A few hours before making his notorious “Necessity-knows-no-law” speech in the Reichstag on August 4, 1914, Bethmann-Hollweg conferred with all the Parliamentary parties, and convinced them (including the Socialists) that Germany had been cruelly dragged into a war of defence.  Later in the day, following other party leaders, Herr Haase, spokesman for the Socialists, got up in the House, voiced a few harmless platitudes about Socialist opposition to war on principle, and then pledged the party’s 111 votes solidly to the War Credits for which the Government was asking.  When the Chancellor afterwards made his celebrated speech it was cheered to the echo by the entire House, including the Socialists.  I do not know whether Liebknecht was present, though he is almost certain to have been, but if so he made no note-worthy protest.  How completely the Government befooled the Socialists about the war was proved a few days later when Dr. Franck, one of the Social Democracy’s most shining lights and the man who was in line to be Bebel’s successor, volunteered for military service.  He was one of the first to fall fighting in September, somewhere in the West.

The authorities might have known that Liebknecht was a hard man to keep quiet if he ever decided to speak out.  Fresh in the Government’s mind was his bold exposure of the Krupp bribery scandals at the War Office (in 1913) and his disclosures about how the German munition trust for years systematically stirred up war fever abroad, in order to convince the German people of the necessity of speeding up their own huge armaments on land and sea.  As soon as Liebknecht’s Reichstag and Prussian Diet speeches began to show that he was tired of the muzzle, the Government called him up for military service.  They stuck him into the uniform of an Armierungssoldat (Army Service Corps soldier).  This meant that his public speeches in connection with the war had to be confined to the two Parliaments in which he held seats.  Anything of an opposition character which he said or did outside would be “treason” or “sedition.”

Liebknecht was put to work on A.S.C. jobs behind the fronts alternately in the East and West, I believe, but was given leaves of absence to attend to his Parliamentary duties from time to time.  On these occasions he would appear in the Reichstag in the dull field-grey of an ordinary private—­the only member so clad in a House of 397 Deputies, among whom are dozens of officers in uniform up to the rank of generals.

I was particularly fortunate to be able to secure a card of admission to the Strangers’ Gallery of the Reichstag on January 17, the day set for discussion of military matters.  I went to my place early—­a few minutes past the noon hour, as the Reichstag usually convenes at 1 p.m.  The floor was still quite empty, though the galleries were filled with people anxious, like myself, to see the show from start to finish.