| Primary Source |
| 20th Cent. | Germany | Weimar Republic | [P|S|M] |
Karl Liebknecht (Spartakusbund), Proclamation of the Free Socialist Republic, November 9th 1918
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The day
of the revolution has come. We have enforced peace. Peace has been concluded in
this moment. The old has gone. The rule of the Hohenzollern, who have resided in
this palace for centuries, is over. In this very hour we proclaim the Free
Socialist Republic of Germany. We greet our Russian brethren, which have been
ignominously chased out four days ago ...
The day of liberty has begun. Never again a Hohenzollern will enter this place.
70 years ago at this place Friedrich Wilhelm IV. was standing, and he had to
take off his cap to honour the 50 corpses, covered with blood, of those who died
fighting at the barricades in the defense of the cause of liberty. Another
defile passes here today. It is the spirits of the millions who have given their
lives for the sacred cause of the proletariat. With a split scull, soaked in
blood these victims of the rule of force totter along, followed by the spirits
of millions of women and children who were depraved in the cause of the
proletariat. And further millions of blood-victims of this very world war follow
them. Today an incalculable mass of inspired proletarians stands at this very
place, to pay homage to the liberty newly gained. Party comrades, I proclaim the
Free Socialist Republic of Germany, which shall include all tribes (1),
where there are no more servants, where every honest worker will receive his
honest pay. The rule of capitalism, which has turned Europe into a cemetery, is
broken ...
We have to collect all our force to establish a government of workers and
soldiers, to create a new stately order of the proletariat, an order of peace,
of gortune, of liberty of our German brethren and of our brethren all over the
world. We stretch out our hands to them and call on them to complete the world
revolution.
(1) Stamm refers to the regional groupings - Bavarians,
Swabians, Franconians, Rhinelanders, Westfalians, Saxons etc., who make up the
German people; old-fashioned German
Dokument in deutscher Sprache
| | Source : Die
ungeliebte Republik (the unloved republic); Translator: A. Ganse |
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