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August Bebel, Reichstag Speech (November 8, 1871)

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Gentlemen, so what is it about the actual power of this so-called people’s representation? I have already elaborated substantially on this in my last speech on the military budget, and I am quite pleased that during the first and second debate on the current motion Deputy [Heinrich] von Treitschke completely agreed with my words.
[ . . . ] Among other things, he said, and I am paraphrasing, “Gentlemen, let’s persist in our conservative political stance, let’s not pass resolutions that we know will not be approved in the Federal Council.”* So there you have the entire secret. Expressed more frankly, this means: “Let’s act as if we had God knows what kind of power vis-à-vis the people!” I am afraid that among the population there are millions who buy into the liberal press’ insinuations that such a parliamentary assembly is omnipotent, that it only has to decide on something and it’s done. And of course, Gentlemen, liberalism has a great interest in not destroying that belief in the omnipotence of parliamentarism, because otherwise it would quickly be the end of parliamentarism and the government system that liberalism is trying to uphold. So, according to Reichstag deputy [Heinrich] von Treitschke, it means: “Let’s not pass any resolutions that won’t meet with the approval of the Federal Council, let’s not embarrass ourselves, and let’s not, for God’s sake, show the people that we don’t have any power and that the power they believe us to have is an illusion.” That was the gist of his speech, and can it really be otherwise with respect to parliamentarism? With the exception of tiny Mecklenburg, we have had parliamentarism in all of Germany since 1848. Whatever power parliamentarism, constitutionalism, had in Germany was due only to the movement of 1848/49. And, indeed, until 1866 liberalism did, as far as could be expected given its nature, make honest efforts to expand the seed contained in the constitutions in a liberal way. Gentlemen, since 1866 this has ceased entirely. Since that time, liberalism has been maneuvered away from the initiative (which it had had before), away from the offensive (which it had frequently seized before 1866), and onto the defensive. Today, it is no longer concerned with securing new rights, but only with defending those rights it would seem to have. Why is that, Gentlemen? It’s because since 1866 the power of government, and particularly the Prussian one, which was already so great, has completely outgrown parliament. This is a new illustration of Mr. [Eduard] Lasker’s recent remark that a strong government need not be hostile to liberty and that liberty thrives best under a strong government. No, quite the contrary is true. If government is strong, liberty suffers from it; the interests of governments and the people oppose each other. Gentlemen, the people do not exist because of government; government exists for the sake of the people. Government is supposed to carry out the will of the people, and it ought to be nothing more than the executive power. But what is the reality? The governments have the power, the governments have the will, and parliament is simply compelled to say “yes” and obey, and if it fails to do so, it gets morally trodden as it has so often before. We experienced this in the last session, for instance, during the debate on the annexation of Alsace, when the Reich Chancellor behaved as brusquely as in the most confrontational of times. That brings to mind another example of the powerlessness of parliamentarism. The Reich Chancellor mentioned the other day that he believes he has become more of a constitutionalist after each war. Well, Gentlemen, at first glance that may indeed seem so; at least it is the deputies’ belief in the truth of this view that recently prompted Deputy Lasker to make his famous statement. But what about the reality, Gentlemen? It is not that the Reich Chancellor has become more constitutional since 1866, but that the liberal parties, the parliamentary assemblies, have become more compliant – this is what it’s all about. [Great agitation.]


*On 2 Nov. 1871, Sten. Ber. RT, vol. 22, p. 102, Treitschke declared: “I have always been opposed to the Reichstag passing thoughtless resolutions that neglect the fact that another chamber [the Federal Council] is in session opposite us: the reputation of the Reichstag may suffer from a repetition of such resolutions.” [Information provided in Hans Fenske, ed., Im Bismarckschen Reich 1871-1890. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1978, p. 63.]

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