Hugo Haase: Before and During the German Revolution

[Die Neue Zeit]

Those who know the history of the German Revolution and Lenin's thoughts on it unfolded probably already know that he thought of one Hugo Haase as a renegade.

However, the legacy of the man is more complex than his tragic vacillation towards coalescing with the Majority Social Democracy, especially in a revolutionary period:

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=B990DCAC30C02ACF609EC7D 9E826CBC7.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=2554968


The election of Hugo Haase to the Co-Chairmanship of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) in 1911 was an event of immense importance for the future of German Social Democracy. It was Haase who served as the principal spokesman of the opposition to the cooperationist policies of the majority during World War I. It was he who led that opposition out of the SPD in 1917. After the war, as co-chairman both of the revolutionary government and of the Independent Social Democratic Party, he helped to insure that the German movement would remain permanently divided.

Indeed, he and not the open scab Ebert was Bebel's preferred choice for successor for one reason or another.

However, what really surprises me as I post this is the sheer number of parallels between his life and the goings of some figures on the left today, especially those with a sentimental desire or two for society to overcome capitalism:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Haase


After the collapse of German war plans at the end of 1914, Haase became more and more vocal against the policies of the SPD faction. He was forced to resign as faction leader in 1915 and as a party chairman in 1916. In March 1916, he took over the leadership of the Sozialdemokratische Arbeitsgemeinschaft, which the war critics in the SPD had founded together. In 1917 he became chairman of the newly founded Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany, which split the so-called "Majority Social Democrats" group and advocated immediate peace negotiations.

[A modern-day equivalent of the Sozialdemokratische Arbeitsgemeinschaft can be found in the former electoral coalition Arbeit und soziale Gerechtigkeit – Die Wahlalternative, or WASG.]


On October 8, 1919, Haase was shot by Johann Voss, an apparently mentally ill leather worker. He was severely injured and died on November 7.

Thoughts?

[Serge's Fist]

Thanks for posting this up, I do think there needs to be a long re-assesment of how some of these figures are seen by the majority of the left. I don't know if you are aware of Ben Lewis' and Lars T Lih's forthcoming collaboration 'Zinoviev and Martov: Head to Head in Halle' which contains translations of their speeches and Zinoviev's diary of his visit. It will have a long(ish) introduction to place the USPD Halle Congress in context and look at some of the key lessons of the USPD. Unfortunately when Ben spoke in Manchester on this the voice files became corrupted so can't give you anything more on this, except to watch out for its launch in the coming months.

[Red Commissar]

I read on the wikipedia entry that he participated for a short time in the post-war SDP government, but left due to violent actions under taken by the government to the various workers uprisings.

Did he ever make a statement on these actions? It would be interesting to read.

[bricolage]

What role did Haase have in the putting down of the Spartacist Uprising?
Also wasn't his line the 'We will not let the fatherland alone in the hour of need'?

[Die Neue Zeit]

All I know is that the German media of the day didn't stoop so low as to suggest any sort of illicit affair between Haase and Luxemburg.

[bricolage]

All I know is that the German media of the day didn't stoop so low as to suggest any sort of illicit affair between Haase and Luxemburg.
Pardon?

[Kotze]

That was a reference to the way the German press treated Oskar Lafontaine. In the second half of 2009, Lafontaine got less and less involved in party activities, the German mainstream media spread rumours about him having an affair with Wagenknecht (who represents the far left in the party, "Kommunistische Plattform"). Whether you read the BILD newspaper (similar to the British Sun) or one of the newspapers or magazines with a more intellectual image (that means they present the same content with smaller headlines) like FAZ or Spiegel, they all told you about the rumour and how attractive, beautiful, hot blahblahblah Wagenknecht is. Turned out the reason for his partial retreat was cancer.

[bricolage]

Interesting as that is I'm not sure what relevance it had to my questions.
Tis a confusing world...

[Die Neue Zeit]

The latter part of my original post explains everything:

"What really surprises me as I post this is the sheer number of parallels between his life and the goings of some figures on the left today, especially those with a sentimental desire or two for society to overcome capitalism"

Most likely Hugo Haase was too busy with USPD work to pay much attention to Ebert's scabbing. As for his public vote for war credits, that's toeing the party line after the SPD Executive Committee voted for war credits, in which he voted against. Too bad the Executive Committee broke ranks with the Second International's anti-war Basel Manifesto.

Haase's turn towards Independent Social Democracy is like Lafontaine saying all the governmental things to get elected in 1998 before breaking with Schroeder and ultimately with the SPD altogether. I listed all the other parallels above. The difference is that one course was done during a revolutionary period, and the other was done outside of a revolutionary period.

[bricolage]

Most likely Hugo Haase was too busy with USPD work to pay much attention to Ebert's scabbing.
Well I've managed to find a clearer answer than that;

In the course of the German Revolution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Revolution) (November), he created along with the majority Social Democrats' leader Friedrich Ebert (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Ebert) the provisional government, the Rat der Volksbeauftragten (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_der_Volksbeauftragten), of whose acting chairman he took over. After the violent response to the revolutionary Volksmarinedivision (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Volksmarinedivision&action=edit&redlink=1) during Christmas 1918, Haase and the two other USPD representatives Wilheim Dittman (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wilheim_Dittman&action=edit&redlink=1) and Emil Barth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_Barth) abandoned the government on December 29.
So it would appeared he had left prior to January 1919 however this begs the question what was he doing setting up a provisional government with Ebert in the first place?


As for his public vote for war credits, that's toeing the party line after the SPD Executive Committee voted for war credits, in which he voted against.
So why was he then sticking with a party that had clearly crossed to 'the other side' and alligned itself with one faction of an imperial war? And even if he was just following the party line why did that meant he had to get up and proclaim he devotion to the 'Fatherland'?
The point is that the SPD by this point (whatever we can say about it before the war) had ceased to be a revolutionary party and was fully cemented into bourgeois politics.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Like I said, Haase was a renegade.

I hate to say this to Trots, but the setting up of a provisional government coalition with Ebert was very much a United Front action. The MSPD and USPD marched separately, but "struck together" in coalition.