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"This Socialist Disguise is No Good, All-Highest"

Raemaekers, Louis, 1919, Chromolithograph
"This Socialist Disguise is No Good, All-Highest"
"This Socialist Disguise is No Good, All-Highest"
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Category
Library Item
Item no
33483
Title
"This Socialist Disguise is No Good, All-Highest"
Description
"There was nothing in the war more ludicrous than the attempt of the Kaiser and his Ministers to pretend that they were imbued with a love of democratic institutions. For years the German people had tolerated the most autocratic form of government in Europe, for the Russian Duma, powerless as it was, did at least base its origin on the democratic vote. The failure to bring the war to an early and successful close gave the weak-spirited Social Democratic Party in Germany a certain force of public opinion in presenting their claims for a revision of the Parliamentary system. The concessions that were made were the result of compulsion by public opinion and no part of the faith of the Kaiser and his Ministers. His pronouncement, therefore, on 18th October 1918, when failure was realised at the German Headquarters, transferring his rights to the people, with the words - 'This brings to a close a period which will stand high in honour before the eyes of future generations,' failed to turn the tide that swept him into exile. This last pronouncement was characterised with his usual hypocrisy and lying habit - 'In the terrible storms of the four years of war, however, old forms have been broken up, not to leave ruins behind, but to make place for new and vital forms'. At the very time that he penned these words the mob was storming the Royal Palace, and the streets of Berlin were being swept with machine-gun fire."
Artist / maker
Date
1919
Size
32.7 x 25.7 cm
Location
Art and Design Library
Copyright
Louis Raemaekaers' drawings are reproduced by kind permission of the Louis Raemaekers Foundation.