true of them. Germany possesses a strong police and constabulary force, excellently organized for rendering service to the capitalists. It is not for nothing that Germany enjoys the reputation of being the police state par excellence. Police and constabulary, both armed with deadly weapons, fulfil entirely the functions which elsewhere are allotted rather to the military, and in face of the greatly varying momentary requirements they prove themselves more handy and adaptable than the more clumsy and cumbrously working machinery of the army. The number of sanguinary conflicts between strikers and the police or constabulary is quite large in Germany. The strike of the Berlin street railroadmen in 1900 and the so-called Breslau riots of 1906 are by no means exceptions. Biewald's[1] hacked-off hand is only an exceptionally provoking piece of evidence for the blindly furious recklessness of our police, that recklessness which is a fruit of military training. That hand is in goodly company alongside of split
- ↑ The name of an inoffensive workman who had one of his hands hacked off by an infuriated custodian of law and order whose identity was never disclosed. [Translator.]
