The Renewal of the Social Organism
GA 24
An Appeal to the German Nation and to the Civilized World
[ 1 ] Germany believed herself secure for time without end in her empire, which was founded half a century ago. In August 1914 she thought the war she was faced with would prove her invincible. Today all she can do is look upon its ruins. Such an experience calls for self-reflection. For such an experience proved that an opinion held for fifty years, and especially the ideas that had prevailed during the war, had been a tragic error. Where can the reasons for this fateful error be found? This question must now call forth a process of self-evaluation within the soul of every German. Will there be enough strength left for such introspection? Germany's very existence depends upon it. Germany's future also hinges upon the sincerity of the questioning mind—how did we fall prey to such fatal misconceptions? If reflection upon this inquiry starts immediately, then it will come in a flash of understanding: yes, we did found an empire half a century ago, but we neglected to give it a task springing from within the very essence of its national spirit.
The empire was founded. During the first years of its existence care was taken to shape its inner possibilities according to demands posed, year after year, by old traditions and new endeavors. Later, progress was made to safeguard and enlarge the outer positions of power that were based on material resources. Linked to it were policies regulating the social demands of the new era, policies that did take into ac-count the requirements of the day, to some extent, but lacked a greater vision.
A goal could have been defined had there been enough sensitivity to the growing needs of the new generation. Thus the empire found itself in the larger world arena without an essential direction or goal to justify its existence. The debacle of the war revealed this truth in an unfortunate way. Until the war, other nations saw nothing to suggest that Germany had a historic world mission that ought not to be swept away. Her failure to manifest such a mission, according to those with real insight, was the underlying cause of Germany's ultimate breakdown.
[ 2 ] Immeasurably much depends now on the ability of the German people to assess this state of affairs objectively. Disaster should call forth an insight that never appeared during the previous fifty years. Instead of petty thoughts about the immediate concerns of the day, the grand sweep of an en-lightened philosophy of life should surge through the present, endeavoring to recognize the evolutionary forces within the new generation, and dedicating itself to them with a courageous will. There really must be an end to all the petty attempts to dismiss as impractical idealists everyone who has his eye on these evolutionary forces. A stop must be put to the arrogance and presumption of those who consider themselves to be practical, yet who are the very ones whose narrow-mindedness, masked as practicality, has led to disaster. Consideration must be given to the evolutionary demands of the new age as enunciated by those who, although labeled impractical idealists, are actually the real practical thinkers.
[ 3 ] For a long time, “pragmatists” of all kinds have fore-seen the emergence of new human needs. However, they wanted to meet them with traditional modes of thought and institutions. The economic life of modern times gave rise to these needs. It seemed impossible to satisfy them following avenues of private initiative. It seemed imperative to one class that, in a few areas, private labor should be changed over into social labor; and where this class's own philosophy deemed it profitable, the change became effective. Another class wanted radically to turn all individual labor into social labor. This group, influenced by recent economic developments, had no interest in the preservation of private goals.
[ 4 ] All efforts regarding humanity's new demands hereto-fore have one thing in common: they all aim at the socialization of the private sector in the expectation that it will be taken over by communal bodies (the state or commune); however, these have their origins in preconceptions that have nothing to do with these new demands. Nor is any consideration given to the fact that the newer cooperatives, which are also expected to play a role in the takeover, have not been formed fully in accordance with the new requirements, but are still imbued with old thought patterns and habits.
[ 5 ] The truth is that none of the communal institutions influenced in any way by these old patterns can be a proper vehicle for the new ideas. The forces at work in modern times urge recognition of a social structure for all humanity that comprehends something entirely different from prevailing views. Heretofore, social communities have been largely shaped by human social instincts. The task of the times must be to permeate these forces with full consciousness.
[ 6 ] The social organism is articulated like a natural organism. Just as the natural organism must take care of the process of thinking through its head and not through its lungs, so the social organism must be organized into systems. No one system can assume the work of the other; each must work harmoniously with the others while preserving its own integrity.
[ 7 ] Economic life can prosper only if it develops according to its own laws and energies as an independent system within the social organism, and if it does not let confusion upset its structure by permitting another part of the social order—that which is at work in politics—to invade it. On the contrary, the political system must function independently alongside the economic system, just as in the natural organism breathing and thinking function side by side. Their wholesome collaboration can be attained only if each member has its own vitally interacting regulations and ad-ministration. However, beneficial interaction falters if both members have one and the same administrative and regulatory organ. If it is allowed to take over, the political system is bound to destroy the economy, and the economic system loses its vitality if it becomes political.
[ 8 ] These two spheres of the social organism must now be joined by a third that is shaped quite independently, from within its own life-possibilities—the cultural sphere, with its own legitimate order and administration. The cultural portions of the other two spheres belong in this sphere and must be submitted to it; yet the cultural sphere has no administrative power over the other two spheres and can influence them only as the organ systems coexisting within a complete natural organism influence each other.
[ 9 ] Today it is already possible to elaborate at length upon the necessity of the social organism and to establish a scientific basis for it in every detail. Here, however, only guidelines can be offered for those who want to pursue the important task.
[ 10 ] The foundation of the German Empire came at a time when the younger generation was already confronted with these necessities. However, its administration did not understand how to give the Empire a mission with a view to these needs. Understanding it would not only have helped provide the right inner structure; it would have guided Ger-many in a justified direction in world politics. Given such an impetus, the German people could have lived together with other nations.
[ 11 ] Disaster ought to give rise now to introspection. The will to make the social organism possible must be strengthened. A new spirit—not the Germany of the past—should now confront the external world. A new Germany with cultural, economic and political systems, each with its own administrations, should now begin the work of rebuilding relation-ships with the victor. Germany failed to recognize in time that, unlike other nations, she needed to become strong through the threefold articulation of the social order; there-fore, she must do so now.
[ 12 ] One can imagine the so-called pragmatists saying how these new concepts are too complicated, and how uncomfortable they are merely thinking about a collaboration of three spheres. Shying away from the real demands of life, they want to pursue complacently their own habits of thought. They must awaken to the fact: either one must deign to sub-mit one's thinking to the demands of reality, or nothing will have been learned from the debacle, and this self-inflicted misery will be endlessly perpetuated and compounded.
An das deutsche Volk und an die Kulturwelt!
[ 1 ] Sicher gefügt für unbegrenzte Zeiten glaubte das deutsche Volk seinen vor einem halben Jahrhundert aufgeführten Reichsbau. Im August1914 meinte es, die kriegerische Katastrophe, an deren Beginn es sich gestellt sah, werde diesen Bau als unbesieglich erweisen. Heute kann es nur auf dessen Trümmer blicken. Selbstbesinnung muß nach solchem Erlebnis eintreten. Denn dieses Erlebnis hat die Meinung eines halben Jahrhunderts, hat insbesondere die herrschenden Gedanken der Kriegsjahre als einen tragisch wirkenden Irrtum erwiesen. Wo liegen die Gründe dieses verhängnisvollen Irrtums? Diese Frage muß Selbstbesinnung in die Seelen der Glieder des deutschen Volkes treiben. Ob jetzt die Kraft zu solcher Selbstbesinnung vorhanden ist, davon hängt die Lebensmöglichkeit des deutschen Volkes ab. Dessen Zukunft hängt davon ab, ob es sich die Frage in ernster Weise zu stellen vermag: wie bin ich in meinen Irrtum verfallen? Stellt es sich diese Frage heute, dann wird ihm die Erkenntnis aufleuchten, daß es vor einem halben Jahrhundert ein Reich gegründet, jedoch unterlassen hat, diesem Reich eine aus dem Wesensinhalt der deutschen Volkheit entspringende Aufgabe zu stellen. - Das Reich war gegründet. In den ersten Zeiten seines Bestandes war man bemüht, seine inneren Lebensmöglichkeiten nach den Anforderungen, die sich durch alte Traditionen und neue Bedürfnisse von Jahr zu Jahr zeigten, in Ordnung zu bringen. Später ging man dazu über, die in materiellen Kräften begründete äußere Machtstellung zu festigen und zu vergrößern. Damit verband man Maßnahmen in bezug auf die von der neuen Zeit geborenen sozialen Anforderungen, die zwar manchem Rechnung trugen, was der Tag als Notwendigkeit erwies, denen aber doch ein großes Ziel fehlte, wie es sich hätte ergeben sollen aus einer Erkenntnis der Entwickelungskräfte, denen die neuere Menschheit sich zuwenden muß. So war das Reich in den Weltzusammenhang hineingestellt ohne wesenhafte, seinen Bestand rechtfertigende Zielsetzung. Der Verlauf der Kriegskatastrophe hat dieses in trauriger Weise geoffenbart. Bis zum Ausbruche derselben hatte die außerdeutsche Welt in dem Verhalten des Reiches nichts sehen können, was ihr die Meinung hätte erwecken können: die Verwalter dieses Reiches erfüllen eine weltgeschichtliche Sendung, die nicht hinweggefegt werden darf. Das Nichtfinden einer solchen Sendung durch diese Verwalter hat notwendig die Meinung in der außerdeutschen Welt erzeugt, die für den wirklich Einsichtigen der tiefere Grund des deutschen Niederbruches ist.
[ 2 ] Unermeßlich vieles hängt nun für das deutsche Volk an seiner unbefangenen Beurteilung dieser Sachlage. Im Unglück müßte die Einsicht auftauchen, welche sich in den letzten fünfzig Jahren nicht hat zeigen wollen. An die Stelle des kleinen Denkens über die allernächsten Forderungen der Gegenwart müßte jetzt ein großer Zug der Lebensanschauung treten, welcher die Entwickelungskräfte der neueren Menschheit mit starken Gedanken zu erkennen strebt, und der mit mutigem Wollen sich ihnen widmet. Aufhören müßte der kleinliche Drang, der alle diejenigen als unpraktische Idealisten unschädlich macht, die ihren Blick auf diese Entwickelungskräfte richten. Aufhören müßte die Anmaßung und der Hochmut derer, die sich als Praktiker dünken, und die doch durch ihren als Praxis maskierten engen Sinn das Unglück herbeigeführt haben. Berücksichtigt müßte werden, was die als Idealisten verschrieenen, aber in Wahrheit wirklichen Praktiker über die Entwickelungsbedürfnisse der neuen Zeit zu sagen haben.
[ 3 ] Die «Praktiker» aller Richtungen sahen zwar das Heraufkommen ganz neuer Menschheitsforderungen seit langer Zeit. Aber sie wollten diesen Forderungen innerhalb des Rahmens altüberlieferter Denkgewohnheiten und Einrichtungen gerecht werden. Das Wirtschaftsleben der neueren Zeit hat die Forderungen hervorgebracht. Ihre Befriedigung auf dem Wege privater Initiative schien unmöglich. Überleitung des privaten Arbeitens in gesellschaftliches drängte sich der einen Menschenklasse auf einzelnen Gebieten als notwendig auf; und sie wurde verwirklicht da, wo es dieser Menschenklasse nach ihrer Lebensanschauung als ersprießlich erschien. Radikale Überführung aller Einzelarbeit in gesellschaftliche wurde das Ziel einer anderen Klasse, die durch die Entwickelung des neuen Wirtschaftslebens an der Erhaltung der überkommenen Privatziele kein Interesse hat.
[ 4 ] Allen Bestrebungen, die bisher in Anbetracht der neueren Menschheitsforderungen hervorgetreten sind, liegt ein Gemeinsames zugrunde. Sie drängen nach Vergesellschaftung des Privaten und rechnen dabei auf die Übernahme des letzteren durch die Gemeinschaften (Staat, Kommune), die aus Voraussetzungen stammen, welche nichts mit den neuen Forderungen zu tun haben. Oder auch, man rechnet mit neueren Gemeinschaften (zum Beispiel Genossenschaften), die nicht voll im Sinne dieser neuen Forderungen entstanden sind, sondern die aus überlieferten Denkgewohnheiten heraus den alten Formen nachgebildet sind.
[ 5 ] Die Wahrheit ist, daß keine im Sinne dieser alten Denkgewohnheiten gebildete Gemeinschaft aufnehmen kann, was man von ihr aufgenommen wissen will. Die Kräfte der Zeit drängen nach der Erkenntnis einer sozialen Struktur der Menschheit, die ganz anderes ins Auge faßt, als was heute gemeiniglich ins Auge gefaßt wird. Die sozialen Gemeinschaften haben sich bisher zum größten Teil aus den sozialen Instinkten der Menschheit gebildet. Ihre Kräfte mit vollem Bewußtsein zu durchdringen, wird Aufgabe der Zeit.
[ 6 ] Der soziale Organismus ist gegliedert wie der natürliche. Und wie der natürliche Organismus das Denken durch den Kopf und nicht durch die Lunge besorgen muß, so ist dem sozialen Organismus die Gliederung in Systeme notwendig, von denen keines die Aufgabe des anderen übernehmen kann, jedes aber unter Wahrung seiner Selbständigkeit mit den anderen zusammenwirken muß.
[ 7 ] Das wirtschaftliche Leben kann nur gedeihen, wenn es als selbständiges Glied des sozialen Organismus nach seinen eigenen Kräften und Gesetzen sich ausbildet, und wenn es nicht dadurch Verwirrung in sein Gefüge bringt, daß es sich von einem anderen Gliede des sozialen Organismus, dem politisch wirksamen, aufsaugen läßt. Dieses politisch wirksame Glied muß vielmehr in voller Selbständigkeit neben dem wirtschaftlichen bestehen, wie im natürlichen Organismus das Atmungssystem neben dem Kopfsystem. Ihr heilsames Zusammenwirken kann nicht dadurch erreicht werden, daß beide Glieder von einem einzigen Gesetzgebungs- und Verwaltungsorgan aus versorgt werden, sondern daß jedes seine eigene Gesetzgebung und Verwaltung hat, die lebendig zusammenwirken. Denn das politische System muß die Wirtschaft vernichten, wenn es sie übernehmen will; und das wirtschaftliche System verliert seine Lebenskräfte, wenn es politisch werden will.
[ 8 ] Zu diesen beiden Gliedern des sozialen Organismus muß in voller Selbständigkeit und aus seinen eigenen Lebensmöglichkeiten heraus gebildet ein drittes treten: das der geistigen Produktion, zu dem auch der geistige Anteil der beiden anderen Gebiete gehört, der ihnen von dem mit eigener gesetzmäßiger Regelung und Verwaltung ausgestatteten dritten Gliede überliefert werden muß, der aber nicht von ihnen verwaltet und anders beeinflußt werden kann, als die nebeneinander bestehenden Gliedorganismen eines natürlichen Gesamtorganismus sich gegenseitig beeinflussen.
[ 9 ] Man kann schon heute das hier über die Notwendigkeiten des sozialen Organismus Gesagte in allen Einzelheiten vollwissenschaftlich begründen und ausbauen. In diesen Ausführungen können nur die Richtlinien hingestellt werden, für alle diejenigen, welche diesen Notwendigkeiten nachgehen wollen.
[ 10 ] Die deutsche Reichsgründung fiel in eine Zeit, in der diese Notwendigkeiten an die neuere Menschheit herantraten. Seine Verwaltung hat nicht verstanden, dem Reich eine Aufgabe zu stellen durch den Blick auf diese Notwendigkeiten. Dieser Blick hätte ihm nicht nur das rechte innere Gefüge gegeben; er hätte seiner äußeren Politik auch eine berechtigte Richtung verliehen. Mit einer solchen Politik hätte das deutsche Volk mit den außerdeutschen Völkern zusammenleben können.
[ 11 ] Nun müßte aus dem Unglück die Einsicht reifen. Man müßte den Willen zum möglichen sozialen Organismus entwickeln. Nicht ein Deutschland, das nicht mehr da ist, müßte der Außenwelt gegenübertreten, sondern ein geistiges, politisches und wirtschaftliches System mit ihren eigenen Verwaltungen müßten daran arbeiten, wieder ein mögliches Verhältnis zu denjenigen zu gewinnen, von denen das Deutschland niedergeworfen worden ist, das nicht erkannt hat, daß es im Gegensatz zu anderen Volksorganisationen als erste darauf angewiesen ist, seine Kraft durch die Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus zu gewinnen.1Dieser Satz hatte in dem im März 1919 veröffentlichten, sonst gleichlautenden Aufruf die folgende Fassung: «Nicht ein Deutschland, das nicht mehr da ist, müßte der Außenwelt gegenübertreten, sondern ein geistiges, politisches und wirtschaftliches System in ihren Vertretern müßten als selbständige Delegationen mit denen verhandeln wollen, von denen das Deutschland niedergeworfen worden ist, das sich durch die Verwirrung der drei Systeme zu einem unmöglichen sozialen Gebilde gemacht hat». Aus der bloß durch die Zeitereignisse bedingten Änderung dieses Satzes ersieht man, daß inhaltlich der Verfasser des Aufrufes heute genau den im März eingenommenen Gesichtspunkt festhält.
[ 12 ] Man hört im Geiste die Praktiker, welche über die Kompliziertheit des hier Gesagten sich ergehen, die unbequem finden, über das Zusammenwirken dreier Körperschaften auch nur zu denken, weil sie nichts von den wirklichen Forderungen des Lebens wissen mögen, sondern alles nach den bequemen Forderungen ihres Denkens gestalten wollen. Ihnen muß klar werden: entweder man wird sich bequemen, mit seinem Denken den Anforderungen der Wirklichkeit sich zu fügen, oder man wird vom Unglücke nichts gelernt haben, sondern das herbeigeführte durch weiter entstehendes ins Unbegrenzte vermehren.
To the German people and to the world of culture!
[ 1 ] The German people believed their imperial edifice, built half a century ago, to be secure for an unlimited period of time. In August 1914, they believed that the military catastrophe at the beginning of which they saw themselves confronted would prove this edifice to be invincible. Today it can only look at its ruins. Self-reflection must come after such an experience. For this experience has proved the opinion of half a century, in particular the prevailing thoughts of the war years, to be a tragic error. What are the reasons for this fatal error? This question must drive self-reflection into the souls of the members of the German people. Whether the strength for such self-reflection is now available depends on the possibility of life for the German people. Its future depends on whether it is able to ask itself the question in a serious way: how did I fall into error? If it asks itself this question today, then the realization will dawn on it that it founded an empire half a century ago, but failed to give this empire a task arising from the essence of the German people. - The empire was founded. In the early days of its existence, efforts were made to organize its inner life possibilities according to the requirements that arose from old traditions and new needs from year to year. Later, efforts were made to consolidate and increase the external power based on material forces. This was combined with measures relating to the social requirements born of the new age, which took account of many things that the day proved to be necessary, but which lacked the great goal that should have resulted from a realization of the forces of development to which modern mankind must turn. Thus the empire was placed in the world context without an essential objective justifying its existence. The course of the war catastrophe revealed this in a sad way. Until the outbreak of the same, the non-German world could see nothing in the behavior of the empire that could have awakened the opinion: the administrators of this empire fulfill a world-historical mission that must not be swept away. The failure of these administrators to find such a mission has necessarily created the opinion in the non-German world, which for the truly insightful is the deeper reason for the German collapse.
[ 2 ] Much now depends for the German people on their unbiased assessment of this situation. In the face of adversity, the insight that has not wanted to show itself in the last fifty years would have to emerge. The small thinking about the most immediate demands of the present would now have to be replaced by a great train of outlook on life which strives to recognize the forces of development of modern humanity with strong thoughts and which devotes itself to them with courageous will. There should be an end to the petty urge that renders all those harmless as impractical idealists who direct their gaze to these forces of development. The presumption and arrogance of those who think of themselves as practitioners and yet have brought about misfortune through their narrow-mindedness masked as practice must cease. Consideration should be given to what the idealists, who are decried as idealists but are in fact real practitioners, have to say about the developmental needs of the new age.
[ 3 ] The "practitioners" of all schools of thought have long recognized the emergence of entirely new human demands. But they wanted to meet these demands within the framework of traditional habits of thought and institutions. The economic life of modern times has brought forth these demands. Satisfying them through private initiative seemed impossible. The transformation of private work into social work was necessary for one class of men in certain fields; and it was realized wherever it seemed profitable to this class of men according to their view of life. The radical transformation of all individual labor into social labor became the goal of another class, which, through the development of the new economic life, has no interest in the preservation of traditional private goals.
[ 4 ] All endeavors that have emerged so far in view of the newer demands of humanity have one thing in common. They push for the socialization of the private sphere and count on the takeover of the latter by communities (state, commune), which originate from preconditions that have nothing to do with the new demands. Alternatively, they are counting on newer communities (e.g. cooperatives) that have not emerged fully in line with these new demands, but which are modeled on the old forms out of traditional habits of thought.
[ 5 ] The truth is that no community formed in the sense of these old habits of thought can absorb what one wants it to absorb. The forces of the times are pressing for the realization of a social structure of mankind which envisages something quite different from what is commonly envisaged today. Social communities have hitherto been formed for the most part out of the social instincts of mankind. To penetrate their powers with full consciousness will be the task of time.
[ 6 ] The social organism is structured like the natural organism. And just as the natural organism must think through the head and not through the lungs, so it is necessary for the social organism to be divided into systems, none of which can take over the task of the other, but each of which must work together with the others while maintaining its independence.
[ 7 ] Economic life can only flourish if it develops as an independent member of the social organism according to its own forces and laws, and if it does not bring confusion into its structure by allowing itself to be absorbed by another member of the social organism, the politically effective one. Rather, this politically effective member must exist in full independence alongside the economic one, just as the respiratory system exists alongside the head system in the natural organism. Their beneficial interaction cannot be achieved by the fact that both parts are supplied by a single legislative and administrative organ, but that each has its own legislation and administration, which work together in a living way. For the political system must destroy the economy if it wants to take it over; and the economic system loses its vital forces if it wants to become political.
[ 8 ] To these two members of the social organism must be added a third, fully independent and formed out of its own vital possibilities: that of spiritual production, to which also belongs the spiritual part of the other two areas, which must be handed over to them by the third member, endowed with its own lawful regulation and administration, but which cannot be administered and influenced by them in any other way than the co-existing member-organisms of a natural organism influence each other.
[ 9 ] It is already possible today to substantiate and expand in full scientific detail what has been said here about the necessities of the social organism. These explanations can only provide guidelines for all those who wish to pursue these necessities.
[ 10 ] The founding of the German Empire took place at a time when these necessities were being addressed by modern mankind. His administration did not understand how to set the empire a task by looking at these necessities. This view would not only have given it the right internal structure; it would also have given its external policy a justified direction. With such a policy, the German people would have been able to live together with the non-German peoples.
[ 11 ] Now the insight would have to mature from the misfortune. We must develop the will for a possible social organism. Not a Germany that is no longer there would have to face the outside world, but a spiritual, political and economic system with its own administrations would have to work to regain a possible relationship with those by whom the Germany that has not recognized that, unlike other national organizations, it is the first to be dependent on gaining its strength through the threefold structure of the social organism has been thrown down. 1This sentence had the following wording in the appeal published in March 1919, which otherwise had the same wording: "It is not a Germany that is no longer there that should face the outside world, but a spiritual, political and economic system in its representatives that should want to negotiate as independent delegations with those who have thrown down the Germany that has turned itself into an impossible social entity through the confusion of the three systems". It can be seen from the change in this sentence, which is merely due to contemporary events, that the author of the appeal today retains exactly the point of view adopted in March.
[ 12 ] One can hear in one's mind the practitioners, who are overwhelmed by the complexity of what has been said here, who find it uncomfortable even to think about the cooperation of three bodies, because they may know nothing of the real demands of life, but want to organize everything according to the convenient demands of their thinking. It must become clear to them: either they will be content to submit to the demands of reality with their thinking, or they will have learned nothing from misfortune, but will increase the misfortune they have brought about to an unlimited extent through further misfortune.