tional measure, and it
was fully expected that at the end of two years there would be nothing
left of the socialists in Germany. But, when the moment came for the law
to expire, Emperor Alexander II. of Russia was assassinated by
Nihilists. The German Emperor wrote to the Chancellor urging him to do
his utmost to persuade the governments of Europe to combine against the
forces of anarchy and destruction. Prince Bismarck immediately opened up
negotiations with Russia, Austria, France, Switzerland, and England. The
Russian Government, being asked to take the initiative, invited the
powers to a council at Brussels. As England did not accept the
invitation, France and Switzerland also declined. Austria later withdrew
her acceptance, with the result that Germany and Russia concluded an
extradition and dynamite treaty for themselves, while on March 31, 1881,
the anti-socialist law was reenacted for another period. In 1882 the
Niederwald plot against the Imperial family was discovered. Various
arrests were made, and three men avowedly anarchists were sentenced to
death in December, 1884. In 1885 a high police official at Frankfort was
murdered, and an anarchist named Lieske was executed as an accomplice.
These terrorist acts materially aided Bismarck in his warfare on the
social democrats. Again and again large towns were put in a minor state
of siege, with the military practically in control. Meetings were
dispersed, suspected papers suppressed, and all tyranny that can be
conceived of exercised upon all those suspected of sympathy with the
socialists. Yet everyone had to admit that the socialists had not been
checked. Not only did their organization still exist, but it was all the
time carrying on a vigorous agitation, both by meetings and by the
circulation of literature. Papers printed abroad were being smuggled
into the country in great quantities; socialist literature was even
being introduced into the garrisons; and there seemed to be no dealing
with associations, because no more was one dissolved than two arose to
take its place.

Von Puttkamer himself reported to the Reichstag in 1882, "It is
undoubted that it has not been possible by means of the law of October,
1878, to wipe social-democracy from the face of the earth or even to
shake it to the center."[32] Indeed, Liebknecht was bold enough to say
in 1884: "You have not succeeded in destroying our organization, and I
am convinced that you will never succeed. I beli