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Ernst Dumig and the German Revolution of 1918
Author(s): David W. Morgan
Source: Central European History, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Dec., 1982), pp. 303-331
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of Conference Group for Central European
History of the American Historical Association
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Ernst
German
Daumig
the
of
Revolution
DAVID
ONE
and
1918
W. MORGAN
ofthe
oldest commonplaces
about the German Revolu?
of the revolutionary
tion of 1918 is that the leadership
left
the revolution
never found its Lenin.
was ineffectual?that
Yet any one who seeks insight into particular leaders of this revolution
but ever-popular
will find little to go on. Apart from the peripheral
Kurt
a
of
and
handful
leaders
Eisner,
only
leading radicals and
Spartacist
have been studied in any depth.1 Others, however
im?
revolutionaries
portant they were then, are shadowy figures to history. Among these is
leader ofthe Berlin Executive
intellectual
Ernst Daumig,
Council, foreofthe German workers' council movement,
and somemost spokesman
of two important political parties during the revolution?
Social Democratic
and the
Party (USPD)
ary years: the Independent
United Communist
Party (VKPD).
time chairman
on the socialist
Yet Daumig is one ofthe most interesting personalities
with
an
unusual
and
left in the years around 1918,
career, personality,
At the outbreak ofthe war he was middle-aged
and middleconvictions.
of war and revolution,
ranking, but then, under the special conditions
he rose rapidly to the top. He won national prominence
only after the
from most of the faction he
war, and even then he was distinguished
a handful of other key revolutionary
led by age?only
a certain ethical traditionalism.
over fifty years old?and
a half years later, when he failed
the revolution?through
regenerate
sioned,
weakened,
slope
figures were
Some two and
desperate effort to
was left disillu-
to an early death.
The
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Ernst
304
German
Daumig
of igi8
the radical left in those years as the life of any one man could be.
25,1866, had unusual
Daumig, born in Merseburg on November
be-
is not definitely
ginnings for a leading socialist.2 His family background
known, but his Gymnasium education suggests the middle or lower mid?
dle class, most likely the latter.3 He is said to have prepared himself to
At the age of twenty, however,
he went into military
study theology.4
service, first in the French Foreign Legion in North Africa and Indochina (where he rose to noncommissioned
officer and was decorated
and then in the German
officer,
army (again as noncommissioned
with
an
unit
at
artillery
Metz). His military career lasted eleven
serving
years, until 1898, and left a lasting mark on his interests, for he devel?
twice)
fiction
as well as journalistic
year
2. The previously collected data about Daumig's career are sparse. There are quasiDritter
autobiographical entries under his name in the Handbuchdes VereinsArbeiterpresse,
Jahrgang (Berlin, 1914) and Reichstags-Handbuch,1. Wahlperiode, 1920 (Berlin, 1920);
unattributed biographical details in the text are from these sources. Johannes Fischart
(pseud. of Erich Dombrowski), Das alte und das neue System, Dritte Folge: Kopfe der
Gegenwart(Berlin, 1920), pp. 257-61, and Emil Unger, PolitischeKopfe des sozialistischen
Deutschlands(Leipzig, n.d. [1920]), pp. 121-24, are brief studies by contemporaries. The
best personal appreciation is by "P.L." (undoubtedly Paul Levi) in Freiheit,July 6,1922.
See also the recent brief treatments in Neue DeutscheBiographieand BiographischesLexikon
zur deutschenGeschichte.
3. Colin Ross, "Die ersten Tage der Revolution," Das Tagebuch1 (1920): 287, asserts
that Daumig's father was an army sergeant, which is plausible but unconfirmed. Accord?
ing to P.L. in Freiheit,July 6,1922, Daumig never talked about himself; even his friends
knew only scanty details about his early life.
4. Obituaries in Freiheit, July 6, 1922. The "religious" quality of his convictions is
repeatedly mentioned by contemporaries.
5. Details of his military service are in letters from Daumig to Karl Kautsky in 1900:
Karl Kautsky papers (International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam), D VII 237241. Kautsky published two of Daumig's articlesin Neue Zeit in 1900; see also the fictional
pieces Daumig collected as ModerneLandsknechte:Erzahlungenaus demKolonial-Soldatenleben (Halle, n.d. [ca. 1904]).
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David
into his ultimate
he settled
W. Morgan
career when
he took
305
a job with
the socialist
in Gera.6
newspaper
The next thirteen
Within
and by 1908 he not only was in charge ofthe cultural page (Feuilleton),
his original job, but was also second political editor. In 1909
presumably
In both cities he
he moved to the Erfurt party paper as editor-in-chief.7
chairman ofthe workers' education committee
(a characteristic
and lasting interest of his) and member ofthe local party leadership; he
was also known for work among the socialist youth. In the spring of
1911 he was honored by selection as one ofthe political editors of Vor?
for military and educational
wdrts in Berlin, with special responsibility
he
established
Here, too,
himself, in particular as a
questions.
quickly
became
committee
for Greater
was thus still a rising man when the war broke out in the
had
year of his life. He was little known nationally?he
forty-eighth
never had a seat in a parliament,
he had spoken only once at a party con?
he
and
wrote
for
national
sollittle
his handsome,
gress,
journals?but
built
familiar
was
on
in
inner
both
and
idly
figure
public platforms
party circles in the capital. He was known as sober, steady, even some?
what pedantic in manner; he himself said that he could only lecture, not
make a rousing speech.10 He was a pronounced
radical, but not one
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Ernst
306
Daumig
ani
the Revolution
0/1918
who,
as Germans
bureauPrussian
offset by an underlying
emocorporal Daumig had once been12?was
tionalism that seems to have been felt readily enough by his audiences
The romanticism
that impelled him into the Foreign
and colleagues.
infused
his
and
early writings,13 the ethical idealism shown by
Legion
his regular Sunday lectures for a humanist society,14 were largely leashed,
into political commitment
and administrative
or sublimated
energy.
to the cause.
devotion
Yet they gave a special quality to Daumig's
in Daumig's
career might or might not have worked
out fruitfiilly in normal times. The war changed his life,
themselves
the
old molds, releasing his idealistic energies, and propelling
breaking
him rapidly to the forefront of radical socialist politics.
The tensions
tendencies
of the nascent
Soartacist
Grouo.
insistino:
on
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Davii
strictly within
working
as chairman
continued
W. Morgan
3?7
as long as possible.17 He
the party organization
and lec?
committee
education
of the workers'
Educational
of the USPD in
the schism in the party and the formation
precipitate
their
converted
socialists
Berlin
the
oppositional
April 1917. Meanwhile
meant
into a weekly political paper
monthly bulletin (Mitteilungs-Blatt)
the Reich.
and later the USPD,
to serve the opposition,
throughout
midst of
in
the
November
in
editor
its
became
1916,
leading
Daumig
of
the
the
old
turmoil that was breaking up
party.
ways
in Russia, which Daumig
Further impetus came from the revolution
later called the "beacon light" by which he and his friends "oriented
ofthe subsequent events ofthe war."20 On
in the to-and-fro
themselves
His
first showed how much his outlook had changed.
Russia Daumig
the revolution
closely from March on, openly
having followed
well before their
in September,
Bolsheviks
the
of
the
cause
adopted
the
seizure of power.21 In November
greeted the triMitteilungs-Blatt
in the Russian labor
socialist elements"
umph of "the determinedly
paper,
17. See anti-Spartacist resolutions proposed by Daumig in Max Groger, ed., Zur
Abwehr (Berlin, n.d. [1916]), p. 6, and Vorwdrts,Sept. 11, 1916.
18. On this conflict see Zum Vorwdrts-Konflikt(Berlin, 1916), for the Party Executive's
version; Der Gewaltstreichdes Parteivorstandesgegenden "Vorwdrts"und die BerlinerParteiorganisation(n.p., n.d. [1916]), for the opposition viewpoint; and Kurt Koszyk, Zwischen
Kaiserreichund Diktatur (Heidelberg, 1958), pp. 45~48 and 79-8519. Mitteilungs-Blatt, Nov. 19, 1916, p. 8.
20. Freiheit, Dec. 24, 1919 (m.=morning ed.).
21. Mitteilungs-Blatt, Sept. 30, 1917. That Daumig was behind certain unsigned editorials is likely from suggestions in the style, comments of contemporaries, other indications
of his views at the time and later, and of course the fact that he was chief editor ofthe
paper.
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Ernst
308
movement
who
Daumig
of1918
were
before
of German
whole
as well.
for Daumig
prospect of creating a new social order?became
the measure of all things.
This is not to say that Daumig gave up the party activities that had
been the substance of his political life. He still lectured at the Workers'
imminent
Educational
now
Institute
the Russian
revolution.
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Davii
central office ofthe
is known
thing
a replacement
USPD
about
W.
309
Morgan
as a salaried national
his work
on June 22.28
new
Daumig's
movement
ground
direction,
however,
of radical workers
also took
him
into
the under?
munitions
indus?
To?
try, the group later known as the "revolutionary
shop stewards."
ward the end ofthe war this circle, which had mounted
strikes in April
1917 and January 1918, had explicitly revolutionary
goals, and Daumig's
participation?starting
kind of conspiratorial
however
much
in the summer
of 1918?involved
him in the
officials
ever
party
hardly
practiced,
talk revolution.
His combination
of sober,
activities
they might
fervor made him an excel?
organizational
qualities with revolutionary
lent choice as one of only two party officials admitted to the workers'
and he quickly became a leading figure.29 He approached
committee,
revolution
on the committee)
as a
(as did the trade union militants
of
detailed
and
therefore resisted as wasteproblem
patient,
preparation,
ful and dangerous
Karl Liebknecht's
efforts to whip up emotions
by
street demonstrations;
but as the moment
he showed him?
approached
self as active and impatient
as any one.30 In fact, it was Daumig's
arrest
on November
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Ernst
310
Daumig
of1918
tion. Named
to a supervisory
position in the War Ministry because of
his special knowledge
of military affairs, he refused the office, as he also
on two occasions that he himself become war min?
rejected suggestions
ister, saying that he would not let himself "be buried in the War Min?
istry."32 He also began to withdraw from his party positions. He seems
to have become inactive in the daily affairs ofthe Party Executive
soon
after the revolution;
while he may still have been a member as late as
he
must
have resigned soon afterwards?quietly,
with?
mid-December,
out making an issue of it, as was his usual modest way in such matters.33
At some time in November
What remained
was the revolutionary
committee,
leaders had joined the newly elected Executive
Council of the
Berlin workers' and soldiers' councils. Daumig chose this as his forum,
and made its cause his cause.
whose
Daumig
movement
known.
made
his national
limitations
ofthe
lenarian
councils
32. Dittmann memoirs, pp. 927-29; H. Miiller, Die November-Revolution,p. 103; Die
Regierungder Volksbeauftragten
1918/19, ed. Susanne Miller with Heinrich Potthoff, 2 vols.
(Diisseldorf, 1969), 1:83 and 88.
33. Daumig himself said he was still a member in mid-December; USPD, Protokoll
uber die Verhandlungendes ausserordentlichen
Parteitagesvom 2. bis 6. Mdrz 1919 in Berlin
(hereafter cited as: USPD Parteitag,Mar. 1919), p. 263. His resignation was not reported
in the press.
34. Freiheit, Dec. 16, 1918 (m.).
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Davii
W.
311
Morgan
and politi?
bring social, economic,
control of the citizenry,
and involve
for his or her immediate
world.35 This,
in responsibility
was about. Liberal democ?
less, was what the revolution
in con?
here; from the outset Daumig,
racy had nothing to contribute
of his party, resolutely
"formal
de?
trast to many members
regarded
for
or
as
a
facade
mocracy,"
democracy,"
merely
"bourgeois
unchanged
each person
and nothing
of domination
tion"36?offered
a fundamental
alternative.
The
democracy,
"pro?
or bourgeois-liberal
one could
democracy."37
Alternatively
the dictatorship of capital, masked by
speak of two forms of dictatorship:
and the dictatorship
ofthe proletariat, which
institutions,
parliamentary
letarian
of blood
world
must arise."39
"The
col-
35- The formal content of Daumig's conception is described and evaluated in Franz
Gutmann, Das Ratesystem:Seine Verfechterundseine Probleme(Munich, 1922), pp. 61-66;
Peter von Oertzen, Betriebsrdtein der Novemberrevolution(Diisseldorf, 1963), pp. 89-99;
and Horst Dahn, Rdtedemokratische
Modelle: Studienzur Ratediskussionin Deutschland19181919 (Meisenheim am Glan, 1975), pp. 44-56. It was a model of direct democracy based
on the constant active participation ofthe working population (in a broad sense) through
their places of work (where possible), or at least their occupational groupings. Councils
would operate in both political and economic matters, combining policy-making and
administrative functions. This model seems to have been suggested both by Daumig's
direct experience of shop-floor political activism and by his understanding ofthe soviets
in Russia.
36. Allgemeiner Kongress der Arbeiter- und Soldatenrate Deutschlands vom 16. bis 21.
Dezember 1918 (Berlin, n.d.), p. 114.
37. USPD Parteitag, Mar. 1919, p. 95.
38. Ibid., pp. 95-96; see also Allgemeiner Kongress, p. 117.
39. AllgemeinerKongress, p. 113.
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Ernst
312
lapse ofthe
that
capitalist
Daumig
economy
ani
the Revolution
and civilization
0/1918
in the world
war" meant
the old capitalist production, the old ways of governing, the old cultural
perspectives founded on individualism and egotism are no longer viable. We
intend to and must realize socialism in Germany because otherwise the great
masses of the working people, all who must earn their bread with hand or
brain, will not escape from economic hardship and spiritual and cultural
narrowness and torpor. We must have socialism because only then will our
people's demoralization, bitterness, and disinclination to work be overcome,
only then will there spring up in the working class feelings of self-confidence,
responsibility, andjoy in labor, stripped of its character as capitalist bondage.40
The historical
the world,
reestablish
Thanks
movement
been
revolution
temporary
final struggle between capital and labor."42
This conviction
intense
was strong enough to outweigh
Daumig's
After a few
awareness of the weaknesses
of the German revolution.
of bitter experience he denounced
events up to then as "a purely
bourgeois revolution with purely bourgeois results."43 What was worse,
the main obstacle to revolutionary
advance was the failure ofthe work?
weeks
from old habits of mind and recognize their hisI tell you, the worst
to an assembly: "Comrades,
us is ultimately
not economic
thing now threatening
collapse, but the
damned trustfulness ofthe German, which he has taken along into the
ers to free themselves
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David
revolution
with him."44
W. Morgan
313
decaying
perspectives
doesn't even notice it. The entire
the pettiness
feeling of dependence,
of thought, are the kind of thing against which we must fight."45 Looking back from a year later he summed up:
Rarely can a working class have gone into a revolution so little predisposed
psychically . . . because the German proletariat has neither a revolutionary
tradition nor revolutionary
temperament, because the German proletariat is
infected right into its class-conscious
ranks with the spirit
which the German people has been raised for generations.
situation by
letariat, which was hurled into a revolutionary
the world war and which was not strong enough nor trained
of subjection in
. . . Such a pro?
the upheavals of
enough in revo?
lution to hold onto the revolutionary
in
ofthe
first
November of
gains
days
last year, must be schooled and formed for its revolutionary task in the course
of the revolution itself.46
Nor
could
the parties
revolutionary
schooling.
view of the old conventional
be expected
to help in the
is Daumig's
disillusioned
thoroughly
labor movement
he had once served so
faithfully:
The
to "bring
in a revolutionary
organization
of struggle
44- Minutes ofthe Berlin general assembly of Jan. 31, 1919, St. 11/12, pp. 73-74.
45. Unpublished minutes ofthe Berlin Executive Council (IML-ZPA, Berlin), Jan.
28, 1919, St. 11/5, p. 216.
46. USPD, Protokoll iiber die Verhandlungendes ausserordentlichen
Parteitagesin Leipzig
vom 30. November bis 6. Dezember 1919, pp. 239-40.
47. Freiheit, Dec. 21, 1919.
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Ernst
314
Daumig
ani
the Revolution
0/1918
episodes of avoidance
his hopes in 1921.
to the collapse
of
As mentioned
mittee joined, and Daumig could hardly abandon his close connection
with the organized factory militants, Berlin's most promising
revolu?
that
tionary force. He went in with his eyes open, noting sardonically
even his militant
branch
friends
of the Metal
came.50
sometimes
Workers'
treated
Union,
the Executive
from
as on other
Here,
occasions?notably
Communist
International?he
showed himself
Council
as a
accepting
him as spokesman
in ideological
matters
and generally
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David
W.
315
Morgan
situdes
which
management,
expected more
revoluDau?
Even after these early defeats Daumig and his allies, including leading
to put their faith in
and militants from other cities, continued
socialists
all advances,
the exclusive
council
authority
democratic
sys-
51. The classic account ofthe Executive Council is Eberhard Kolb, Die Arbeiterratein
der deutschenInnenpolitik1918-19 (Diisseldorf, 1962), pp. 125-37; see also Erich Matthias's
introduction to Die Regierung der Volksbeauftragten,1 :xcii-cvii, and Materna.
52. AllgemeinerKongress,pp. 113-18.
53. Der ersteAkt, p. 6.
54. Ibid., p. 1.
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316
Ernst
Daumig
ani
the Revolution
0/1918
war."56
He repudiated
the
the path which the council idea, under immutable laws, still has to travel may
not be spattered with blood. . . . The political schooling of the masses, proceeding at a rapid pace in revolutionary times, lets us anticipate a victory of
the council idea even without brutal use of force.58
55- A rare surviving private letter of Daumig's has bitter comments on the government's "persecution" of him and his friends; letter to Hans Ostwald, Sept. 13, 1919, in
ASD, Bonn-Bad Godesberg, collection: Verschiedene Originalbriefe und Dokumente, 12.
56. Der ersteAkt, p. 6.
57. Richard Miiller, Der Biirgerkriegin Deutschland:GeburtswehenderRepublik (Berlin,
1925), pp. 33-34; Ledebour in Der Ledebour-Prozess,p. 53; Daumig's own account in
ProtokollderReichskonferenzvom 1. bis 3. September1920 zu Berlin, pp. 179-80.
58. Daumig's preface to Richard Miiller, Was die Arbeiterrdtewollen und sollen (Berlin,
n.d. [1919]), P- 4-
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Davii
W.
317
Morgan
But he was ready for conflict, caused (as he saw it) by the other side's
blind refusal to bow to historical necessity. He was one ofthe originators
to
of the ill-fated general strike of March 1919, which was intended
the government
without
but
violence,
ended instead in street fighting.59 The general strike remained his model
there seems to have been no other
of revolutionary
action, though
occasion in the next two years (apart from the Kapp Putsch) when he
force
socialist
concessions
from
Little
is known
about
of 1919-20?nor
as the chief
winter
identified
these
activities?which
probably
began in the
in
role
about Daumig's
them, but he has been
He
no
on
part, however,
organizer.60
played
occasion
went
into
when
action:
some
when
such network,
he counseled
the VKPD's
in a leading
March
position,
though system
built according
tionaries
course
in the factories.
for selected
59- See Morgan, The Socialist Left, pp. 230 and 232-36.
60. Ruth Fischer, Stalin and German Communism (Cambridge, Mass., 1948), p. 173;
Gunther Nollau, InternationalCommunismand World Revolution (London, 1969), p. 68.
The scanty evidence about the preparations is cited in Morgan, The SocialistLeft, p. 333.
Daumig several times made vague public references to this side of his activity; see USPD
Reichskonferenz,Sept. 1920, p. 184; Verhandlungendes Reichstages,vol. 345, p. 925, and
vol. 347, p. 2242.
61. Daumig in Die Revolution: Unabhdngigessozialdemokratisches
Jahrbuchfur Politik und
proletarischeKultur 1920 (Berlin, 1920), p. 90.
62. Mentioned by him in USPD Parteitag, Mar. 1919, p. 232.
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318
Ernst
wore
Daumig
of 1918
became
more
pronounced;
he once even called for "a proletarian intelligentsia."63
His experience
as leader of a small vanguard was turning into acceptance of the prin?
ciple ofa vanguard, in a form new to his thinking.
Similarly, towards the end of 1919 the "world revolution"
began to
feature in Daumig's
formulations
as it had not while the vitality ofthe
German
itself seemed
revolution
November
revolution?which
true revolution
revolutionary
sufficient.
he now
On the anniversary
a mere collapse,
called
at all64?he
epoch
on his understanding
elaborated
in which we find ourselves":
of the
not a
of "the
The catastrophe of the world war with all its side effects and consequences,
even today scarcely graspable, has created the preconditions from which the
world revolution is now setting out on its march through all countries. . . .
Here in Germany this revolution assumed acute forms in the November days
of 1918, after it had entered the stage of feverish intensity a year earlier in the
former Tsarist Empire, while in the countries ofthe West just the preliminary
spasms of proletarian rebellion against capitalist power are showing them?
As a social revolution it goes through
selves. The world revolution is here!...
the different lands and everywhere sharpens the class conflict between the
previously ruling and privileged classes and the proletarian forces, which
partly purposefully aim to dig the grave of the old
partly instinctively,
economic and social order.65
Germany's
beleaguered
efforts as part ofa wider
revolutionaries
movement
whose
took
in seeing their
success was prom?
comfort
ultimate
Daumig,
national loyalties.
Second International
cialists,
sheviks
while
made
so?
reformist as well as revolutionary
containing
his longstanding
and
admiration
for
the
Bol?
sympathy
him immediately
ready to join the Third International,
63. See especially his comments at the USPD's September conference, reported in
Freiheit,Sept. 11,1919 (m.); and in Die Revolution,pp. 95-97. The quoted words are from
the announcement of a new school for training members of the councils of which
Daumig was cosponsor; Die Rateschule,no. 2 (Jan. 1920), p. 3.
64. Freiheit,Nov. 11, 1919 (m.).
65. Metallarbeiter-Zeitung,Nov. 15, 1919.
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Davii
founded
tone
in Moscow
in which
319
in March
he addressed
the Bolsheviks
W. Morgan
was
the
for
he recomevaluation
from June:
The much-abused Bolshevism was the first to call a halt to the mad slaughter
ofthe nations and to try to replace a shattered state and ruined economy with
a form of society that meets the requirements of socialism. Many a false step,
many an error may have been made, but the greatness ofthe enterprise cannot
be diminished thereby. . . .
The history of Soviet Russia up to now offers us enormously
valuable
lessons for the construction of the council system, for the establishment of the
dictatorship ofthe proletariat: lessons also in that we can avoid many a mis?
take that our Russian friends had to make under the pressure of circumstances.67
The Bolsheviks
had no firmer
German
defender
of their achievement
than Daumig,
but also no friend who referred more often to their mis?
takes and to how Germans must modify
Russian practices to fit their
own needs.68 What he admired was their boldness in ending the war,
and devising new political
"Kerenskis,"
breaking with the halfhearted
and economic
institutions
intended
to embody
socialism.
He seems to
leaders during most of 1919 spoke
elements ofthe
revolutionary
in
the
Third
International,
crystalized
unambiguously
world
revolution
it
already
as our duty to join these picked forces at once."70
The last, and most momentous,
ofthe changes in Daumig's
activity
at the end of 1919 was his assumption
of a leading party office. It hapand we regard
66. A good guide to his thinking is his May Day article in Die Republik, May l, 1919.
67. Daumig's preface to Philips Price, Die Wahrheitiiber Sowjet-Russland (Berlin, n.d.
[1919]), p. 5.
68. See for instance AllgemeinerKongress,p. 116; USPD Parteitag, Mar. 1919, pp. 9697 and 228-29; L>erArbeiter-Rat1 (1919), no. 20:3; USPD Parteitag,Dec. 1919, p. 372.
The only "error" he specified was the Bolsheviks' use of political repression and terror.
Daumig's reticence is also noted in Peter Losche, Der Bolschewismusim Urteil derdeutschen
Sozialdemokratie1903-1920 (Berlin, 1967), pp. 228-29.
69. See Lenin's comments in Die KommunistischeInternationale,no. 2, pp. 76-77, and
no. 3, p. 29. Daumig's article in Die Republik, May 1,1919, appears to reflect knowledge
of such comments.
70. USPD Parteitag,Dec. 1919, p. 371.
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Ernst
320
Daumig
of 1918
had never
positions
were tenuous. He detested
coalition
doomed
almost
cember
clared
the USPD's
socialist government,
regime.71 Relations
the breaking
de?
28, 1918, several shop steward leaders, including Daumig,
themselves willing to run for election to the National Assembly
reached
growing
USPD
by the further
of the revolution.73
development
For most of 1919 he waited. By spring he was the best-known
mem?
left
from
in
who
was
ofthe
ber
wing?apart
Georg Ledebour,
party's
he regularly appeared at major party conclaves. But he hardly
jail?and
ever wrote for the party press, publishing instead in his own Der ArbeiterRat and in the daily Die Republik, which he also edited for a time; and
he held no party office.74 At one point he almost ended his abstention:
with Haase, seeking
a party congress in March elected him cochairman
the con?
to reconcile the party's wings. But Haase balked, reminding
gress that not only had Daumig repudiated him, Haase, in December,
but he had just refused to endorse the USPD's latest program, which
71. Die Republik, Dec. 8, 1918. His reasons for disaffection are best expressed in Der
ersteAkt, pp. 4-5.
72. Freiheit, Dec. 29, 1918, and Jan. 3, 1919 (m.); USPD Parteitag, Mar. 1919, pp.
263-64.
der KPD: Protokoll und Materialien, ed. Hermann Weber
73. Der Grundungsparteitag
(Frankfurt, 1969), pp. 270-80; Freiheit, Jan. 3, 1919 (e.); R. Miiller, Burgerkrieg,pp.
86-89; USPD Parteitag,Mar. 1919, p. 263; USPD Reichskonferenz,Sept. 1920, pp. 180-81.
74. Daumig wrote regularly for Die Republikfrom April on, and was coeditor from
the beginning of June until the paper's suppression by the government on June 23.
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Davii
was much
radicalized
assembly,
the congress
place, while
Daumig's
movement,
W. Morgan
321
with relief.
probably
in
about parties in the revolution.
was
fact
deeply ambivalent
Daumig
In his work in the councils the narrow partisanship ofthe three socialist
he called it?was
a curse. At times he sug?
egotism,"
parties?"party
gested that common labors in the council system would lead the different
differences and merge the parties
socialists to overcome
organizational
force for
on a new basis.76 But he knew the parties were a powerful
good or ill as long as they lasted. He had no use for the SPD, as a party;
it was not part ofthe movement
(though many of its followers
were),
coalitions between
it was part ofthe enemy, and he always denounced
The Communists
were different;
divided from
revolutionaries,
regrettably
Daumig
their
socialists by their "putschism,"
the main body of revolutionary
in tactics, and their con?
to pander to their wildest followers
tendency
was the party
stant pursuit of narrow party interests.78 The USPD
revolutionaries
were gathered; but its inherited
where the bulk ofthe
USPD
and SPD
saw them
forms
most
as inadmissible.77
as fellow
of many members,
and the outlook
and procedures
including
of the higher leaders, made it still "a radical opposition
party"
Daumig's
in?
volvement
Koenen.
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Ernst
322
Daumig
of 1918
International. With
new democracy;
and affiliation with the Communist
on both points, Daumig was now more than ever
Ledebour heterodox
the outstanding
figure ofthe left wing, as well as one ofthe most pop?
in the party. When the left wing mobilized
ular personalities
a voting
was its
majority at the Leipzig party congress in December,
Daumig
natural choice for the chairmanship.
However reluctantly, he accepted.81
The chairmanship
(which he shared with Crispien) meant a displaceof Daumig's
efforts from the council system?which
he still de?
clared to be a more important revolutionary
instrument than the party82
?into
he
conventional
His
a few weeks later, was to
wrote
politics.
goal,
ment
by much
representatives,
parliamentary
immediate
social revolution,
Democratic
in a somewhat
orthodoxy
8i. The words Geyer puts in Daumig's mouth as the latter tried to resist being nominated?"I am not the man you think I am" (pp. 159-60)?may or may not be historical,
but the fact of his resistance surely is.
82. USPD Parteitag,Dec. 1919, esp. p. 243.
83. Freiheit, Dec. 24, 1919.
84. On this whole affair see Morgan, The SocialistLeft, pp. 311-20.
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Davii
W. Morgan
323
by new legislation
decayed, being undermined
ary council movement
was
and then slowly emasculated
by the jealous trade unions. Daumig
in time to join in
at liberty again (though ill from his imprisonment)
the one great mass action of 1920, the popular resistance to the Kapp
Putsch, which began on March 13; but he was able to play almost no
front against the putsch was the
positive role.85 A united working-class
of
all
while
socialists; however,
Daumig aimed to unite the workers
goal
councils
with
workers'
by reviving
political powers, many of his fellow
incorReich government
instead sought an all-socialist
Independents
The
and
the
unions.
USPD
the
the
SPD,
USPD,
leadership
porating
was so miserably divided that it fell into agonizing,
embittering
paral?
ysis. Daumig himself twice threatened to resign when coalition with the
near.86 Many people saw Daumig's
position as essentially
far
his intention),
and
was
from
and obstructive
(which
his reputation
suffered.87
with its failure in March, the USPD's
great success
By comparison
SPD
seemed
abstentionist
spirit they
cessful revolutionaries
Until
circumstances
behind
forced
views
in detail. Those
as Stoecker
finally
as well
who
as to revive
the revolutionary
85. The illness is mentioned in Geyer, p. 180. On the USPD leadership in the Kapp
Putsch see Morgan, The Socialist Left, pp. 320-32.
86. Luise Zietz in Protokoll uber die Verhandlungendes ausserordentlichen
Parteitages in
Halle vom 12. bis 17. Oktober1920, p. 64; Wilhelm Koenen, "Zur Frage der Moglichkeit
einer Arbeiterregierung nach dem Kapp-Putsch," Beitrage zur Geschichteder deutschen
Arbeiterbewegung,4 (1962): 348.
87. See Arthur Rosenberg, Geschichteder deutschenRepublik (Karlsbad, 1935), pp. 114
and 136.
88. Protokoll der Fraktion der U.S.P. (unpubl. minute book, IISH Amsterdam),
minutes for June 21, 1920. His maiden speech in the Reichstag, on October 30, began
with words on the futility of parliamentary speechmaking; Verhandlungendes Reichstags,
vol. 345, p. 918. In two years in the Reichstag he made only three speeches, the last in
March 1921.
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Ernst
324
Daumig
ani
the Revolution
0/1918
was
spirit in Germany. Moreover, joining the Comintern
a clear majority ofthe party's rank and file, which offered
an advantage in its intraparty power struggle. The more
were suspicious of the
party leaders and their following
popular with
the left wing
conventional
Comintern's
tendency to dictate to member parties, but did not dare to oppose affiliBoth sides understood
that control of the USPD's
ation outright.89
at stake when Daumig and three others departed
future was potentially
for admission to the Interon July 13 to take the USPD's application
national's Second World Congress in Moscow.
doings of the congress, the story of the USPD's
to the
represents a small personal drama of fatal importance
delegation
of joining
two supporters
the
party.90 It was a balanced delegation,
International
and
and
two
and
Stoecker)
(Daumig
sceptics (Crispien
Within
the larger
Wilhelm
gave nothing away.91 But Daumig and Stoecker finally could not main?
In important
tain the reserve of their colleagues.
ways this was their
from
source
of
which
a
milieu,
they could not
revolutionary
strength
cut themselves off.92 They were openly distressed at some ofthe InterConditions
for admission,
and Daumig,
new Twenty-One
intention to reform the USPD
at least, strongly opposed the Bolshevik
both men found they could accept
by splitting it. In the end, however,
and Russian pressure brought them to
the Twenty-One
Conditions;
national's
Moscow.
became
inevi table.
the main
Before leaving Moscow
and Stoecker concerted
Daumig
in
USPD
Comintern's
lines of their coming
the
with
the
campaign
leaders and Paul Levi ofthe KPD; and on their return Daumig opened
the controversy
with a piece in Freiheit.93 Through much ofthe ensuing
89. On the development of the issue in the spring of 1920, see Robert F. Wheeler,
USPD und Internationale(Frankfurt, 1975), chap. VII.
90. The best source is accounts given by the four delegates, especially those in USPD
Reichskonferenz,Sept. 1920. See also Wheeler, USPD und Internationale,chap. VIII.
91. Der zweite Kongressder Kommunist.Internationale:Protokollder Verhandlungenvom
I9.fuli in Petrogradund vom. 23. Juli bis 7. August 1920 inMoskau (Hamburg, 1921), pp.
366-73.
92. See Stoecker's letter to his wife, July 28, 1920, in H. Stoecker, p. 231.
93. See Levi's report of Aug. 25, 1920, in Levi papers (ASD, Bonn-Bad Godesberg),
P 27; Dittmann memoirs, pp. 1150-51. Daumig's article appeared in Freiheit, Aug. 26,
1920 (e.).
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David
W.
325
Morgan
was
his voice was oddly muted. His basic position
however,
its
conditions
of
and
of
the
International
with
the
entry,
plain:
help
will finally be what it
"the USPD in theory, practice, and organization
has so far only claimed to be: a genuinely
organizationally
purposeful,
debate,
unified
front
and combative
ranks
of the
revolutionary
revolutionary
party, a battle-ready
world
proletariat."94
army in the
Details were
unimportant:
object to this or that in the superficial confusion ofthe
can change the fact that people were working there
create a firm fighting unity for the international pro?
will have to be a good deal of polishing and rebuilding
institution. But I for one have no doubt that the Communist
in this young
International will embrace all parties that have the will to carry on the struggle
against capitalism and reaction to the very end.95
He pressed
for adherence
to the International
under the
unwaveringly
until
in
but
he
did
late
the
Conditions;
so,
Twenty-One
campaign,
without
the conditions
in detail.96
endorsing
Daumig
Communist
regarded
leadership
had clearly earned
This
never
over
would-be
new
that,
revolutionary
this right.98
had been
Daumig
was new;
Other
a disciple.
while
elements
an admirer
crept
into
the Com?
opposing
when the Bolsheviks
parties
abroad,
they
94- Daumig's preface to Fiir die dritteInternationale!by Curt Geyer et al. (Berlin, 1920),
p. 5.
95. Freiheit, Aug. 26, 1920 (e.).
96. See his speeches in USPD Reichskonferenz,Sept. 1920, pp. 37-52 and 178-93, where
an underlying ambivalence is unmistakable. He justified the conditions in detail only in
Fur die dritteInternationale!pp. 5-8.
97. USPD Reichskonferenz,Sept. 1920, pp. 40 and 42.
98. KommunistischeRundschau,Oct. 1,1920, pp. 9-10, and Oct. 14, 1920, p. 3; USPD
Parteitag, Oct. 1920, pp. 104-5.
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Ernst
326
Daumig
ani
the Revolution
0/1918
tern's language ofthe day.101 In another small but telling way he broke
with his past: he declared that the party must cease bringing general
for immediate
culture to the workers and educate them exclusively
tasks.102 All this was couched at times in a new, harsh
revolutionary
language, routine in Leninist circles but not heard from Daumig before.
His first piece for the new Kommunistische Rundschau, which he edited
brutal and sarcastic
with Geyer and Stoecker, featured unprecedentedly
turns of phrase, including attacks on the private motives ofthe Comin?
tern's opponents.103
Daumig had come a long way in a few weeks; he
was becoming "Bolshevized"?though
show. But there were also revealing
as the Halle party congress
where
And since for a year and a half now we have all of us together, myself
included, been bunglers, myself also included, yes indeed, and since Russia
has shown us how hard it is to wage war against world capitalism, therefore
I am for adherence to the Third International.104
Whatever
struggles
Daumig
within
himself,
99- For the sole significant mention of the councils, see USPD Parteitag, Oct. 1920,
p. 111.
100. Ibid., p. 101.
101. Freiheit, Aug. 26, 1920 (e.), and Sept. 13, 1920 (e.).
102. See Daumig's preface to Fritz Fricke, Die Rdtebildungim Klassenkampfder Gegenwart (Berlin, 1920), p. 6; KommunistischeRundschau,Dec. 6, 1920, p. 2; Berichtiiberdie
der U.S.P.D. (Linke) und der K.P.D. (SpartaVerhandlungendes Vereinigungsparteitages
kusbund),abgehaltenin Berlin vom 4. bis 7. Dezember 1920, p. 46.
Rundschau,Oct. 1,1920, pp. 6-11, esp. p. 9; these imputations were
103. Kommunistische
rather graciously withdrawn in the second issue (Oct. 14, 1920, pp. 5-6). But see other
uncharacteristically personal aspersions in Fiir die dritteInternationale!pp. 6 and 8.
104. USPD Parteitag,Oct. 1920, p. 108.
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Davii
he remained
the most
W. Morgan
respected ofthe
and he became
USPD's
327
advocates
ofthe
Com?
International;
(with Paul Levi) of
formed
the new United Communist
by merger of the left-wing
Party
with the Communists
1920. He was to
early in December
Independents
munist
cochairman
hold
of this time
Action,
when
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Ernst
328
Daumig
of 1918
shop stewards, and even Clara Zetkin, also spoke out.109 But the party
was
Levi, too loud to be ignored,
leadership remained intransigent.
with
a
still
few
like
lost
their
others;
others,
Miiller,
expelled,
party
jobs. The dissidents clustered around Levi, and waited for improvement.
But when
a Comintern
mer brought
nine months
the Communist
Alliance
(KAG),
the KPD, Daumig
(with
and
took
on
the
of
its
bulletin,
weekly
Adolph Hoffman)
editorship
March. At the
filled this post until the paper shut down the following
he was elected to its na?
in November
KAG's first formal conference
from
the end of March, after some hesitation on both sides, most of its mem?
bers entered (or reentered) the USPD, Ernst Daumig among them.114
for
The return to the USPD must have been profoundly
humiliating
So far as we know, he played no role in the party during the
Daumig.
remainder ofthe spring except as a member of its Reichstag delegation,
109- See Daumig's letter of March 28 to the Central Committee, in Sowjet, May 1,
1921, pp. 9-10; and a protest letter cosigned by him, ibid., May 15, 1921, p. 57.
110. Daumig was specially invited to attend the Comintern congress in Moscow: letter
from Levi to Mathilde Jacob, Aug. 5,1921, in Levi papers, P 84. He was too ill to go. In
spite of his robust appearance Daumig was subject to recurrent ill health which seems to
have become more frequent from this time onward.
111. Declaration by Daumig and Adolph Horfmann in Mitteilungsblattder Kommuni?
Oct. 1, 1921.
stischenArbeitsgemeinschaft,
112. The obituaries in Freiheitand Leipziger Volkszeitung,July 6,1922, stresshow much
weakened in every respect Daumig seemed after his breach with the Communist Party.
Dittmann, p. 1236, says he was a "spiritually broken man" at the end.
Nov. 25, 1921.
113. Mitteilungsblattder Kommunistischen
Arbeitsgemeinschaft,
114. See Morgan, The SocialistLeft, pp. 412-14.
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David
and even
W.
329
Morgan
for several
weeks
because
of illness.
On
June 13, in the middle ofa Reichstag session, he collapsed in his seat. At
at the age of 55, he died.115
on the night of July 4,1922,
about midnight
a
emblematic
at
one
time
dominant,
figure, no longer
Daumig,
in
at
the
few
mattered
end;
long to
high places stopped
politically
he remains, at the least, a remarkable
political per?
sonality. He was modest, and markedly selfless in his work. His convictions were strong, but all who dealt with him testify to his friendliness,
mourn
him.
Yet
his consideration
bureaucratic
faith in higher things. The central mission of his life from around 1900
was to help
to the middle of the war, and in a sense even afterwards,
of the workers,
to help them raise the level
elevate the consciousness
This was Daumig
of their humanity.
the evening teacher and Sunday
of 1917 and 1918,
lecturer, and it led, under the peculiar circumstances
the prophet. Here his sustaining beliefs became directly mil?
to Daumig
much he might apply his formidable
lenarian, and however
practical
to
his
he was caught in a dangerous
tension
vision,
realizing
gifts
between
commitment
and reality that ultimately
left him vulnerable.
As a revolutionary
had many valuable
leader, Daumig
qualities:
of
commitment,
conviction,
energy,
high intelligence,
independence
a
of
a
measure
sense
toward
his
and
mind,
followers,
good
responsibility
of charisma.
effectiveness.
lacked
tionary.
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Ernst
330
Daumig
ani
the Revolution
0/1918
council
the other.
there
was
brittle.
Even before his late, dramatic conversions,
Daumig must always have
been a man at war with himself. The stages of his career were a succes?
of his previous life. His entry
sion of self-repudiations,
renunciations
have
into the Foreign Legion may
been the first of these, though we
to know. A clearer case is his transformation
have too little information
to antimilitarist
and socialist, which moreover
ap?
a
with
his
relatives.117
His later metamorphosis
rupture
parently
radical to revolutionary
from conventional
was a genuine conversion
which
entailed
Social
Democratic
repudiating
perspectives
experience,
from
career soldier
meant
himself to something
new. The final reand committing
substantially
nunciation
was his turning from a belief in the spontaneous
revolu?
tionary potential ofthe German workers through their own institutions,
on the principle of a tight revolutionary
vanguard largely
from abroad. This last, willed conversion remained incomplete
in that it is particularly revealing.
and psychologically
unsuccessful;
to reliance
directed
the most creative phase of his life Daumig held that the
Throughout
German proletariat would rise to the needs of its times and build a new
human society on the ruins of the old world that had failed mankind
so badly. It was almost a willed belief; Daumig, after all, saw so clearly
the lack of revolutionary
drive in the German socialist parties and the
German workers. But given the historical and moral necessity of revo?
was at
lution, surely the masses would respond. In this way Daumig
and one of its most illuminating
once a leader ofthe German revolution
117- Daumig to Karl Kautsky, Aug. 3, 1900, in Kautsky papers, D VII 241. In his
early play Maifeier (1901) there is a petty-bourgeois convert to socialism whose resulting
family conflicts are particularly vividly portrayed; this may be a piece of reworked
autobiography.
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David
W. Morgan
331
of the conventionally
He recognized
the distortions
radical so?
far
than
most
better
and
movement
contemporaries,
separated
But like his fellow revolutionaries,
himself from them more completely.
to reaching his socialist
in their great majority, he remained committed
critics.
cialist
end by essentially
revo?
means, by evoking the spontaneous
he saw lying latent in the German workers.
democratic
lutionary
energies which
Like his friends he was caught
a working
socialist revolution
in the dilemma
class which
democratic
its deep-rooted
hopes to embrace the transforming
vision of socialism. But because of the particular nature and sources of
his convictions,
Daumig, unlike the others, was destroyed by the dilemma.
scend
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