Germany does not seek survival

In order to achieve rapid development, the National Socialist Party itself inevitably had endless connections with the nationalism and patriotism that were deeply rooted in German soil.

In the future, who can guarantee that the National Socialist Party will not change its color?

When the Nazis were first established, the founders did not say that the words "socialism" and "workers" in the party's name were just a joke. But later, after the Night of the Long Knives, the relationship between the Nazi Party and socialism was really only the relationship in the party's name.

People's hearts change easily, and Faust is afraid of this. He has seen too many examples of people forgetting their original intentions. Faust has also seen too many examples of the Red Revolutionary Party gradually losing its red color.

If this kind of thing happened to the National Socialists... Faust didn't want to see the blood of countless martyrs being shed in vain one day.

If that day really comes, Faust hopes that Sorge can be the one who roars loudly and turns the tide.

The Stasi matter was thus confirmed. Sorge felt that he had a heavy responsibility, so he stayed in Faust's apartment. The two talked all night long and discussed many specific business contents of the Stasi team.

Sorge was already extremely talented in the field of intelligence, and Faust gave him many novel ideas, including many novel ideas that were difficult for people of that era to think of, which greatly broadened Sorge's thinking.

The next day, Faust had other plans. Before he returned to Berlin, he had already learned that Kautsky had successfully "destroyed the party and built the new party" to establish the Independent Party. Kautsky had also left a letter for Faust, inviting him to meet him as soon as he arrived in Berlin.

At present, Faust still has a relatively good impression of Kautsky. At least Kautsky is still trying hard to rescue Liebknecht and Luxemburg. The Independent Party he split from the Social Democratic Party also seems to be more left-leaning than Ebert's Social Democratic Party.

As for the future, it’s hard to say.

However, even by this time, in 1918, Kautsky's thinking was still very outdated, and all his work after founding the Independent Party was still focused on parliamentary politics.

"Parliamentary politics, parliamentary politics. It's no wonder someone so obsessed with parliamentary politics spent his entire life's work and energy on this, only to achieve the destruction of the party and the creation of this short-lived Independent Party. The Independent Party itself failed to achieve anything, so the Spartacus League, which was active within the Independent Party, later used the Independent Party's wreckage to create the German Communist Party."

Faust did not take a car on the way to see Kautsky. Since the distance was not far, Faust walked there.

The Berlin cityscape he saw along the way was very different from the one he saw last year when Faust returned to Berlin to attend the princess' birthday party.

Although there were no large-scale riots on the streets of Berlin, small-scale night-owl strikes occurred one after another. On the way to see Kautsky alone, Faust saw two groups of strikers holding signs.

The government could not use an iron fist to suppress the strikers and could only adopt a laissez-faire attitude. Many times, the government had to invite the SPD party secretary to the scene and have SPD members persuade the strikers to return to work.

"No wonder Abbott's position grew stronger and stronger. The government didn't dare send troops to suppress the strike, and it couldn't resolve it economically. So, the only option was political, and Abbott became increasingly reliant on them."

Small strike and ceasefire posters were posted on the walls and windows of many shops. Some of the posters were torn down by the military and police, but there were too many slogans and leaflets. Some were torn down today, but many more were posted at night. Later, the military, police and military police were too lazy to tear them down again.

Generally speaking, the situation in Berlin is still controllable, but various uncontrollable factors have slowly emerged, waiting to accumulate to a breaking point.

Kautsky's official residence is now the headquarters of the German Independent Party. The Social Democratic Party sign that originally hung at the door has been removed and replaced with the new party emblem of the Independent Party.

Kautsky was very excited when Faust arrived at the residence. There were many other guests at the residence today, so Kautsky immediately introduced Faust to everyone:

"Everyone must have seen his picture in the newspaper, right? Werther Faust! A famous war hero, even he supports the Independence Party. We, the Independence Party, will definitely find a way to bring about a ceasefire, a ceasefire and peace without ceding territory!"

At this point, Kautsky was still stuck on the idea of ​​"peace without cession of territory" and his mind was still full of parliamentary politics. No wonder he was later abandoned by history. He was truly the German Song Jiaoren.

In this sense, Ms. Luxemburg, who persisted in armed struggle from the beginning until her death, can indeed be called the German Sun Yat-sen compared to Kautsky, even if her talent in action is not as good as Lenin.

Chapter 120: Revolutionary Foreman

Faust took a quick look and saw that there were many people in the official residence. Some of them were dressed in suits and ties, and it was obvious that they were members of parliament from the Independence Party. There were also many people wearing work clothes and a pair of worn overalls, and they were definitely workers.

"Mr. Kautsky," Faust asked, "could you introduce these workers to me?"

Kautsky laughed heartily. "Great! They are all representatives of the trade unions of the various states! Let me introduce you: this is Miller, the Berlin representative of the Revolutionary Workers' Organisation; this is Wolfheim, the Hamburg representative of the Revolutionary Workers' Organisation; and this is Strasser, the Munich trade union representative..."

"Revolutionary foreman?"

Kautsky introduced this new organization, which had recently gained popularity in Germany, to Faust, saying:

"Revolutionary foreman representatives are left-wing unions that support us. In the past, most of Germany's unions were controlled by Ebert, Noske, and his gang. These yellow unions betrayed the interests of the proletariat during the war and became running dogs of the imperial government. Workers dissatisfied with the old unions spontaneously formed a revolutionary foreman organization."

As Kautsky said, for a long time, it was the mainstream trade unions and their bureaucrats who communicated between grassroots workers and the Social Democratic Party.

Albert's main assistant, Noske, is an expert in controlling the union. Noske is a man who will do anything to achieve his goal. He is good at using the tactics of official power struggle to control the senior leaders of the old union, and he is also good at using underworld organizations such as gangs and guilds to suppress challengers in the middle and lower levels of the union.

If Albert still pretends to be an elder who cares about the workers, then Razor Nosk's various tricks make him a living German Du Yuesheng.

Since last year, some metal workers in Berlin have taken the lead in taking action. They really hate these old trade unions that are occupying the toilet but not doing anything, and are determined to form new revolutionary trade unions themselves.

The revolutionary foreman organization came into being.

After the development in recent months, the Revolutionary Foreman Organization has quickly established branches in major industrial centers in Germany and has become an organization with national influence.

One of Kautsky's greatest prides was his successful alliance with the revolutionary workers' organization.

Kautsky smiled and said, "Comrade Müller, Comrade Wolfheim, Comrade Strasser... they are all comrades of the Independent Party. Our revolutionary union may not yet have the same membership as the old union, but its membership is increasing rapidly every month. Perhaps it won't be long before the revolutionary union completely breaks away from the Social Democrats and the old unions and independently launches a general strike, forcing the imperial government to accept an armistice."

Kautsky introduced these revolutionary foreman representatives to Faust one by one. Miller was the most prestigious leader among the Berlin metalworkers, Wolfsheim was very influential among the Hamburg workers, Strasser...

Strasser, this name is not unfamiliar to Faust. The Strasser brothers were Hitler's good friends in the Nazi Party!

The Gregor Strasser in front of Faust had a noticeable scar on his face and should be the elder Strasser among the Strasser brothers.

This man was a leader of the Nazi Party in the early and middle periods, and his influence was no less than that of Hitler. Before Hitler became the head of state, there were two intra-party struggles in the Nazi Party. One was the Night of the Long Knives in which he defeated the SA Captain Röhm in the military field, and the other was the struggle against Grossstrasse in party affairs. Only then did Hitler's supreme position in the Nazis be confirmed.

Miller was a very upright worker representative. Both Great Strasser and Wolfheim from Hamburg had military service experience, so when they saw Faust, the war hero, they were very excited and immediately saluted Faust.

Big Strasser raised his arm to Faust and cried out: "Hello! Colonel Faust!"

Wolfsheim, who represented Hamburg, was a person Faust did not know. In fact, Wolfsheim was also a heavyweight figure. In later history, he was a leader of the German Communist Party. However, he joined forces with General Vorbeck, an African hero of the German Army in World War I, to launch the Hamburg Mutiny. Not only was he brutally suppressed, but he was also expelled from the German Communist Party, and thus became unknown.

Wolfsheim is also a strange person. As the leader of the German Communist Party, he mixed up with Vorbeck...

Vorbeck was the governor of the German East African colonies during World War I. During the war, it was Vorbeck who led a Tanzanian black army of several thousand people to fight guerrilla warfare against the British army. He tied down 300,000 Allied troops in East Africa and caused more than 70,000 casualties to the British army. He was considered a military genius.

Vorbeck also came from a prominent Prussian Junker family and was a true royalist and extreme right-winger.

As the leader of a non-mainstream nationalist faction within the German Communist Party, Wolfsheim was later defeated by Paul Levi and Ernst Thälmann, who were supported by the Third International's imperial envoy. After being expelled from the party, he made a sudden turn and invited the enemy into the house. He joined forces with Vorbeck's right-wing armed forces to seize Hamburg, which was then controlled by the German Communist Party. He wanted to use this as a base to launch the "National Bolshevik Revolution" advocated by Wolfsheim.

The result, of course, was that it was immediately suppressed and destroyed by the Weimar Republic.

Faust was a little overwhelmed. Where did Kautsky get such a group of people from? The only thing he lacked was Dr. Goebbels, otherwise he could have held a Nazi party committee meeting directly within the Independent Party.

However, to be honest, the Independent Party can only hold a Nazi party committee meeting, but the people that Faust has gathered from the National Socialist Party are qualified to hold a Nazi national congress!

Kautsky may indeed have strong organizational skills in the field of parliamentary politics. Just look at how he was able to split off an independent party, how he was able to establish an alliance with the revolutionary workers' organization so quickly, and how he was able to accommodate the left-wing Spartacus League. His performance was indeed good.

However, once the war broke out and the gun determined the regime, the right-wing Free Corps could make Kautsky understand in a second that in Germany, votes were far less important than bayonets and helmets.

Faust could not help reminding Kautsky: "Mr. Kautsky, your Independent Party has become very powerful recently, but I am very worried. If the imperial government makes up its mind to send a detachment of gendarmes to shoot you, what will the Independent Party do?"

Kautsky was stunned. Faust's words really had a kind of dampening effect, like insisting on telling someone they'll die sooner or later at their birthday party. The Independent Party members of parliament present all had embarrassed expressions on their faces.

On the contrary, the revolutionary foreman invited by Kautsky to participate in the event all looked thoughtful. Strasser nodded and said:

"Yes, Colonel Faust is right. A general economic strike is one thing, but if we want to launch a political general strike to force the Empire to cease fire, we must have a backup policy, that is, how to deal with the suppression of the Imperial Army."

Kautsky frowned. "How can the German army suppress a general strike involving millions of people? They can't possibly capture and kill a million German workers."

Faust said, "From a military perspective, you don't need to actually kill a million people to annihilate a million-strong army. Take, for example, the recent Battle of the Po River, where I participated. We only killed or wounded tens of thousands of Italian soldiers, yet it caused the collapse of a million-strong Italian army. That was on the battlefield, against an extremely well-organized army. If the million-strong army were replaced with a million strikers, it's likely that only one or two thousand would be needed to suppress a general strike."

Kautsky remained unconvinced: "Impossible! Most of the German soldiers come from the working class and peasant class. They are our own soldiers. It is impossible for them to point their guns at workers, let alone kill so many people. Germany is a civilized country, after all, unlike Russia. The German army is not a bunch of barbaric Cossacks."

Kautsky is still so stubborn and keeps talking about a civilized country, Faust thought. He just hoped that when the butt of the Free Corps' rifle hits your head, you will remember to remind the right-wing armed forces to be more civilized.

“Even if the Independence Party cannot directly control the army, there should be some armed forces like the Social Democratic Party’s Noske, some paramilitary groups.”

Faust added, "At least, there are a lot of thugs in the gang under Razor Nosk. If they get really ruthless, a small team of military police won't be able to catch them."

Kautsky was still hesitant, and seeing his hopeless appearance, Faust could only shake his head secretly and shrink back in fear. Revolutionary foremen like Great Strasser and Wolfheim seemed to have more prospects than Kautsky.

This Pope of Marxism is really just a theoretical Pope. Whatever he does always stays at the theoretical level, and he is ultimately unable to shoulder major responsibilities.

"Never mind," said Faust. "Even if I talk to Mr. Kautsky today about the armaments, you won't understand. But the course of events will speak louder than my words."

Chapter 121 Albert's Calculation

Four years ago, the war had just broken out and the smoke of war swept across Europe, but on the day the war was declared, almost no one foresaw what the outcome of this war would be.

At that time, the people, overwhelmed by patriotic passion, simply unleashed their enthusiasm for war, so much so that people selectively ignored the possibility that the Allies would be bogged down in a multi-front war.

Anti-war activists from the left wing of the Social Democratic Party were suddenly isolated and helpless in the workers' movement, and the political contradictions in Germany were greatly eased amid the tension of war preparations.

The trade unions collectively pledged not to create any obstacles in defense matters, and Wilhelm II won widespread support with his famous statement: "I no longer see any political parties, I only see the German people."

At that time, German bourgeois intellectuals generally believed that the German nation would face the inevitable defensive war in a united manner, and this would be the beginning of the great revival of the German nation.

Four years have passed, and all the beautiful fantasies about war have been gradually shattered in reality. Social contradictions and political differences will not disappear because of the war, but will instead be intensified.

Social contradictions and political differences were unable to cover up the internal rifts in the country for long, and the imperial government, which had opened the way for war, gradually became unable to cover up its long-standing ruling crisis.

Because the German constitution could not ensure that the military was under unified leadership, the military gradually pushed the imperial officials who originally held real political power away from the center of power.

Whether at the high-level decision-making level or at the local execution level, the influence of the military faction is becoming increasingly strong. Ludendorff's words are final, and the orders of the General Staff are more authoritative than those of the Chancellor's State Office.

This made the establishment bureaucrats in Germany very worried, especially after 1918, when the number of such people in Germany increased rapidly.

As one of the most popular and charismatic elected politicians within the German establishment, Friedrich Ebert, chairman of the German Social Democratic Party, has become a big star in the eyes of the establishment.

There was a constant stream of traffic in front of the gate of Albert's official residence, even busier than the Chancellery. The guests coming and going were either rich or noble, either high-ranking members of the Social Democratic Party, moderate figures among the imperial princes, or bankers with huge financial resources in Frankfurt.

Albert's top right-hand man, Noske, known as "Razor", hurried to Albert's official residence today with a group of entourage.

In front of Razor Nosk, even the dukes and princes of the empire had to step back a little. Albert stopped his meeting with Prince of Baden and went directly to the west living room of the official residence to meet Nosk.

"Nosk! You're here. What could have made you so anxious to see me? You're so flustered. It's not like you."

Noske's expression was always icy, and today was no different. He said sternly, "Chairman, Faust has returned to Berlin. Many people can confirm one thing: at Kautsky's invitation, Faust attended a meeting at the Berlin branch of the Independent Party."

Albert stroked his beard, giving a forced smile. "So that's how it is! This Faust is really causing trouble! Germany is in this situation now. Life or death, victory or defeat, all hangs on a single thought. This is the time when unity and solidarity are most needed. Faust...how did he get involved with Kautsky? Faust is wrong. He's too naive. In all likelihood, he's been deceived and bewitched by Kautsky."

Noske said coldly, "Chairman, what should we do? If we allow Kautsky and the Independent Party to continue to grow, things will only become increasingly difficult. In my opinion, we should cut the Gordian knot and have the military intervene as soon as possible. In their name, they should disband the Independent Party, claiming that its actions constitute subversion of the imperial regime."

Albert shook his head slightly. "I always say, Noske, you're too anxious. You can't be impatient when doing things. Politics, politics requires calmness! Do you understand?"

Albert invited Noske inside to sit down, and then he slowly said, "The military is becoming more and more powerful. Ludendorff, do you know what people call Ludendorff? Many people say he is the Prime Minister of Germany today."

In European history, the term "Prime Minister" is not a good word for an ordinary official.

Because the most famous mayor of the palace in Europe was Pippin, who usurped the imperial power of the Merovingian dynasty in the history of the Frankish Empire.

Albert continued, "Ludendorff interfered in the empire's internal and foreign affairs in an authoritarian manner. Haven't many people been discussing electoral reform in Prussia recently?"

Nosk said, "Yes, Chairman, there is also the issue of the constitutional reorganization of the Empire."

Albert said slowly, "The General Staff sided with the Prussian conservatives. They wanted to postpone any reforms until at least the end of the war."

Albert counted on his fingers, saying, "Ludendorff has another plan. He proposed a comprehensive rearmament plan, the main purpose of which is to maximize the efficiency of military production by reducing civilian production."

"Besides that," Albert continued, "Ludendorff also wants to close down Parliament for the year, so that the General Staff can carry out any plans the military deems necessary."

"Chairman, what do you mean?"

Albert laughed. "Ludendorff is incredible! He could become Pepin, the Chancellor of the Palace of the German Empire. We, the Social Democrats and the Independents, Kautsky and I, and perhaps even Liebknecht and Luxemburg, who are still in prison—we politicians, must never forget that when the snipe and the clam quarrel, the fisherman profits. All this fighting is about tiny, tiny gains, the little power that slipped through Ludendorff's fingers."

Albert's humorous and kind face only turned fierce in a rare moment at this moment:

"Power! Lenin in Russia has already shouted the slogan of all power to the Soviets. Ludendorff in Germany actually wanted to say that all power belongs to the General Staff. We can't be late to the party and we can't be too slow!"

Ebert opened his large hands and then clenched them tightly. "Now, all political parties must unite. The conflict between us and Kautsky is only a minor issue. First, we must wrench the General Staff's current monopoly on power from Ludendorff. Only then can we engage in a war between the Social Democrats and the Independents."

Albert said lightly: "Many people in the upper echelons of the empire think this way."

Noske asked, "Prince of Baden too?"

"Yes, among the princes and even the bankers in Frankfurt, many people are wary of Ludendorff. Everyone feels that Ludendorff and the General Staff are the most dangerous players at this stage."

Chapter 122 Michael

"There will not be a particularly radical revolution in Germany."

Albert made this judgment in his official residence, and he had full confidence in his judgment.

"Whether they are right-wing soldiers or left-wing revolutionaries, whether they want to transform Germany into the ideal country they envision through a revolution, reality will tell them that this is impossible. There will be no revolution in Germany."

Albert's self-confidence made his most trusted subordinate Nosk somewhat doubtful. In such a vast country like Germany, would everything really develop as the chairman expected?

In Berlin, a big city with millions of people, in another corner, Faust was riding in the same car with Sorge. Sorge was driving in the front and Faust was sitting in the back. Similarly, Sorge also doubted Faust's judgment.

"Are you so sure? Are you so sure that the Imperial Government will not arrest you? After all, Mademoiselle de Luxembourg is still under house arrest."

Faust folded his arms and smiled. "Last year, Ms. Luxemburg was in prison, and this year she's under house arrest. What do you call that? If Mr. Marx were still alive, he'd say it's bourgeois weakness, that the imperial government is divided and afraid to act rashly."

"But what about Albert and his people? Especially Noske. He's a gangster, a political gangster. He's capable of any despicable means."

Faust stroked his chin and said, "The Social Democrats have a superstition that there will never be a major radical revolution in Germany."

Sorge agreed with this assessment: "Indeed, the Social Democrats felt that Germany was different from Britain and France and would not experience civil war. They felt that the German nation had suffered the hardships of the Thirty Years' War and would not choose to repeat the same mistakes."

"It's not that simple. It's not just a historical lesson."