Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 17.djvu/721

 SPABTAOtrS 705 8PEYES

appointed by the Preudeat of the United States as one the German Republican Government announcing

of the arbitrators in the anthracite coal strike. At his program of social reforms as opposed to and

the height of his power and prestige, he was stricken distinguished from the tactics of violent social

with paialvsis 6 Jan., 1905, and three years later he revolution along the lines advocated in the Com-

was compelled to resign from the active administration munist Manifesto of Karl Marx. Armed uprising

of his diocese and was given the title of titular Arch- spread over Germany, with the Spartacides invan-

"&>cialiBm and Labor/' and his essays. cities were actually besieged by Communist

S^lk^JZk£rii^)X^ ^rkers, and the whole country was on the verge

(New York, 18W). 834-36; Th* CaiKoiie Hi$t. JUt., III. 164. of a social cataclysm. The Moscow Soviet Mission

in Berlin became the headquarters of revolutionaxy Spartaciu Ghrovp. — ^Under this name is known the agitation. Spartacan tactics grew more aggressive extreme faction of the German Socialist movement, eveiy day, until finally the German Government The pretext for the birth of this group was the dis- was compelled to arrest Rosa Luxemburg and Karl sension among German Socialists on their attitude Liebknedit. Their arrest was the turning point toward the World War, and more specifically the in the development of the revolutionary move- voting for the war credit. While on 4 August, 1914, ment in Germany. When put imder arrest in Ber- immediately after the outbreak oi the European lin, Liebknecht and Luxemburg had to be convoyed War, the Socialist representatives in the German from one prison to another. While on their way, Reichstag unanimously voted for the war credit, they were shot and instantly killed by the soldiers nevertheless the debates which preceded this voting under whose guard they were. The actual circum- indicated that there was a difference of opinion stances of Liebknecht's and Luxemburg's deaths, among the Socialists with regard to the vital issue however, still remain dubious. With the elimina- of military preparedness. ICarl Liebknecht was tion of these .two Spartacan leaders, the whole among the most violent antagonists of the Hugo movement lost 'its impetus. The milder factions of Haase Socialist faction, which stood for the support German Social Democracy again assumed control of the Imperial German Government. In Decem- over Socialist activities. In 1920 the different Ger- ber of the same year, when the German Chancellor man Socialist factions began to investigate inde- made a plea for additional war credits, Liebknecht pendently the conditions in Soviet Russia. Ger- voted "no." The final organisation of the Spartacus man revolutionary workers proceeded to that coun- Group dates back to 1917, when Liebknecht and try in the hope that they would find there ideal Rosa Luxemburg came out openly against the social conditions. However, the situation which tactics of the Independent Socialist Party, acciis- they actually found converted them into conscious ing them of liberal or petty bourgeois tendencies, and implacable enemies of the Soviet regime. ' In Simultaneously the Spartacus Group combined its this connection the report of one of the German efforts with the so-called group of the Interna- Socialist leaders, Dittman, who also studied the tionale and started extensive propaganda among Soviet experiment in Russia herself, produced a the German workers and soldiers, advocating an great impression on the minds of the Gennan immediate social revolution, with the final aim of workers, and dealt a grave blow to the Spartacus establishing proletarian dictatorship. This move- movement. Aside from those mentioned above, ment was largely influenced by the Bolshevik rev- the Spartacus Group counted among its leaders olution in Russia. Financially the Bolsheviki came Franz Mehring, the author of the "History of the to the assistance of the revolutionary movement German Social Democracv." Theoretically the in Germany by appropriating 10,000,000 rubles for Spartacus Group alwasrs declared itself in favor propaganda purposes abroad. This fund was dicH of orthodox Marxism, while in matters of prac- pensed through the Bureau of International Revolu- tical action it advocated an alliance with Soviet tionary Propaganda. Millions of leaflets and Russia for the purpose of forciblsr introducing pamphlets were circulated by the Spartacides, both Communism into western countries, with the assist- in Germany and Austria. The fundamental aim ance^ of the combined Russian and German Red of the Spartacus Group was made clear in an appeal Armies.

to the Gennan workers in connection with the Fbaiwa, Tht Social RfwoltOian in Germany (BotUm, 1919);

Rv^Aof T I'frtvalr noi«1ova TKoroin if wiu» cifatprl • H^^o^^^^^* ThaRevehUumtn Germany in The RadtealRevuwU,

lJrest-L.ltOVSk parleys. l nerein it was Statea. (jftnuary-Maroh, 1919); DimiAK. Report in Der Freiheit (August

"There is only one means of putting an end to the 31-September l, 1920); Documents of the American Aeeoeiation

present butchery and misery of the workers— the /or /ngrmtf»oi«ij Con«iw|«o» I (1919); Franks, DU WahrheU

Overthrow of the government and the bourgeois ^^^ R^^nd iBe^hn, 1920),

class, in the way this was accomplished in Russia." Speyer, Diocesb op (Spirbnsis; cf. C. E., XTV—

The Spartacus Group also advocated a general 214d), in Bavaria, suffragan of Bamberg. The

strike as a measure calculated to bring about stop- present diocese is a remnant of the former diocese

page in war industries, paralyzing all economic situated on the right and left banks of the Rhine

activity. to within a distance of nineteen miles of Stuttgart.

With the overthrow of the Imperial German it comprises, moreover, parts of the dioceses of

Government, Liebknecht and his associates endeav- Strasburg. Metz, Trier, Mainz, and the now sup-

ored to establish control over the Congress of pressed oiocese of Worms and since 1815 it is

Soldiers' and Workers' Deputies, which was con- coterminus with the Pfalz, a political territory

voked in Berlin. In this, however, the leaders of created by the Congress of Vienna. The real date of

the Spartacus movement failed completely and the its foundation is 23 Sept., 1821, on which day the

majority of the 450 delegates constituting said Con- papal Bull of circumscription was published. Efuring

gress repeatedly voted in favor of the platform the administration of Bishop, afterwards Cardmal,

of the Independent Socialists, adhering to Kautsky Geissel, and even more so imder that of Bishop

and Haase. The climax of the influence of the Weis, the work of building up the diocese was begun.

Spartacus Group among the German workers came Due to the World War and the revolution of 1018,

at the time when one (A the well-known leaders many changes have since taken place. The oonsti-

of German Social Democracy, Sdieidemann, joined tution of the Republic has brought about the sepa-