A remarkable figure has been removed from the German political
stage by the death on Wednesday of August Bebel, the famous Socialist leader, in his seventy-fourth year. Born of poor parents in Cologne in 1840, Bebel earned his living-as a woodturner for many years. As a young man he made his mark both as a speaker and journalist in Leipzig, was returned to the Confederation Parliament as the first Socialist member in 1867, and from 1871 till the day of his death sat in the Reichstag, where he represented Hamburg in all for twenty- seven years. In his stormy period he was repeatedly imprisoned for lese-majeste and libelling Prince Bismarck, and altogether spent four and three-quarter years in various prisons and fort- resses. Expelled from Saxony in 1884, he took to journalism, and in 1890 finally settled in Berlin, where he devoted his energies to organizing the working classes and the Socialist press. Of late years he vehemently opposed the Revisionists —who advocate co-operation with Radicals and, in certain circumstances, the assumption of office—and remained an uncompromising Marxist to the end. His popularity with the masses was immense ; he was an admirable speaker, and what- ever may be said of his policy, he perhaps more than any other man was responsible for the enormous growth of the Socialist vote in the last forty years. When he entered Parliament in 1867 it numbered 25,000; in 1907 it was three and a quarter millions.
Previous page
