I was about 13 years old the first time I read a purely socialist pamphlet. It was called Der Zeitgeist by E.K. and it was published in the 1870s, though it was later banned under Germany’s Anti-Socialist Law. A young beginner couldn’t have had a better introduction to socialist thought. There were no dry theories in it, but rather a searing, vividly written condemnation of the bourgeois social order. The author was not satisfied to simply describe economic exploitation and the political oppression of the masses. Instead, he tried to consider the devastating effect those conditions had on the intellectual development of the culture.
When I came across that pamphlet again almost 25 years later, I could see why it made such a strong impression. It was nothing like the standard Social Democratic propaganda literature, and it was never republished. Its ideas were markedly social-revolutionary, as the author’s rejection of parliamentary activity made clear. I couldn’t comprehend that as a beginner, of course. It was the overall impression the pamphlet made that stirred such a deep sense of urgency within me.
After that, I took in a wide range of socialist writing and became a regular reader of Der Sozialdemokrat,1 which was banned in Germany. Edward Bellamy’s famous book Looking Backward made a particularly deep impression on me. The German edition was published with the title Ein Rückblick aus dem Jahre 2000 and was a huge seller.2 Since then, I have often wondered why that book had such an impact. I think it was because it was the first time I saw the inner workings of a socialist society explained in detail. It gave me an overall image that I previously couldn’t see.
There has been a lot of debate since then about the relative value of “social utopias.” In Germany, where Marxist ideas held the greatest sway, they were often snidely disparaged as a regression to utopian ways of thinking that had supposedly been overcome through “scientific socialism.” There’s no question that the world doesn’t actually develop according to the plans of fantastical innovators who present the most detailed models of a desirable social order. Even the most complete utopia is only ever the expression of one person’s vision that can never fully satisfy the countless sensations and daily redevelopments of social life. But that doesn’t mean that those accounts are worthless. Not by any means.
That was a wonderful period in my young life — a time of serious learning and studying in my uncle’s cozy apartment. It got me through a lot of hardship at home. I eagerly grabbed every opportunity to find new resources to satisfy my curiosity, and I felt happy and content in doing it.
1 Der Sozialdemokrat was an important international, German-language newspaper in the socialist/social democratic spectrum. It was published between 1879–1890. -TN
2 Bellamy’s utopian novel was first published in the United States in 1888 with the full title Looking Backward: 2000–1887. The German title roughly means A Look Back from the Year 2000. The book was a phenomenal success, and particularly influential among socialist thinkers of its time. -TN
