“Socialist Speeches,” makes it possible to understand variations in his relation to socialism, particularly in his practical relation to organized socialism and the social democratic party in Switzerland and socialistic International. The “Socialist Speeches” (later so named by Barth himself) is the title of a collection of some forty-three addresses that Barth delivered during his Safenwil period.61 Barth began his pastorate in Safenwil on May 1, 1911. Four and a half months later he began to give his first socialist speech at the meeting of the Laborers’ Society in Safenwil. The Laborers’ Society was the official name of the local group of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland. Barth was not a member of the socialist party yet when he began his “Socialist Speeches.” These earliest “Socialist Speeches” were formulated word for word just like sermons, and they construct comprehensive texts written out in the passion and precision of his proclamation.62 Half of Barth’s pastoral time in Safenwil was the time of World War I and the October Revolution in Russia.
Karl Barth and the Social Movement for Jesus
In 1911 Barth became the pastor in Safenwil, Switzerland, an industrial and agricultural area in the canton of Aargau. The first phase for Barth’s socialism can be located from the beginning of his pastoral work till the outbreak of the First World War. Barth himself testified in a speech (“Evangelium und Sozialismus”) of his interest in a relation between the gospel and socialism, during a meeting of the Workers’ Association in Küngoldingen on February 1, 1914.
How have I come to combine the gospel with socialism? I was educated to judge human beings not according to their money value, and to take material misery of the others as a serious problem. As a student I came to know the jaded indifference of bourgeois circles and the poverty in Geneva. At that time I still regarded social misery as a necessary fact of nature, to which faith had to provide a strong but impractical hope.—Something new was brought to me by Calvin’s idea of ‘God’s city’ on earth, and it led me to the fact that Jesus has portrayed the kingdom of God as a state of complete love of God and love among brothers. –Through S. I was acquainted with socialism and I was driven to more exact reflection and the study of the matter. Since that time, I have considered socialist demands an important part of the application of the gospel. Certainly, I also believe that they cannot be realized without the gospel.63
This pastoral context is an indication of the religious-socialist genesis of the socialist Barth. As we have already seen, Barth’s keen interest in the social question became visible in his learning of ethical socialism in Marburg. In addition, Barth’s acquaintance with S [Sombart] dates back to Barth’s student days at Berlin, although in Marburg in 1908 Barth had bought a copy of Sombart. Sombart’s writings such as Socialism and Social Movement (1896) and Der Moderne Kapitalismus (1902) were already published.64 In addition, as we have already seen, Sombart taught in Berlin during Barth’s stay there, and Sombart’s influence on Barth can be seen in his “Socialist Speeches,“ for example, in “Jesus Christus und die soziale Bewegung” (1911) and in “Die Arbeiterfrage” (1913/14).65
The installation service for Barth took place on Sunday July 9, 1911. Barth’s father, Professor Fritz Barth, gave the sermon. One of the confirmands (born in 1896) remembered: “It gave us a huge amount of respect that he came from Geneva to us in Safenwil, to our quiet little village, where most of the people were farmers or worked in the factory.”66 For the next ten years of his life, Barth would live and work here. As Barth began his pastorate in Safenwil, Gustav Hüssy-Zuber was the chairman of the church board who was responsible for the employment of the pastor, the church budget, and the link between the congregation and the community. The Hüssy family was a member of what Barth called the House of Hüssy, a factory dynasty in Safenwil. Their family members owned a weaving establishment, a paint factory, and a sawmill in the area. Barth considered this time to be formative in his theological development: “It was during my time at Safenwil that I changed my mind decisively in a way which also affected the outward form of my future career.”67
Barth also renewed his friendship with a former friend at Marburg, Eduard Thurneysen, a pastor of a neighboring church in Leutwil. Thurneysen was the person who brought Barth in contact with religious socialism in Switzerland. Through Thurneysen, Barth came into contact with Hermann Kutter, who was then fifty years old (1863–1931). Kutter completely impressed Barth by the “molten lava of his eloquence, like an uncanny volcano.” “Amazed at his astonishing intelligence and mental power,” Barth “learned to speak the great word “God” seriously, responsibly and with a sense of its importance.”68
Keenly aware of the political responsibility of a Christian in society, Barth preached on many political matters. In addition, Barth was active in Safenwil Arbeiterverein.69 The Hüssy family, which was highly respected in the church and in the civil community, owned a weaving mill and dye works as well as a sawmill where the workers were paid extremely low wages. They were not organized into a trade union. Barth even introduced Cohen, whom he knew at Marburg and read copiously in Geneva. However, the working people did not understand the academic discussions of socialism.70
In his first socialist speech at the meeting of the Laborers’ Society in Safenwil Barth dealt with the question of the origin and meaning of the state upon the request of the president of the Society. At the start Barth, however, preferred to give his lecture a different name: “Human Rights and Citizens’ Responsibility” (October 15, 1911).71 Herein Barth discussed human rights and citizens’ responsibility in regard to the origin and meaning of the state. “Human rights” is the catchphrase for “revolution” in all times. Revolution represents the demand for freedom in the name of human dignity. However, as long as revolution lies in the demand of a freedom movement for the individual, it is not fruitful for the origin of the state.72 In explanation of a relation between a capitalist revolution and human rights Barth—seeing human rights of personal freedom needing to be realized in the economic arena—discussed a clash with the human rights of the proletariat worker.73 Barth did not escape from a socialistic critique of the concept of social class. Here he understood a class struggle from above. “It is completely right, if it is spoken from a socialist side that this struggle has been opened not from the proletariat, but from the employer . . . It was the anarchy from above, to which the anarchy from below was only the answer.”74 What Barth intended in dealing with the problem of the state in view of a tension between human rights and citizens’ responsibility, is to combine two things: morality and politics. “Morality and politics may not be two different things, they are one and the same. A moral which could not be a political moral is no moral at all because the essence of the moral is just the political citizen’s responsibility.”75
Alongside Cohen, Barth argued for the progress of politics and morality not in the dream of an ideal state but in the ethical and political work. “In this progress or let’s say more precisely in this progress we set in motion the state-thought, and we operate our civil duty and just with it our human rights.”76 Cohen’s ethical socialism was incorporated into Barth’s reflections so that the state-thought must be produced
