The Future Belongs to the PeopleLiebknecht, Karl Paul August Friedrich
History
The Future Belongs to the People
Liebknecht, Karl Paul August Friedrich
World War, 1914-1918
And instruction in religion? By means of the most skillful dialect and
by pedagogical methods was bridged over the chasm between religion and
war, between Christianity and mass-murder. ("Very true!" from the
Soc.-Dem.) The curtain of the temple is torn. But what spiritual
embarrassment comes to our children, when they hear of the Lord, who is
the Lord of all people, that is,--if I may use this word in this
connection,--an international God, a God of the entire humanity, when
this God of charity is claimed by each nation for itself and for the
war! I asked my child, who had to learn the catechism by heart
(instruction in religion is obligatory in Prussia. _S. Z._), if the
teacher always said: "Love thy neighbor as thyself!" The child answered:
"No, we should not love the Russians, Frenchmen and Englishmen!" ("Hear,
hear!" from the Soc.-Dem.) How is that reconcilable? The most beautiful
pedagogy is that which reacts not through words, but through vision and
good example. But what shall children who are instructed in religion say
to the occurrences of the present? Here religion naturally cannot
become, as Christianity demands, an element penetrating the entire life
and determining each action, but something entirely different. From this
contrast you cannot escape and least of all when not the religion of
brotherly love but that of Baal is the religion of the world and when
even the children understand that in this war the main point is the
interest of capitalist society.
One can pray again and again and still remain an inciter of war. To-day
an attempt is made to influence the children of the working people
toward the conception of life of the ruling class, of the capitalist
class, of the class of exploiters (shouts from the right part of the
House) toward the conception of life of war and mass killing. And how is
higher education inculcated in the occupied territories? When the first
school was reopened in Belgrade, a paper published there by the
Austrians stated that Servia committed a great sin when it fought
against Austria. (He could not go any further.)
PRESIDENT GRAF SCHWERIN-LOeWITZ: The Servian schools have nothing to do
with the Budget. I recall you to the subject.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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