Paris Peace Conf. 184.01202/18
Subject: Political situation.
[Enclosure]
Translation from the “Deutsche Tageszeitung,”
February 7, 1919
Ebert’s Opening Speech at the
National Assembly
Ladies and Gentlemen: Through me the
government of the Empire greets the constitutional assembly of the
German Nation. I extend an especially hearty greeting to the ladies,
who appear for the first [time?] as equals in the parliament of the
Empire. The provisional government owes its authority to the
Revolution; it will give it back to the National Assembly.
(Applause) The German people rose in the Revolution against an
antiquated and collapsing despotism. (Hissing on the right). As soon
as the right of the German to self government is assured, then
normal legal measures will return. Only by the broad road of counsel
and law-making can we progress with the imperative changes in the
field of economics and social reform, without the empire and its
economic situation. Therefore the government greets in this assembly
the highest and only sovereign in Germany. (Applause)
The day of Kings and Princes by the Grace of God has passed for all
time. (Lively applause on the left, hissing right, repeated vigorous
applause on the left, and a cry from the right “Wait and see”). We
do not forbid any sentimental recollections, but as certainly as
this National Assembly has a large republican majority, so certainly
have the old God given dependencies been laid aside for ever. The
German people are free, will remain free and will govern themselves
throughout the future. (Cry from the Ind. Soc. “With Noske”) This
freedom is the single consolation left to the German people, the
only way, by which it can work itself out of the bloody swamp of war
and defeat. We have lost the war. This fact is not a consequence of
the Revolution. (Cry right “Oho!”, left “No, never”). Ladies and
gentlemen, it was the Imperial Government of Prince Max of Baden
which brought on the armistice, that rendered us defenceless.
[Page 9]
(Cry: Ludendorff did it) After
the collapse of our allies, and in the face of the military and
economic situation, they could do nothing else. (Very true!) The
Revolution refuses the responsibility for the misery into which the
German people has been thrust by the perverse policies of the old
authorities and by the arrogance of the militarists. (Very true,
Applause from the Socialists, contradiction from the right) Nor is
it responsible for our serious food situation. (Very true.
Remonstrance and cry; Soldier’s Councils). The fact that we have
lost many hundreds of thousands of lives by the hunger blockade,
that hundreds of thousands of men, women, children and the old
people have been its victims, disproves the theory that without the
Revolution our food supplies would have lasted. Defeat and lack of
food supplies have delivered us into the hands of our enemies. But
the war has also terribly exhausted our enemies as well. Out of
their feeling of exhaustion arises their effort to exact an
indemnity from the German people, if the thought of exploitation
enters into the peace negotiations at all. These plans of revenge
and oppression demand the sharpest protest, (lively and universal
assent). The German people cannot be made the slaves of other
countries for twenty, forty or sixty years. (Renewed applause). The
frightful misfortune of the war for all Europe can only be made good
by all the nations going hand-in-hand. (Applause). In view of the
misery of the masses, the question of blame is comparatively of
little importance. Nevertheless the German people is determined to
call to account everyone who intentionally acted basely or is in any
way guilty of anything against the state. But those who were
themselves victims, victims of the war, victims of our former
bondage, should not be punished. (Very true, from the Soc.)
Wherefore, by their own testimony, have our enemies fought? To
destroy Kaiserism. That has now passed forever; the very fact of
this Assembly is proof of that. They fought to destroy “Militarism”;
it has been overthrown and lies in pieces never to rise again. (Cry
from the Ind. Soc. “They will raise it again”). According to their
solemn proclamations our enemies have been fighting for justice,
freedom and a lasting peace. Nevertheless the conditions of the
armistice have been hard to a degree unheard of before, and have
been rigorously executed. Alsace is treated as French without
further ado. The elections for the National Assembly which we
proposed, have been hindered, contrary to law. (Cries of “Fie”), the
Germans have been driven out of the land, (Renewed cries of “Fie”),
and their possessions are confiscated. The occupied left bank of the
Rhine is cut off from the rest of Germany. (Cry from the Ind. Soc.
“Weimar will also be”). The clause in the armistice conditions that
no public property be allowed to lie idle, is the object of great
effort to increase
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its scope
to the general financial enslavement of the German people. Long
after we have become unable to take up arms again, our 800,000
prisoners of war are still retained, and threatened with moral
collapse and are forced to hard labor. (Cries from the extreme left
“We are still keeping the Russians”). From this act of despotism no
spirit of conciliation speaks. (Assent) The conditions of the
armistice were made to be imposed on the old Hohenzollern regime.
How can the fact be justified that they continue to augment them,
when the new Republic is using all its powers to meet its
obligations?
We warn our enemies not to drive us to the utmost. Like General
Winterfeldt, any German government might be forced to renounce any
further cooperation in the peace negotiations, and throw the whole
weight of the responsibility for the reorganization of the world on
its enemies. Do not place us before the choice between hunger and
disgrace. Even a socialistic government, and especially just such a
government must hold fast to this policy: rather the worst privation
than disinheritance. (Lively applause). If there were added to the
millions who have lost everything in the war and have nothing more
to lose, those who feel that Germany has nothing more to lose, the
tactics of despair would irresistibly succeed.
Germany laid down her arms trusting in President Wilson’s principles.
Let them now give us the Wilson peace to which we lay claim
(Applause). Our free and popular republic, the whole German people,
asks only to be allowed to enter the League of Nations as an equal,
and through industry and ability to earn a respected position.
(General applause). Germany can still aid the world in many ways. It
was a German who presented to the workmen of all nations a
scientific socialism. We are again on the way to outstrip the world
in socialism for we serve socialism which alone can endure, which
extols the welfare and culture of the people, and the socialism we
serve is becoming a reality. We turn to all the nations of the world
with our urgent appeal to proceed with justice towards the German
people, and not to destroy our people and our economy by oppression.
The German people have gained by fighting the right of
self-government within their land, and cannot prostitute themselves
to the outside world.
Nor can we refuse to unite the whole German people in a single state.
Our German-Austrian brothers have already declared themselves a part
of the greater German republic at their National Assembly on
November 12th of last year. The German-Austrian Assembly has
reiterated its greetings with the great enthusiasm and expressed the
hope that our respective National Assemblies will be able to renew
the union severed in 1866. German-Austria must be united with the
mother country for all time. (Applause). I am sure that I express
the opinion of the whole Assembly in greeting this historic
announcement
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directly and
full of pleasure and reply to it in hearty brotherhood. Our comrades
by race and fate may be assured that we bid them welcome into the
new empire of the German Nation with open arms and hearts.
(Applause). They belong to us, and we to them. (Applause). I dare
also express the expectation that the National Assembly of our
future government will very shortly give the authority to treat with
the government of the German-Austrian free state in regard to the
final coalition. (Applause). Then there will no longer be a boundary
fence between us, then we shall really be a single nation of
brothers. (Lively applause). Germany must not again fall into a land
of disintegration and narrow limits. History and the past prevent
the formation of a rigorously centralized state, but the different
stocks and dialects must cling together in one nation with one
tongue. (Applause). The future of our people can be assured only by
the possibility of a large, unified development of our economic life
and by a Germany united in policy and capable of action. (Applause).
The provisional government has stepped into a very bad inheritance.
We were the liquidators of the old regime. (“Very true”, from the
left; remonstrance on the right; increased applause on the left.)
With the help and support of the Central Council of of the Workmen’s
and Soldiers’ Councils (Remonstrance and laughing on the right;
Ebert repeated and emphasized the last words; lively applause from
the left.) we have used all our strength to overcome the danger and
misery of the period of transition. We have done everything to start
our economic system functioning again. (Contradiction from right).
These continued interruptions (turning to the right) make it clearly
apparent that in the grave period of these last weeks and months you
have learned exceedingly little. (Stormy applause from the left). If
the success of our work did not attain to our wishes, just
consideration must be given to the reasons. Many large producers,
led astray by the large and sure profits which war industries gave
them in the old monarchical, protectionist state have withheld the
necessary initiative. We therefore address to these large
manufacturers the urgent appeal to further the reawakening of
production with all their powers. (Applause).
On the other hand, we call upon the working class to strain every
effort in work, which alone can save us. (Applause). We understand
the mental mood of those who are now seeking a rest from the strain
of overwork during the war, we realize how difficult it must be for
those who have been in the field for years to find their way back to
peaceful pursuits. But it must be,—we must work and produce goods or
we shall go to ruin. (Applause.)
According to our conception, socialism is possible only when the
production contains a sufficiently high stage of work done. For us
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socialism is
organization, order and solidarity, not arbitrariness, stubbornness
and destruction. (“Quite right”, from the Socialists). The old state
could not avoid further extending the state economy to cover the
enormous war debts. In the time of universal need, there can be no
place for private monopoly and capitalistic profit without work. On
that account we want to cut out profit systematically where economic
development has made an industry ripe for forming combines.
(“Bravo”, from the left).
The future looks at us full of cares, but in spite of all we trust in
the inexhaustible power of production of the German Nation.
(Applause). The old German principles of might are broken forever.
Prussian hegemony, the Hohenzollern army, and the policy of gleaming
weapon have been made impossible for us. As November 9, 1918, is
bound to March 18, 1848, we must complete here in Weimar the
transformation from imperialism to idealism, from world power to
spiritual greatness. (Applause).
Even as La Salle’s [Lassalle’s?] influence was
but slight on the thinkers and poets of the classic age, so has the
age of William with its emphasis on outward splendor passed over us.
Now the spirit of Weimar, the spirit of great philosophers and
poets, must again fill our lives, fill them with the spirit shown in
the second part of “Faust” and in “Wilhelm Meister’s Wanderjahre”;
we must not get lost in theory, must not hesitate or vacillate, but
take a firm grip on practical life with clear glance and a firm
hand, for a man who hesitates at a doubtful moment increases the
evil and leads it further and further. But he who clings to reason
himself, fashions the world.
So we shall go to work, our great goal clear before our eyes: to
guard the rights of the German people, to anchor in Germany a strong
democracy and fill it with true social spirit and socialistic ways.
(Applause). Thus we will make true that which Fichte gave the German
Nation as its task. We will erect an empire of justice and of truth
founded on the equality of every human being. (Lively applause from
the majority).
