It is self-evident that Kriege’s amorous slobberings and _ his 
antithesis to selfishness are no more than the inflated utterances of a 
mind that has become utterly and completely absorbed in religion. 
We shall see how Kriege, who in Europe always claimed to be an 
atheist, here seeks to foist off all the infamies of Christianity under 
the signboard of communism and ends, perfectly consistently, with 
man’s self-desecration. 

In No.10, “Was wir wollen” and “H{ermann] Kriege an Harro 
Harring” define the purpose of the communist struggle in the 
following terms: 

1) “To make a truth of the religion of love and a reality of the long 
yearned-for community of the blessed denizens of heaven.” Kriege 
merely overlooks the fact that these obsessions of Christianity are 
only the fantastic expression of the existing world and that their 
“reality” therefore already exists in the evil conditions of this existing 
world. 

2) ‘We demand in the name of that religion of love that the hungry 
should be given food, the thirsty be given drink and the naked 
clothed.” — A demand which has been reiterated ad nauseam for 
1,800 years already, without the slightest success. 

3) “We teach the practice of love” in order to 

4) “receive love’. 

5) “In their realm of love there is no room for devils.” 

6) ‘It is his” (man’s) “most sacred need to merge his own person 
and whole individuality in the society of loving beings, towards whom 
he can retain nothing but 

7) his boundless love.” One might think that with this boundless- 
ness the theory of love had reached its highest peak, a peak so 
high that one can think of nothing higher; and yet the ascent con- 
tinues. 

8) “This hot outpouring of love, this surrender to all, this divine 
urge towards community — what else is this but the Communists’ 
innermost religion which is only lacking in the appropriate external 
world to express itself in the fulness of human life.” The present 
“external world” however seems to be quite sufficient for Kriege to 
lend the most lavish “expression” to his “innermost religion”, his 
“divine urge”, his “surrender to all” and his “hot outpouring” in the 
“fulness” of his own “human life”. 

9) “Do we not have the right to take the long pent-up desires of 
the religious heart seriously and march into battle in the name of the 
poor, the unhappy, and the rejected, for the final realisation of the 
sublime realm of brotherly love?” Kriege marches into battle, then, 
in order to take seriously the desires not of the real and the secular, 
but of the religious heart, not those of the heart made bitter by real 
need but those of the heart inflated by a fantasy of bliss. He 
forthwith offers proof of his “religious heart” by marching into 
battle as a priest, in the name of others, that is, in the name of the 
“poor”, and in such a manner as to make it absolutely plain that he 
does not need communism for himself, he would have it that he is 
marching into battle in a spirit of pure, generous, dedicated, effusive 
self-sacrifice for the “poor, the unhappy and the rejected” who are. 
in need of it—a feeling of elation which swells the heart of this 
worthy man in times of isolation and dejection, and outweighs all the 
troubles of this evil world. 

10) Kriege concludes his pompous prating: ‘““Any man who does 
not support such a party can with justice be treated as an enemy of 
mankind.” This intolerant sentence appears to be in contradiction to 
“surrender to all’, and the “religion of love” towards all. It is 
however a perfectly consistent conclusion of this new religion, which 
like every other mortally detests and persecutes all its enemies. The 
enemy of the party is quite consistently turned into a heretic, by 
transforming him from an enemy of the actually existing party who is 
combated, into a sinner against humanity— which only exists in the 
imagination — who must be punished. 

11) In the letter to Harro Harring we read: “Our aim is to make 
all the poor of the world rebel against Mammon, under whose 
scourge they are condemned to work themselves to death, and when 
we have toppled the fearsome tyrant from his ancient throne, our 
aim will be to unite mankind by love, our aim will be to teach men to 
work communally and enjoy communally until the long-promised 
kingdom of joy finally comes about.” In order to work up a fury 
against the present-day sovereignty of money, he first has to 
transform it into the idol Mammon. This idol is toppled — how, we 
do not discover; the revolutionary movement of the proletariat of all 
countries shrinks to no more than a rebellion—and when this 
toppling is complete, then the prophets — ‘“‘we” — appear to “teach” 
the proletariat what is to be done next. These prophets “teach” their 
disciples, who here appear in remarkable ignorance of their own 
interests, how they are “to work and enjoy communally”, not, 
indeed, for the sake of ‘working and enjoying communally” 
but rather just so that the scriptures shall be fulfilled and a 

number of visionaries shall not have prophesied in vain 1,800 years 
ago.—This prophetical manner is found elsewhere as well, for 
example: 

In No. 8, “Was ist das Proletariat?”’ and ‘“‘Andreas Dietsch’’, with 

a) “Proletarians,... the hour of your redemption has come.” 

b) “A thousand hearts beat joyfully in anticipation of the 
promised time” —in other words, “of that great realm of love ... for 
the long yearned-for realm of love.” 

c) In No. 12, “Antwort an Koch, den Antipfaffen”, 

“Already the gospel of the infinite redemption of the world goes 
quivering from eye to eye” and—even— “from hand to hand”. 
This miracle of the “quivering gospel”, this nonsense about the 
“infinite redemption of the world” is in perfect accordance with 
another miracle, namely that the long-abandoned prophecies of the 
old evangelists are unexpectedly fulfilled by Kriege. 

12) Seen from this religious point of view, the answer to all real 
questions can only consist in a few images of extravagant religiosity 
which befog all sense, in a few high-sounding catchwords, such as 
“mankind”, “humanity”, “species”, etc., and in turning every real 
action into a fantastic phrase. This is particularly evident in the essay 
“Was ist das Proletariat?’ (No. 8). The answer given to this 
title-question is: “The proletariat is mankind” ,—a deliberate lie, 
according to which the Communists are aiming at the abolition of 
mankind. This answer, “mankind”, is supposed to be the same as 
the one Sieyés gave to the question: What is the tiers-état?39 Proof 
enough of how Kriege befuddles historical facts. He then forthwith 
provides more proof of this in his bigoted presentation of the 
American Anti-Rent movement: “And how would it be in the end if 
this proletariat, in its capacity as mankind” (a necessary character- 
mask for its appearance on the scene —a moment ago the proletariat 
was mankind, now mankind is only a capacity of the proletariat), 
“laid claim to the whole earth as its undisputed property for all 
eternity?” One observes how even an extremely simple, practical 
movement is transformed into empty phrases like “mankind”, 
“undisputed property”, “all eternity”, etc., and for that reason rests 
content with a mere “claim”.— Apart from the usual catchwords 
such as “outcast”, etc., which is joined by the religious “accursed”’, all 
Kriege’s statements about the proletariat amount to no more than 
the following mythological-biblical images: 

“Prometheus bound”, 
“the Lamb of God which bears the sins of the world”’, 
“the Wandering Jew”, 

and finally he brings up the following remarkable question: “Is 
mankind to wander for ever, then, a homeless vagabond, about the 
earth?” Meanwhile it is precisely the exclusive settlement of a 
part of “mankind” on the land which is his particular bugbear! 

13) The real point about Kriege’s religion is revealed in the 
following passage: ‘We have other things to do than worry about our 
miserable selves, we belong to mankind.” With this shameful and 
nauseating grovelling before a “mankind” that is separate and 
distinct from the “self” and which is therefore a metaphysical and in 
his case even a religious fiction, with what is indeed the most utterly 
“miserable” slavish self-abasement, this religion ends up like any 
other. Such a doctrine, preaching the voluptuous pleasure of 
cringing and self-contempt, is entirely suited to valiant— monks, but 
never to men of action, least of all in a time of struggle. It only 
remains for these valiant monks to castrate their “miserable selves” 
and thereby provide sufficient proof of their confidence in the ability 
of “mankind” to reproduce itself! —If Kriege has nothing better to 
offer than these sentimentalities in pitiful style, it would indeed be 
wiser for him to translate his ““Pére Lamennais” again and again in 
each issue of the Volks-Tribun. 

What the practical consequences are of Kriege’s religion of infinite 
mercy and boundless surrender, is shown by the pleas for work 
which feature in almost every issue of the Volks-Tribun. We read, for 
instance, in No. 8: 

“Arbeit! Arbeit! Arbeit!” 

“Is there no one amongst all the wise* gentlemen who does not consider it a waste 
of effort to provide sustenance for deserving families and preserve helpless young 
people from poverty and despair? Firstly there is Johann Stern from Mecklenburg, 
still without work, and he is only asking to work himself to skin and bone for the 
benefit of some capitalist and at the same time earn enough bread as will suffice 
to sustain him for his work,—is that asking too much, then, in civilised society?—And 
then Karl Gescheidtle from Baden, a young man of the most excellent qualities and 
not without higher education—he looks so trustworthy and good, I guarantee 
he is honesty itself.... And an old man, too, and several other young people are 
begging for occupation for their hands, for their daily bread.—Let any person 
who can help delay no longer, or his conscience will one day rob him of his sleep 
when he most needs it. It is true you might say: There are thousands crying out in 
vain for work, and we certainly can’t help all of them—you could, no doubt, 
but you are slaves of selfishness and have no heart to do anything. But for as long 
as you will not help all, at least show that you have left still a vestige of human feeling 
and help as many individuals as is in your power.” 

Of course, if they wished, they could help more than is in their 
power. That is how it is in practice, that is the real implementation of 
the self-abasement and degradation which this new religion teaches. 

SECTION FIVE 

KRIEGE’S PERSONAL STAND 

The nature of Kriege’s personal stand in his journal cannot fail to 
be evident from the above quotations; we will therefore only single 
out a small number of points. 

Kriege appears as a prophet and therefore necessarily also as an 
emissary from a secret league of Essenes,*° the “League of Justice”. 
Hence, when he is not speaking in the name of the “oppressed”, he 
is speaking in the name of “justice”, which is not ordinary justice, 
however, but the justice of the “League of Justice”. He not merely 
envelops himself in a fog of mystery, but history too. He envelops the 
real historical development of communism in the various countries 
of Europe, which he is not acquainted with, in a fog of mystery, by 
ascribing the origin and progress of communism to fabulous, 
novelettish and fictitious intrigues by this league of Essenes. There is 
evidence of this in every issue, especially in the reply to Harro 
Harring, which also contains the most absurd fantasies about the 
power of this league. 

As a true apostle of love Kriege addresses himself firstly to women, 
whom he cannot believe to be so depraved as to resist a heart beating 
with love, secondly, to the newly discovered agitators “filially and 
conciliatorily”,— as a “son” —as a “brother” —as “brother of the 
heart” —and finally as a human being to the rich. Hardly has he 
arrived in New York when he sends out circulars to all rich German 
merchants, presses the popgun of love to their chests, takes very 
good care not to say what he wants of them, signs variously as “A 
Human Being”, “A Friend of Man” or “A Fool” —and, “would you 
believe it, my friends?”, nobody responds to his high-falutin’ 
tomfoolery. This can surprise no one but Kriege himself.— The 
familiar phrases of love we have already quoted are occasionally 
spiced with ejaculations like (No. 12, “Antwort an Koch”’): “Hurrah! 
Long live community, long live equality, long live love!” Practical 
questions and doubts (cf. No. 14, “Antwort” to Conze) he can only 
explain to himself as deliberate malice and obtuseness. As a true 
prophet and exponent of love, he expresses all the hysterical 
irritation which a sensitive soul who has been snubbed feels towards 
the mockers, the unbelievers and those people in the old world 

whom the sweet warmth of his love fails to transmute into “the 
blessed denizens of heaven”. It is in such a mood of sulky 
sentimentality that he cries out to them in No. 11, under the heading, 
“Fruhling”: “Therefore, you who mock us now, you shall soon have 
faith, for you shall know, spring is coming.”