WEBVTT

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July 1914:  Could Social Democratic workers

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have prevented the First World War ?

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Behind me, you see a picture of demonstrating workers

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walking to Treptower Park in July 1914

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to protest the impending outbreak of war.

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There were numerous demos against the war in Germany,

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especially in Berlin and Leipzig

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with more than 100,000 participants,

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and in the entire German Reich

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with more than 500,000 participants.

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This picture, what you see there,

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is the only picture we have

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that shows workers demonstrating against the war.

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The social democratic leadership

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had first still promoted these protests

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and then was shocked

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that so many of their supporters, so many workers

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ended up taking to the streets.

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As we know, the Social Democrats decided in August

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to then support the war and to authorize war credits.