff. 44, 53, 55, 67, 72, 73, 77, 95, 140, 160, 176, 178.
Confidential agents, 113, 122, 125, 126
Congress, the,
at Brussels, 188; at Copenhagen, 111; at Erfurt, 136, 154; at Frankfort, 155 at Halle, 116, 188; at Schloss-Wyden, 106, 111; of 1872, 93; of 1880, 107; of 1891, 134; of 1892, 155; of 1893, 146; of 1894, 152; of 1895, 152, 154, 158
Congresses, 73, 75, 106, 116; annual, 122, 124, 151
Conservatism of agrarian population, 61; of German ministers, 87
Conservatives, 147;
in the Reichstag, 88; vote of, 90; see also Deutschkonservative Partei
Conservative Socialism, 65
Conspiracy, prosecutions for, 111
Copenhagen, congress at, ibid.
Criminal law, the, ibid.

Danes, 145
Demokratische Partei, the, 148; see also Süddeutsche Volkspartei
Deutsche Reichspartei, the, 146, 147, 149
Deutsche Volkspartei, the, 149
Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, the, 44
Deutschkonservative Partei, the, 146, 149
Die neue Zeit, 128
Disraeli, 78
Dreiklassenwahlsystem, 86, 149, 151
Dusseldorf, Lassalle’s trial at, 48

Education and the Socialist programme, 140
Eisenach congress, the, 75
Eisenach or “honourable” party, the, 75, 81, 82, 89
Eisenach programme, the, 167
Elberfeldt, 70, 111
Elections, 139; of 1884 and 1887, 114; of 1893, 149
Electoral associations, 103, 122, 125, 130; districts, 139, 145
Engels, 1, 8, 10, 44, 56, 70, 77, 176
England, influence of, on Marx, 9
Erfurt, congress at, 154; programme, the, 136-143
Exceptional Law, the, 88, 91, 92-115, 127;

aggregate punishment under, 114; penalties under, 102; provisions of, 100-102; Socialist organisation under, 109-115

Factory legislation, 133, 134, 151, 191
Feuerbach, influence of, on Marx, 4
Fichte, 1; Lassalle on, 51
Filiation, maternal, 179
Fourier, 1
France, 72;

German enmity to, 97 Frankfort, congress at, 155; Lassalle at, 59; state of siege in, 105
Frederick the Great, 43, 114
Freedom of religion, 140, 147; of
speech, 87; of the press, ibid.
Free maintenance in schools, 140
Freiheit Die, 106
Freisinnige Vereinigung, the, 146, 148, 149
Freisinnige Volkspartei, the, 146, 148, 149
French Revolution, the, in 1848, 44, 45

Gaol-editor, or Sitz-Redakteur, 87
Geneva, 73
German army and navy estimates, 85;

associations, 73; chancellor, 84; critics of social democracy, 163; emperor, attempts on life of, 91, 100; empire, 62, 83; estates, 84; imperial taxes, 85; magistracy, 109; Marseillaise, 130; ministers, 87, 88; patriotism, 85, 97; police, 71, 83, 109, at public meetings, 130, 189; Socialism, 69-91; state governments, 85, 86; State Socialists, 65; unity, 77, 146; unity, Lassalle on, 51; workmen’s societies, 79
Germany, capitalistic development in, 55;
constitution of, 83-89, 145, 150; economic development of, 46; federal government of, 84; labour movement in, 64; parties in, 144-151; party government in, 88; peasant proprietors in, 152, 153; Progressive party in, 46; revolution in, 45, 77; Socialist press in, 128; state of, 42 ff.; wage-earners, 67
Gleichheit Die, 189
Göhre, Paul, 127, 131, 132; his Drei Monate Fabrikarbeiter 127
Gotha, Lassalleans and Eisenachers at, 89; programme, 136
Guelfs, 145
Guilds, re-establishment of, 108
Guizot’s ministry, 44

Halle, congress at, 116, 125, 188; commission at, 137
Hamburg, 76, 127;

political associations at, 189; state of siege in, 105; trade unions at, 190
Handicrafts in Prussia, 56
Hegel, 1;
his influence in Germany, 2; on Lassalle, 4, 51; on Marx, 2, 3 ff.; his philosophy, 2; his Philosophy of History, 3
Hepner, 81
History, materialistic view of, 93
Honourable party, the, 75

Income-tax, graduated, 140
Independent Labour Party, 66, 67,68
Industry and concentration of capital, 32 ff.
Initiative, the, 140
International Communist Congress (1847), 10
Internationalism and social democracy, 97
International Working-Men’s Association, 72, 73, 74, 75, 79, 81
Insurance, compulsory, 151; laws, 108; workmen’s, 141
Iron law of wages, 59, 66
Italy, 172

Jena, battle of, 43
Jevons’s theory of value, 20
Judges, election of, 140
Jury, trial by, 87
Justice, free administration of, 140

Kant, 1
Kautsky, 158
Klassenkampf, principle of; see Class-warfare
Kulturkampf, the, 148

Labour bureaus, 141;

hours of, ibid,; for women, 191; movement in Germany, 1, 64, 66, 79; protection of, 141
Lassalle, 41 ff., 46, 89, 98, 130, 135, 157;
at Berlin, 51; at Frankfort, 59; at Leipzig, ibid.; and the Catholic Church, 93; and workmen’s associations, 74; anti-democratic, 62; character of his writings, 64; contrasted with Rodbertus, 65, 66; contributes to the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, 48; emotional influence of, 63; his address to the workmen of Berlin, 60; his advice to Liberals, 59; his agitation, 74, 79; his anonymous pamphlet, The Italian War and the Duty of Prussia, 50; his Arbeiterlesebuch, 64; his Arbeiterprogramm, 53, 56, 64; his co-operative associations, 60, 89; his death, 63, 69, 79; his debt to Marx, 65; his defence at Düsseldorf, 48 ff.; his differences from Marx, 51, 54; his Franz von Sickingen, 50; his idea of a revolution, 56; his interviews with Bismarck, 60, 61; his last agitation, 62; his life, 47; his Offenes Antwortschreiben 57, 64; his paper on Fichte, 51; his self-confidence, 68; his tactics, 67, 68; his theoretical economics, 64; his work on Acquired Rights, 50; on Heraclitus, 48, 50; how far influenced by Hegel, 4, 51; imprisonment of, 50; invited to Leipzig, 57; leaves Germany, 60; on German unity, 51; on the functions of the state, 54, 55; on the nature of constitutions, 51; tried at Düsseldorf, 48, 87; visits Paris, 48
Lassalleans, 80, 89, 136
League, the, of the Damned, 72; of the Just, Ibid.
Leipzig, 59;
committee, 53; deputation from, to Berlin Progressives 56; Eisenach Party at, 82; Lassalle at, 59; Liebknecht at, 79; Progressives at, 74; state of siege in, 105; workmen’s association in, 47, 74
Letourneau, 179
Liberalism, 151
Liberal parties, the, 148, 149
Liberal party, the, in Prussia, 67
Liberals, 90, 147; in Berlin, 51, 52; in Prussia, 62
Liebknecht, 70, 71, 74, 75-79, 81, 82, 98, 145, 155, 159
London, agitation in, 124;
Communist league in, 44, 72, 77; Die Freiheit established in, 106; industrial exhibition in, 47; Liebknecht in, 77, 78
Lux, H., 194

Magdeburg Volkstimme, the, 119
Mainz, the Archbishop of, 93
Magistrates, election of, 140, 142
Majestätsbeleidigung, 90
Malthus, 185
Manchester School, 9, 54, 64
Marriage, social democratic views on, 94-97, Appendix passim
Marseillaise, German, 130
Marx, 70, 73, 77, 79, 89, 116, 128, 132, 142, 143, 152, 154, 159, 161, 178;

and equality of rights, 167; and French Socialists, 8; and Ricardian economics, ibid.; and the Communist Manifesto, 10 ff., 44, 72, 176; and the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, 44; and the economic interpretation of history, 7; and the International Working-Men's Association, 73; and the position of women, 175; at Brussels, 44; at Paris, 9, 44; banished from France, 44; contrasted with Lassalle, 51; edits the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, 9, 46; his birth, 2; Capital, 2, 6, 14, 15, 28, 29, 73, 79, 179; note on vol. iii. of, 19, 20, 21, 23, 35; preface to second edition of, 4, 5; his Critique of Political Economy, 15, 72; his doctrines, how far revolutionary, 6; his philosophy, 2 ff.; his Poverty of Philosophy, 10; his theory of economic development, 3; of interest, 23; of value, 15 ff.; his university life, 9; in England, 41; influenced by Feuerbach, 4; Hegel, 2 ff.; influence of English conditions on, 9, 56; in the Rhineland, 44; meets Engels, 10, 44; reads Proudhon, 9
Marxian Communism, 71; party, 71 ff., 81
Marxianism, 93, 135, 141
Marxians, 80, 89, 136
Matriarchate, the, 179
Mazzini, 72, 73
Meeting, definition of, 120; right of, ibid., 140
Meetings, public, 128; and the Exceptional Law, 100; open-air, 120; police at, 189
Mehrwerth, or surplus-value, doctrine of, 14 ff.
Militarism, opposition to, 132
Militia, 140
Munich, 133, 154
Murten, congress at, 77

Nationalliberalen, 149
Nationalliberale Partei, the, 146, 148
National Liberals, 148
Natural rights, 166, 167, 169, 170
Neo-Malthusianism, 180
Neue Rheinische Zeitung, the, 46,48
Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, the, 78
North German League, 8o; Reichstag, 80

Oranienburg Handicraftsmen’s Association, 56
Over-production and commercial crises, 66
Owen, 1

Paris, Lassalle at, 48; Marx at, 9, 44
Paris Commune, 81, 82
Parteitag, or annual congress, 122
Particularists, 145
Peasant proprietors in Germany, 152, 153
Poland, 72
Poles, 145
Police at public meetings, 189; local, 102
Political parties in Germany,144-151
Politics, definition of, 119
Processions, 120; and the Exceptional Law, 100
Progressive party, 90; at Leipzig, 74; in Germany, 46; in Prussia, 51
Progressives, 110; in Berlin, 56, 70; in Prussia, 60
Proletariat, rule of the, 55
Property tax, graduated, 140
Proportional representation, 139, 149, 150
Prostitutes in Munich, 184
Prostitution, causes of, 97, 178, 181, 192, 194
Proudhon’s Philosophy of Poverty, l0
Prussia, agrarian population of, 90;

agriculture in, 56; ascendency of, 83, 84; Constitutive Assembly of, 45; East, 147, 155; elections in, 151; family incomes in, 58; handicrafts in, 56; Liberals in, 59, 62; Progressives in, 60; state of, 43; Verfassungskonflikt in, 51
Prussian coalition law, 117;
constitution, 45, 120; conflict about, 151; Diet, 51, 86, 87; Dreiklassenwahlsystem 86, 149; government, 62; Minister of Commerce, 91; ministers, 84; ministry, 56, 78; supremacy, 83; trade unions, 121
Public festivities and the Exceptional Law, 100

Railways, nationalisation of, 151
Rau, 59
Referendum, the, 140, 142
Reichskanzler, the, 84
Reichstag, the, 61, 71, 82, 85, 88, 91, 100, 102, 190;

candidates for, 113, 114; constitution of parties in, 149; dissolution of, 150; privileges of members of, 221; Socialist members of, 88, 122, 126, 152
Revolution and social democracy, 98, 99
Rhineland, the, 94
Ricardian economics, 67
Ricardo, 15, 18, 19, 20, 59
Rings, industrial, 134
Rodbertus, 65, 66
Roscher, 59
Rüge, 44

St. Martin’s Hall, meeting at, 73
Saint-Simon, 1, 75
Saxony, 117, 127; coalition law in, 118; constitution of, 86
Say, 59
Schaeffle, 165
Schloss-Wyden, congress of, 106, 111
Schulze-Delitzsch, 46, 56, 57, 74
Schweitzer, 70, 71, 82
Secularisation of schools, 140
Sedan, 81
Self-government, 140
Sitz-Redakteur, or gaol-editor, 87
Smith, Adam, 59
Social Democracy, 150, 151, 155;

and atheism, 93, 94; and internationalism, 97, 98; and materialistic theory of history, 5; and opposition to Christianity, 93; and revolution, 98, 99; and working men, 132; essential elements of, 165; growth of, 111; history of, 89 ff.; methods of agitation of, 127-132; objections to, 92 ff.; organisation of, 116-127; prospects of, 162 ff.; The Secret Organisation of, 109 ff.; views on marriage, 1; the family of, 94-97
Social Democratic journalists, 103
Social Democratic party, 71, 82, 102;
and the agrarian question, 142; bons, 123, 125; executive, 122; funds, 123, 126, 127, 128; government, 125, 126; income of the, 124; membership of the, 121; organisation, 125, 127; press committee, 125; programme, 132, 136-143; strength of, 144 ff.; women in, 122, 188; see also Sozialdemokraten
Social Democratic tactics, 133-136; workmen’s party, 75
Social Democrats, 87;
and force, 99; and Prussian supremacy, 83; banished, 104; elite, 131; employment of, 90, 91; manifesto of, 104, 105; the “honourable,” 71; their self-sacrifice, 113
Socialist law, 90, 125, 130, 134, 135, 136, 148;
meetings in Berlin, 129; newspapers, 128; vote, 90; strength of the, 114
Socialists in the Reichstag, 88
South German party, 133, 148; see also Süddeutsche Volkspartei
Sozialdemokrat, the, 106, 111, 112, 113
Sozialdemokraten the, 146, 149; see also Social Democratic Party
State, function of the, 54
State credit, 57, 60, 89, 157;
help, 59, 75, 79; interference, 134; Socialism, 148, 151, 154, 155
Struve, 77
Stuttgart, 189
Succession duties, graduated, 141
Süddeutsche Volkspartei; see also South German Party and Demokratische Partei
Suffrage, universal, 58, 60, 68, 80, 83
Surplus-value, or Mehrwerth, doctrine of, 14 ff.
Switzerland, congress in, 106; Federal Council of, 77; workmen’s associations in, 77

Taxes, annual voting of, 140; indirect, 141; on necessaries, 134
Thompson, William, 10, 177, 178
Trade unions, 80, 111, 113, 118, 120, 121; utility of, 69; women members of, 190
Truck system, prohibition of, 141

Ultramontanism, 148
Umsturzvorlage, the, 148
United States, 73
Universal suffrage; see Suffrage

Verfassungskonflikt, 51, 67
Versailles, 83
Vertrauensmann; see Confidential Agent
Vollmar, 133, 136, 154, 155, 156, 159, 171; his five points, 134
Vorwärts, the, 102, 103, 128, 158
Vossische Zeitung, the, 125

Wollstonecraft, Mary, 176
Women, and political associations, 181;

associations of, 188; at public meetings, 130; economic independence of, 96; employment of, 182, 187; equality of, 142; in the Communist state, 97; in trade unions, 190; position of, in Germany, 175-195; Marxianism in relation to, 175; restrictions of, 140; wages of, 194
Workmen's associations, 56, 59, 76, 77, 79;
and Lassalle, 74; in Leipzig, 47; in Zurich, 76
Workmen's organisations, 74
Würtemberg, 85

Zetkin, Klara, 189
Zurich, 106; workmen's associations at, 76

THE END

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
Edinburgh and London