In the U.S.S.R., violence and deception are official, and humanity is in daily life. In the democracies, on the other hand, the principles are humane, but deception and violence are found in practice. Beyond that, propaganda has a field day.
~ Maurice Merleau-Ponty,
Humanism and Terror
There were moments in life that Rosa believed she could somehow take photographs with her mind’s eye. She was barely a teenager and the world was coming together around her. Throughout all the fear, something seemed to be happening. The mass of cheering Berliners, workers, like herself, was a warm memory. Yet it was also her present and a journey for the country.
There was a time when May Day was not officially celebrated by the German Republic, indeed attempts by the workers of Berlin to celebrate their own holiday had been viciously beaten down by police and military figures who saw chaos and revolution behind every celebration that emanated from the downtrodden masses.
The revolution of 1918-19 had gravitated the German polity towards its people for the first time and the further reckoning in 1930 had left them with the machinery of state in their hands. That didn’t mean they no longer had to fight to keep a hold of it. Indeed the threats from the outside world were what made sure there was a military element to this May Day. Where the unions marched with their own banners proudly proclaiming their fight for a better life over the years, the members who had served in the People’s Guard were also listed amongst the martyrs who had earlier fallen at the hands of the agents of capital.
The People’s Guard themselves marched in force, parading an organisation drilled into them in the name of intimidation of the enemies of the republic and of the revolution. Marching down Ebertstraße they goose stepped to the beat of the revolutionary songs they had adopted during the civil war, a ghostly reminder of the Reichswehr they had vanquished and absorbed.
They were followed by the armour that had allowed them to secure the French border so quickly whereas up in the sky, the new fighters of the Luftstreitkrafte performed aerobatics over the city. It was a visual crescendo that assaulted the senses to the extent the crowds could be whipped into a frenzy, perhaps that was the intent. Rosa could feel a vivid picture being painted, more than something that could manifest itself as a picture.
The mass panic which had followed the leaking of People’s Guard documents stating the country was helpless if it came to invasion had threatened to bring the nation to a standstill, a moment was needed to revive spirits and the coming of May Day had been opportune. Since 1931 it had been a day in which to celebrate the successes of the ongoing revolution but now revolutionary defence was the agenda. The new world lay ahead but below lay a dark chasm of which there might be no escape.
It was perhaps for this reason the military element of all of this was so crucial, for it gave people a sense of renewed strength as well as an urging to support the measures the leaked report had outlined as necessary, the ones which Comrade Hitler now also urged. Rosa felt her mother’s hands on her shoulders amidst the ceremony and how she squeezed them as the detachment of the People’s Marine marched by. She hadn’t gone into much detail about what she had seen in Hamburg during the civil war, other than that she had witnessed the destruction the Reichsmarine wrought upon the city and anyone who said differently was a liar. Dieter had confirmed that they had been together during the battle, just as the three of them stood together now.
There were of course a large number of silent Germans on this day who scorned the celebrations and could not wait until the beginning of next year, when the United Front would have to hold new elections and the future course of Germany would be up for examination. The new socialist democracy would be judged once again by the old liberal means that had barely facilitated it in 1931. Other, more reactionary, elements awaited salvation from Rome or perhaps now even Paris. Others even less attached to reality perhaps dreamed of taking matters into their own hands.
In a way the more martial elements of the festivities today were a warning for them as well as the potential aggressors which surrounded Germany. Rosa felt a particular wave of pride as the women’s auxiliary units goose stepped by. All who were responsible for upholding the revolution were honoured today and those active within it had their pride of place. She did not always agree with her mother, a street fighter who had become boxed in around the functionality of government, but there was no-one she looked up to more. Rosa only hoped she would soon be able to play her own role, perhaps something more dynamic than land administration.
The formal parade wasn’t over when her mother suggested that they decamp for the Tiergarten where a platform had been assembled for the speeches of the day, most notably those from the Chancellor and the President. Rosa felt a certain amount of esteem in the knowledge that the Chancellor had been a personal colleague of her mother’s, although she could remember a time when her mother seemed to despise being near the man. Dieter would still find ways to mention his own support for Thalmann whenever the former Communist leader would remark on German affairs from his Moscow residence, it seemed like he did it merely to tease her.
The three of them walked hand in hand to the park to get a spot near the podium before too much of a crowd gathered. There were already speeches under way but the audience was thin so they stopped for an ice cream beforehand. The vendor seemed keen for the area to get busier and that the French exile on the stage would shut up so the more famous faces could draw him in more business. It seemed rather shallow given how forlorn the man onstage seemed whilst he told those listening that there would be no May Day celebrations allowed in France this year when before there had been parades in every city. He concluded by asking people to help in any way they could the new French exile organisations being organised in Baden. He concluded with his hopes that one day soon workers in Berlin and Paris would be able to celebrate May Day together again once more without fear of fascist oppression. That had gotten him a cheer and when he gave way to his better known Russian replacement, Nikolai Bukharin, Comrade Doriot was thanked for his earnest assessment of the situation.
Bukharin needed little introduction, the most well known advocate of the United Front from within the Soviet Union was regarded as a friend of the German people even by those on the left who were otherwise wary of Bolshevism.There were far more people around them now and Rosa looked back briefly to see the park was now filling with spectators to see the famous Russian revolutionary. The ice cream vendor would likely be happier now although Rosa still felt annoyed at the man’s attitude. It hadn’t been that long since Berlin’s parks had been filled with people whose bones were as bare as the winter trees, bartering over horse flesh. Now the greenery had returned and airplanes did aerobatics in the blue sky. Some of the people in the crowd would have endured the misery of Berlin under the Third Reich’s brief reign, although it was perhaps different to recognise happy people when previously there had been only cold and starving faces. This progress hadn’t been built on selfishness.
Bukharin had put himself at risk of public denunciations and worse for taking the stance he had on the United Front in 1930 and there had been speculation that in the aftermath of the civil war he might move to Germany, either of his own volition or due to being exiled like Trotsky. He merely remained a frequent visitor however and whilst Trotsky was now a prisoner of Pétain, Bukharin’s defence of Germany had seemed to get more of a hearing in the Soviet Union now that the two countries were cooperating more than ever before. He seemed to allude to this in his speech, stating that for every criticism he had of Stalin’s approach there were several points to which he agreed and that every true socialist should feel the same.
Bukharin stated that it was in Germany, as in the Soviet Union, that a common belief in the mutual betterment of all people through the cooperation of all people had been fostered amongst young and old. His praises of the German worker gained him much applause and he clapped with the crowd, before announcing that the man who would now be speaking had been instrumental in ensuring Germany’s current revolutionary direction, a true friend of the Soviet people and indeed the international proletariat.
Adolf Hitler took the stage.
The Chancellor’s speech was more volatile than what had preceded it, even in a day designed for celebration he had nothing but hatred to express for the enemies of the German worker. He praised the progress that had been made over the last three years only to then rage over the coalition arrayed against it. He spoke of the work still to be done and how he had confidence in the means of the German worker to enable the necessary demands of their precarious situation. There was general applause but Rosa noticed her mother more animated than she was before.
Hitler segued into a tribute to his predecessor, Paul Levi, a “heroic Communist and heroic Social Democrat” before elaborating on how they had built an alliance and then a friendship in the name of a united working class, one which had come at the right moment and which was needed now even more. Hitler emphasised that will was needed at this moment in time to facilitate what the German worker already knew to be necessary, as if he were an extension of them. There were some in the crowd who appeared to think that this was the case.
There was an upsurge in the excitement of the spectators, Hitler projected himself as an extension but he also drew them in it seemed, inviting them to become part of a more powerful whole. Hitler spoke of what Levi had said to him before his announcement of their alliance over four years ago.
“We must not allow capital to divide us.”
He repeated that phrase now, slamming his fist on the lectern whilst doing so. To Rosa the emotion of it broke the spell momentarily before she heard her mother chanting behind her.
“WE MUST NOT ALLOW CAPITAL TO DIVIDE US!”
Rosa now shouted it too and for a moment it seemed Hitler was charging them into uttering the slogan like a mantra before the Chancellor turned to greet a figure approaching him.
President Erich Zeigner embraced him for a moment before the two joined hands and lifted them aloft. Two parts of a better whole, one which represented the unity of all working Germans, one which rendered the threats and plots of their enemies worthless by the strength of their union. She felt the scene burn into her memory.
Rosa joined in the cheering before finding herself back in the Berlin of the Blackshirts. There were flashes but not from a camera.
Shots rang out and the two men went down with them.
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The painting is
Metropolis by George Grosz
