Anarchism and Individual Terror in the German Empire, 1870–90

Abstract

There is a sizeable body of opinion that there was little anarchism in Germany and that those anarchists that were there contributed nothing to anarchist thought. A similar view contends that the German anarchist movement was ineffectual and meaningless so far as producing any lasting results are concerned.1 The author of this article is of the opinion that German anarchists did more than sit around beer gardens discussing the theoretical aspects of anarchism. There were German anarchists active in both Germany and the International long before the assassination attempts of 1878. Anarchists did play a role in shaping the destiny of Germany in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. However, this influence cannot be seen if one examines only the positive attainments of the anarchists in Germany. If, on the other hand, one examines their negative influence he will soon discover that many suppressive measures were enacted as a result of an anarchist deed. The Socialist Law, prompted by two attempts on the life of Wilhelm I in 1878, was the first such measure. This repressive law affected not only the anarchists, but everyone who was interested in developing a responsible parliamentary government in Germany. In the following I am not going to deal with the philosophical or theoretical aspects of German anarchism, but will limit myself to the period of the 1870s to 1890 when violence and ‘propaganda by deed’ dominated the scene.KeywordsGerman GovernmentSocial DemocraticSocial RevolutionSocial Democratic PartyStringent MeasureThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.