THE GERMAN REICHSTAG, KARL LIEBKNECHT AND THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DURING WORLD WAR I

Abstract

It is a side effect of all wars that objective reporting on events relevant to the war is prevented by state censorship. Propaganda takes the place of truth - as was the case in Germany during World War I. How was it still possible for the German public to learn about the Armenian Genocide? In German and Armenian historiography, this merit is  attributed to Pastor Johannes Lepsius. But a few months before Lepsius published his enlightening book, the Social Democratic member of the Reichstag Karl Liebknecht had already pointed out the mass murders of Armenians in the Reichstag on 11 January 1916. He was the only one of 397 members of parliament to publicise this crime against humanity. The SPD's central organ “Vorwärts” printed the Reichstag debates so that hundreds of thousands of Germans could read them. This courageous action by Karl Liebknecht has not yet been adequately recognized.