Our discussion following Social War on Stolen Native Land: Anarchist Contributions brought us to discuss the differences in social and individualist anarchism, which naturally brought us to “Through Separation to Community” by German anarchist Gustav Landauer (1870-1919). We visited this work previously, back in 2019. Landauer is best known for arguing the State is “a condition, a certain relationship between human beings, a mode of human behaviour; we destroy it by contracting other relationships, by behaving differently.” Novelist, playwright, author of three theoretical works and editor of the anarchist newspaper, Der Sozialist (intermittently published between 1893-1899; 1909-1915), he endured frequent stints in prison before the outbreak of World War One. Landauer anticipated the war would lead to revolutionary uprisings and, in November 1918, when workers and soldiers rose up and overthrew the conservative government of Germany’s second largest state, Bavaria, he joined the effort.
Landauer’s writings were very influential and his advocacy of decentralized self-governance based on local councils had an impact. When a new Council-based government was declared by revolutionaries in Bavaria’s capital, Munich, on April 7, 1919, Landauer accepted the appointment of Minister of Culture and Education. The German army immediately mobilized militias of demobilized soldiers, who marched into Munich and took over. A wave of terrorism ensued as revolutionaries were rounded up and shot. Landauer was arrested, jailed and brutally killed by a gang of soldiers on May 2, 1919.
Get the reading here: Gustav Landauer – Through Separation to Community
As always, we are meeting at Camas Books, 2620 Quadra Street, on Lekwungen Territory. The next meeting is Sunday May 28 @ 6:30PM.