Die Illusion vom Frieden: Die Zweite Internationale wider den Krieg, 1889–1919

In 1915, a group of thirty-eight European Socialists, camouflaged as ornithologists, came together in the Swiss village of Zimmerwald for the first international conference of war opponents. They discussed their international organization's failure to stop the war, despite the fact that, at first glance, the organization, called the “Second International,” was quite powerful: its parties had 3.3 million members and 12 million voters, and published two hundred daily newspapers. In 1967, the German historian Horst Lademacher issued the minutes and related materials of the Zimmerwald Conference, a work of groundbreaking research on the international labor movement. Zimmerwald's centenary was celebrated in Europe by exhibitions, various scientific conferences, and Lademacher's new book, titled Die Illusion vom Frieden (Illusion of Peace). In this publication, he places the Zimmerwald Conference in the broad context of the Second International's debate about war and peace from its foundation to 1919. The book runs...