July 1914: Could Social Democratic workers
have prevented the First World War ?
Behind me, you see a picture of demonstrating workers
walking to Treptower Park in July 1914
to protest the impending outbreak of war.
There were numerous demos against the war in Germany,
especially in Berlin and Leipzig
with more than 100,000 participants,
and in the entire German Reich
with more than 500,000 participants.
This picture, what you see there,
is the only picture we have
that shows workers demonstrating against the war.
The social democratic leadership
had first still promoted these protests
and then was shocked
that so many of their supporters, so many workers
ended up taking to the streets.
As we know, the Social Democrats decided in August
to then support the war and to authorize war credits.