Revolution and Other Writings

A Political Reader

Gustav Landauer, Gabriel Kuhn

• Publisher: PM Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781604860542
• eBook ISBN: 9781604864137
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: German History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

"Landauer is the most important agitator of the radical and revolutionary movement in the entire country." This is how Gustav Landauer is described in a German police file from 1893. Twenty-six years later, Landauer would die at the hands of reactionary soldiers who overthrew the Bavarian Council Republic, a three-week attempt to realize libertarian socialism amidst the turmoil of post-World War I Germany. It was the last chapter in the life of an activist, writer, and mystic who Paul Avrich calls "the most influential German anarchist intellectual of the twentieth century."

This is the first comprehensive collection of Landauer writings in English. It includes one of his major works, Revolution, thirty additional essays and articles, and a selection of correspondence. The texts cover Landauer's entire political biography, from his early anarchism of the 1890s to his philosophical reflections at the turn of the century, the subsequent establishment of the Socialist Bund, his tireless agitation against the war, and the final days among the revolutionaries in Munich. Additional chapters collect Landauer's articles on radical politics in the US and Mexico, and illustrate the scope of his writing with texts on corporate capital, language, education, and Judaism. The book includes an extensive introduction, commentary, and bibliographical information, compiled by the editor and translator Gabriel Kuhn as well as a preface by Richard Day.

IN GERMAN

Books and pamphlets by Landauer
published in his lifetime

“An den Züricher Kongress. Bericht über die deutsche Arbeiterbewegung” [To the Zurich Congress: Report on the German Workers' Movement]. Berlin: Der Sozialist, 1893. Landauer's report to the 1893 congress of the Second International in Zurich – due to the anarchists' exclusion he never got to present it.

Der Todesprediger [The Preacher of Death]. Dresden: Heinrich Minden, 1893. Landauer's early novel.

“Ein Weg zur Befreiung der Arbeiterklasse” [A Way to Liberate the Working Class]. Berlin: Adolf Marreck, 1895. Landauer propagates the idea of a consumers’ cooperative as an important part of establishing autonomous structures for workers.

“Von Zürich bis London. Bericht über die deutsche Arbeiterbewegung an den Londoner Kongress” [From Zurich to London: Report on the German Workers' Movement to the London Congress]. Pankow bei Berlin: self-published, 1896. Translated into English and published as “Social Democracy in Germany” – see below.

“Der Fall Ziethen. Ein Appell an die öffentliche Meinung” [The Ziethen Case: An Appeal to Public Opinion]. Berlin: Hugo Metscher, 1898. A pamphlet to defend the barber and inn keeper Albert Ziethen; see “1892-1901: Landauer's early anarchism” in the Introduction.

Macht und Mächte. Novellen [Power and Powers: Novellas]. Berlin: Egon Fleischel, 1903. The two main pieces, Arnold Himmelheber and Lebendig Tot [Alive Dead] were written in prison in 1894.

Skepsis und Mystik. Versuche im Anschluss an Mauthners Sprachkritik [Skepticism and Mysticism: Essays Inspired by Mauthner's Critique of Language]. Berlin: Egon Fleischel, 1903.

Die Revolution . Frankfurt am Main: Rütten und Loening, 1907.

“Die Abschaffung des Krieges durch die Selbstbestimmung des Volkes. Fragen an die deutschen Arbeiter.” Berlin: Verlag des Sozialistischen Bundes, 1911. In this volume as “The Abolition of War by the Self-Determination of the People: Questions to the German Workers.”

Aufruf zum Sozialismus . Berlin: Verlag des Sozialistischen Bunde...

Table of contents

• COVER
• COPYRIGHT
• PREFACE: LANDAUER TODAY
• EDITOR'S NOTE
• INTRODUCTION
• CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH
• EARLY ANARCHISM
• THROUGH SEPARATION TO COMMUNITY
• REVOLUTION
• SOCIALIST HOPES
• ON WAR AND NATIONALISM
• ON AMERICA
• OPINION & JOURNALISM PIECES
• LETTERS
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Index
• ABOUT THE AUTHORS AND THE PRESS
• BACK COVER